Ferrari Sets Challenging Profit Target

Ferrari, the Italian luxury sports car maker, delighted investors with its prediction that profits will double by 2022 as it reported earnings for 2017 way ahead of its current plan. Ferrari, spun-off from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in 2015, said EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) profits in 2017 rose 18% to 1.04 billion euros ($1.3 billion), breaching 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) two years earlier than it predicted when it left FCA, Forbes reported. On Friday, Ferrari said it plans to double core earnings to 2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) by 2022 and be debt free by 2021. CEO Sergio Marchionne is set to retire from leading FCA at the end of this year, but is scheduled to remain at Ferrari until 2021. Ferrari sold 8,398 vehicles in 2017, led by 12-cylinder models like the GTC4Lusso and the 812 Superfast, and expects this to rise to more than 9,000 in 2018.