FCA lifts profit forecast

Embattled Italo-American car company Fiat Chrysler Automobile finally has some good news after a week battling recall-related fines and a remote hacking scandal.

The company has lifted its full-year profit forecast after a strong second sales quarter for the year, with earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) up from €968 million last year to €1.53 billion.

FCA now says its 2015 EBIT will at least equal €4.5 billion, up from its initial forecast of €4.1 billion, pushing FCA's shares up more than six per cent to €14.09 a share.

It shipped 1.2 million cars in Q2, closing with a net profit of €333 million, which was up 69 per cent.

With North America driving the surge in sales and profits, FCA's revenue rose by a quarter to €29.2 billion, while its net industrial debt fell €600 million to €8 billion.

Critically, it has pushed its North American profit margin from 4.9 per cent a year ago to 7.7 per cent this year, coupled with an eight per cent rise in deliveries to 677,000.

The struggling sales region of Europe, the Middle East and Africa rode Europe's recovery to grow 13 per cent to 322,000 cars and increase its revenues by 19 per cent (to €5.5 billion).

It wasn't all smooth sailing, though, with the Chinese slowdown and a crashing Brazilian market (where Fiat is by far the biggest carmaker) hurting the bottom line.

Its Asia Pacific profits have been almost halved to €51.7 million, while its Latin American unit crashed from delivering a €63 million profit in 2014's Q2 to a €79 million loss in 2015, with sales crashing by 32 per cent.