Italian luxury carmaker Ferrari expects its US initial public offering to be priced in a range of between $48 and $52 per share, which could value the company at up to $9.8 billion, it said. Parent Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) will sell up to 10 percent of Ferrari in the IPO and will use proceeds to help pay for its own ambitious turnaround plan to boost global sales to 7 million cars by 2018, and compete with rivals such as BMW and Volkswagen.
The price range, announced in the IPO prospectus on Friday, may satisfy FCA Chief Executive and Ferrari Chairman Sergio Marchionne, who has said Ferrari was worth at least 10 billion euros ($11.4 bln). Some analysts had said it could be just over half that. A successful IPO would be particularly important for Marchionne as his attempts to merge FCA with US rival General Motors to share costs of developing cleaner and more "intelligent" vehicles have fallen on deaf ears.
In the prospectus filed with the US market regulator, Ferrari said it would offer 17.2 million shares in the IPO, equal to around a 9 percent stake in the sportscar maker. An additional 1.7 million shares may be sold if the greenshoe option is exercised, it added, raising the size of the total offering to a 10 percent stake.