Ferrari shares rev up in market debut but shift to low gear a week later

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), the Italian-US automobile company being the parent company of Ferrari, floated to the public 17.18 million shares accounting for nearly 10% of Ferrari at $52 a share at its IPO at the NYSE.

It consequently raised nearly $900 million in public capital. FCA holds 80% of Ferrari while the son of Ferrari founder Piero Ferrari holds 10%.

At the debut on NYSE on Wednesday, Ferrari shares opened at $60 up 15.4% from its IPO price and closed at $55, up 5.8% after the initial market excitement.

This has been seen by analysts from Wall Street Journal as a successful step by FCA to spin off its supercar maker to finance an expansion plan.

With the capital raised through Ferrari's IPO, FCA is expected to put its turnaround plan into action to revamp brands in its stable namely Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Ram, Maserati, including Ferrari, in an effort to boost sales to 7 million cars by 2018 and compete with rivals in the likes of BMW, Volkswagen.

An additional $4 billion is expected to be raised by FCA after its planned distribution of its 80% stake in Ferrari to the FCA shareholders. As stated earlier the last 10% in Ferrari will be held by Piero Ferrari who is said to be keeping his stake.

Ferrari CEO Amadeo Felisa and Chairman Sergio Machionne, who is also CEO of FCA, were there at the opening of trading day at the New York Stock Exchange last Wednesday to ring the opening bell along with Piero Ferrari and FCA Chairman John Elkann - an heir to the Agnelli family who founded Fiat - more than a century ago.

Ferrari is trading at the NYSE using the symbol "RACE". Ferrari has been a private company after it was founded by Italian sportscar driver Enzo Ferrari in the northern Italian town of Maranello in 1929.

The prestige of the brand has been built by limiting production to 7000 per annum. Ferrari IPO prospectus indicates this figure to go up to 9000 by 2019 and sources have stated that Chairman Marchionne reported is not expecting to lose its standing as one of the world's most exclusive car manufacturers even if production reached 10,000 annually.

Ferrari also plans to increase sales in markets such as China while keeping markets in US and Europe steady.

However, as Business Finance News reports of recent economic downfalls in China, Russia and Latin America coupled with expected increase in interest rates in the US, it is doubted whether growth can happen in these markets for Ferrari.

Business insider reported on Tuesday, that Ferrari shares fell by as much as 7% to $51.41 per share.

BBC News, meanwhile, announced a 21% increase in sales for Ferrari in the third quarter, giving the company €723m (£522m) in revenue, or a 9% rise from last year.