Ferrari Should Be Valued at $7.3 Billion in IPO

Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne said he’s told bankers pushing him to pursue an initial public offering of Ferrari that the division may be worth more than 5 billion euros ($7.3 billion).
“I’ve always viewed Ferrari as a sacred brand, and sacred brands are peculiar," Marchionne said in an interview at Fiat’s headquarters in Turin, Italy. “I know I can float Ferrari any time, but there’s nothing on my desk."

Ferrari, which will next month start delivering its first family car, the $359,000 four-seat FF, is Fiat’s most profitable unit. The sports-car maker’s earnings before interest and taxes rose 23 percent last year to 302 million euros on revenue of 1.92 billion euros.

Marchionne’s valuation of Ferrari is 2 billion euros more than that of analysts and 63 percent of Fiat’s entire market value of 8 billion euros. In addition to Fiat brand cars, the company owns a 30 percent stake in Chrysler Group LLC, as well as the Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Lancia brands.

Bankers are pitching Marchionne, who says he’s ordered a white FF, to list the unit to reduce debt and improve Fiat’s credit rating. Standard & Poor’s lowered its rating on the Italian carmaker to BB from the already junk ranking of BB+ in February, after Fiat spun off the industrial operations from the car business. Bloomberg