Turin, November 13, 2013- The Board of Directors of Pininfarina S.p.A., meeting today under the chairmanship of Paolo Pininfarina, approved the Interim Report on Operations outlining the Group's performance at September 30, 2013. The table below shows the consolidated operating and financial highlights and provides a comparison with those for the first nine months of 2012:
Pursuant to Article 154bis, Section 2, of the Uniform Financial Code, Gianfranco Albertini, in his capacity as Corporate Accounting Documents Officer, declares that the accounting information provided in this press release is consistent with the information in the supporting documents and in the Company's books of accounts and other accounting records.
The most significant issues that arise from an analysis of the consolidated data for the first nine months of 2013 are summarized below:
Compared with the data at September 30, 2012, the value of production grew by 14%, confirming the trend that characterized previous quarter, thanks mainly to engineering activities carried out in Italy and the important, positive contributions provided by the German operations and the industrial design activities.
Both EBITDA and EBIT remained negative, but the negative amounts were significantly lower than the losses reported a year ago, which reflected the impact of the debt restructuring costs incurred in the first half of 2012.
Among the Group's activities and in comparison with the first nine months of 2012, the Italian automotive operations reduced their losses, the profitability of the German subsidiaries was substantially in line with the previous year, the operations in Morocco reported negative results at the operating level and the operating loss of the activities in China increased. The industrial design and non-automotive design activities in general showed significant gains both in revenues and profitability.
The Group reported a net loss for the period, boosted by an increase in net financial expense, as against a net profit in the comparable period last year that reflected the recognition in the income statement of a large gain generated by the extinguishment of financial liabilities following the debt restructuring transaction, which became effective on May 1, 2012.
The Group's balance sheet and financial position at September 30, 2013 deteriorated compared with the data at December 31, 2012, due, respectively, to the loss for the period and the impact of net working capital dynamics, the latter effect compounded by the accounting increase of financial debt that resulted from its valuation by the amortized cost method.
The Group's staff numbered 817 employees at September 30, 2013, down from 821 a year earlier.

As for the performance of the individual sectors, theOperations Sectorgenerated value of production of 6.6 million euros (10 million euros at September 30, 2012), accounting for 11.5% of consolidated value of production (19.8% the previous year). The Sector's EBIT were negative by 5.5 million euros. At September 30, 2012, EBIT were negative by 8.6 million euros, a loss that included 2 million euros in debt restructuring costs. The value of production reported by theService Sectorfor the period amounted to 51 million euros (40.5 million euros a year earlier). The contribution provided to the total for the Group increased to 88.5%, compared with 80.2% in the same period in 2012. The Sector's EBIT were positive 1.4 million euros, for a marked improvement compared with negative EBIT of 0.8 million euros at September 30, 2012.
Information Required by the Consob Pursuant to Article 114, Section 5 of Legislative Decree No. 58/98

1) The net financial positions of the Pininfarina Group and Pininfarina S.p.A., with current and non-current components listed separately, are shown in the schedules annexed to this press release.

2) There were no past-due amounts (financial or related to tax or employee benefit liabilities) owed by the Pininfarina Group. No actions against the Group have been filed by creditors.

3) The transactions with related parties of the Pininfarina Group and Pininfarina S.p.A. are listed in the Annexes to this press release.

4) Compliance with the financial covenants in effect for the current reporting year will be verified when the consolidated financial statements at December 31, 2013 are approved. At this point, projections point to the possibility of a failure to achieve the EBITDA level required for the current year, but full compliance with the amount required for net financial debt.

5) The implementation of the plan to restructure the indebtedness of Pininfarina S.p.A. is proceeding in accordance with the current agreements with the Lender Institutions.

6) As for the progress made in implementing the Industrial Plan, there were no significant new developments compared with the situation described in the Report of the Board of Directors on the 2012 annual financial statements.

Business Outlook for 2013
Projections for the consolidated income statement for the 2013 reporting year call for a higher consolidated value of production than in 2012 and EBIT that, while still negative (the previous guidance called for "marginally negative" EBIT), will be significantly improved compared with the previous year. The net financial position at the end of 2013 is expected to show a deterioration compared with the end of 2012, due to working capital dynamics and the cumulative amount of figurative financial expense resulting from the measurement of financial liabilities at amortized cost.

Significant Events Occurring After September 30, 2013
On October 24, 2013, Pininfarina S.p.A. and a company of the Bollorè Group entered into an agreement to lease, through December 31, 2016, certain business operations consisting of the Bairo Canavese production facilities, machinery, labor contracts for 52 employees, the provision for severance indemnities applicable to the transferred staff and contracts for some utilities. This agreement is, in practice, an extension of the agreement to lease business operations currently in effect between the Group's Parent Company and a company of the Cecomp Group, which expires on December 31, 2013.
The deed of merger by absorption of Mpx Leonberg GmbH into Mpx Munich GmbH, both subsidiaries of Pininfarina Deutschland GmbH, was executed on November 7, 2013. The purpose of this reorganization and internal simplification transaction, which is effective retroactively to October 1, 2013, is to minimize in the future the operating costs necessary to carry out engineering activities in the German market. This transaction will not have any measurable economic, financial or occupational effects.

To continue reading this noodl, please get the original version here.

distributed by