Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to halve net debt in 2017

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has announced that it will nearly halve its net debt in 2017, Reuters reported.

The Italian-American group said that the net debt would drop below EUR 2.5 billion in 2017, considering that it had already been reduced to EUR 4.6 billion in late 2016, improving on the average projection of analysts of EUR 4.9 billion.

Fiat also reported that its EBIT and revenues had grown in the fourth quarter of 2016, each by 1%, in line with the projections.

FCA increased its earnings in the past year thanks to strong results in North America, an improvement of the situation in Europe and considerably better performance of the luxury Maserati brand, Reuters reports.

North America accounted for 85% of the company's last year's profit, and the group's profit margin in the region increased from 6.4% to 7.4%.

The latest news from Fiat caused its shares on the Milan Stock Exchange to jump by nearly 5% to the highest level since march 2015.

– The market obviously likes Fiat's 2017 guidelines, especially regarding net debt and operating profit, since they are far more aggressive than expected – stated a salesman from Milan and added that analysts projected Fiat's net debt in late 2017 to around EUR 4 billion.

FCA projects EBIT higher than EUR 7 billion in 2017, exceeding last year's EUR 6 billion, and a growth of sales revenues to EUR 115-120 billion.

Due to President Donald Trump's constantly increasing pressure on car manufacturers to increase the production in the US, FCA announced that it would invest a total of USD 2.5 billion in its three factories in the US and create 1,700 new jobs.

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