Coronavirus has meant near-catastrophe for almost every major carmaker in the world (and for a lot of minor ones, too) but the supercar market has fared a little better. Take Ferrari as the the latest example. The company said Monday that despite everything it still expected to make a decent profit in 2020.
That projection is for over $1 billion in “core profit,” according to Reuters, having taken a hit on revenue from racing, but orders haven’t dropped substantially. Like virtually every other automaker in Europe, Ferrari was also forced to close its factories in Modena and Maranello, but those plants restarted today.
“Second quarter will be very weak,” Chief Executive Louis Camilleri told analysts, as the company said it now expected adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) this year to edge down from 2019 levels to 1.05-1.20 billion euros ($1.15-$1.31 billion).
In February, Ferrari had projected an increase in 2020 EBITDA to 1.38-1.43 billion euros.
“While the Formula One hit to revenues and earnings is not an easy matter to digest, the good news is that the significant losses incurred should be short-lived and contained to 2020,” Camilleri said.
The CEO said projections relied on Ferrari’s ability to retain a “very strong” order book, adding that as of now it had not received any “abnormal or untoward” cancellations.
Ferrari also did something almost no other carmaker did in the first quarter: It actually saw its volumes rise.
And while there doesn’t seem to be a lot of good data out there about why supercar sales are decent (Bugatti also restarted production this week), I would guess that that is in large part because the super-rich weren’t touched by the pandemic early on, as these numbers only capture through March.
That dynamic might change (might have already changed), but if you’re the kind of person that has Ferrari money you’re probably still going to have Ferrari money even after a global pandemic.
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