It was reported that Chrysler stated that it swung to a full-year net profit of $183 million in its second year managed by Italy's Fiat SpA, its first net profit since 1997 and a key milestone after it went bust in 2009 and was bailed out by U.S. and Canadian taxpayers. Fiat-Chrysler reported a fourth-quarter operating profit of 765 million, bang in line with forecasts, with the U.S. business increasingly offsetting European weakness, contributing 639 million euros, or 84 percent of the total, up from about two thirds in the third quarter.
According to reports, as expected, the transatlantic group cut forecasts for 2012 to reflect a worsening situation in Europe, but the new operating profit forecast of between 3.8 billion and 4.5 billion euros, down from previous guidance of 4.59-5.27 billion, was still well above the 3.18 billion euros analysts predicted. The new net profit guidance of 1.2-1.5 billion euros was also ahead of market consensus of 1.03 billion. "Recent events in the last 12 months, and more particularly in the last semester of 2011, have cast doubt on the volume assumptions governing the overall market and our own development plans for Europe until 2014," the automaker said. The tough conditions may increase pressure on Fiat-Chrysler and other mass-market carmakers in Europe to seek alliances on products and platforms to cut costs. Fiat-Chrysler said it sees net debt at between 5.5 billion and 6 billion euros at the end of 2012, compared with an expected 5.7 billion average estimate from analysts. The company had total available liquidity of 20.7 billion euros on hand at the end of 2011, which it said was a sufficient cushion to help it ride out a sharper than expected market drop, it was mentioned in the reports.
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