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Stellantis sank to a net loss in the second half of last year and presented a weaker-than-expected outlook for the year ahead as the world’s fourth-largest carmaker suffered a drop in sales across all of its key markets.
The owner of the Peugeot, Fiat and Jeep brands reported a net loss of €127mn for the period compared with a profit of €7.7bn a year earlier. Revenue fell 21 per cent to €71.9bn.
The company is navigating a period of upheaval after the sudden departure of chief executive Carlos Tavares in December following a sharp deterioration in financial performance.
It pledged on Wednesday a return to positive cash flow and revenue growth under a new leadership but published a weaker than expected forecast for this year.
Since Tavares’s exit in December, the group has stepped up efforts to reduce its inventories in the US and repair strained relations with governments, dealers and suppliers under an interim leadership team led by chair John Elkann, scion of the Agnelli family.
“We are firmly focused on gaining market share and improving financial performance as 2025 progresses,” Elkann said on Wednesday.
Stellantis said the launch of 10 new models and a more flexible product portfolio would help it return to revenue growth and deliver an adjusted operating profit margin of “mid-single digits” in 2025.
The forecast came in slightly below analyst estimates, compiled by data provider Visible Alpha, of a margin above 6 per cent. Its margin was 5.5 per cent last year, well below projections of double-digit growth earlier in 2024.
Stellantis shares fell almost 6 per cent before paring some losses in early trading on Wednesday.
RBC Capital Markets analyst Tom Narayan said that the operating margin guidance for 2025 was “a touch light”. “The outlook does make room for a reset of expectations that can often come with a new management team,” he added.
Stellantis confirmed that it will select a new chief executive in the first half of 2025, who will be tasked with continuing the turnaround started by Elkann.
Its forecast outlook was also clouded by the mounting uncertainty posed by a wide range of tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump.
Last month, Elkann outlined investments worth more than $5bn in the US in an overture to Trump. But the carmaker remains one of the most exposed to tariffs on the US’s closest neighbours with 40 per cent of its vehicles sold in the US manufactured in Canada and Mexico.
Asked about the threat of tariffs, Elkann said the company supported Trump’s policy of “boosting US manufacturing” and that it was “working to understand what consequences this would have for us”, but declined to share further details.
He also said he believed the group’s regional and global scale would help in weathering challenges such as different regulations across the world. Stellantis’s next chief executive would need “leadership ability and cultural dexterity” to handle the company’s different regional operations, Elkann added.
Separately, Aston Martin announced on Wednesday that it would cut 5 per cent of its global workforce, or 170 employees, as part of a cost-cutting drive under its new chief executive Adrian Hallmark.
The company also said it planned to launch its first electric vehicle in the latter part of this decade instead of 2026, adding that it would focus on plug-in hybrid technology due to volatile market conditions.
Since Hallmark took over as chief executive in September, he has focused on bringing more predictability and stability to the group’s financial performance, beating analyst expectations with a surprise £2mn cash flow in the fourth quarter.
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