Autoblog

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Pininfarina Sintesi concept.

Pininfarina has been in poor financial health for the last few years. The coachbuilding and design house's P&L sheet has been coated in red ink, with a 114.9 million euro loss last year and debt that's grown to 185.4 million euro from 129.9 million euro in 2006. Something had to be done, so Pininfarina announced to its shareholders today that a 100 million euro capital increase is necessary to keep the company's financial troubles at bay. When that infusion takes place, the Pininfarina family will officially be out of its 55-percent controlling stake in the firm.

If all goes according to plan, Pininfarina should be back in the black next year and operating at a seven-percent profit by 2010. Those goals are dependent on the success of a joint venture between Pininfarina and Bollore to produce an electric car that will go on sale in Europe, Japan and the U.S. in 2010.


[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]