Italian-American car maker Fiat Chrysler’s earnings crash 40%

Carmaker Fiat Chrysler said on Wednesday it would revise its five-year business expansion plan after reporting a 40 per cent drop in earnings last year due to a poor performance in Latin America and Asia and flat global sales. The Italian-American carmaker reported 2015 net profit of 377 million euros ($409 million), down from 632 million euros a year earlier and lagging analyst expectations of 540 million euros. Fourth-quarter net profit fell 40 percent to 251 million euros. US carmaker Chrysler drove the group’s full-year revenue growth of 18 per cent, mainly on Jeep sales, with North American revenues getting a one-third boost to 70 billion euros. 

Revenues slumped by 25 per cent in Latin America, where the carmaker said it suffered under poor trading conditions in Brazil and Argentina, and 22 per cent in Asia, while rising by 13 per cent in Europe. Net revenues for the group were 113 billion euros, up 18 per cent, and slightly beating analyst forecasts of 112 billion euros as compiled by information company FactSet. The world’s seventh-largest carmaker laid out ambitious plans in 2014 to grow sales to more than 7 million cars and trucks by 2018, relying heavily on Jeep while also planning to boost output in Italy of higher-margin Maserati and Alfa Romeo brand. Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne’s goal would be a 50 per cent rise over last year’s global sales of 4.6 million units, which showed little growth over the previous year. Marchionne has already said that plans for Alfa Romeo rollouts could be shifted due to slowing China market. Maserati posted disappointing results last year, with revenues dipping 13 per cent. Fiat Chrysler said it expects Maserati performance to improve in the second half of the year with the launch of the Levante.