Ferrari reports record profits as supercar sales boom

theguardian.com:

Ferrari has reported record quarterly sales and profits as the cost of living crisis and concerns over the global economy fail to dent the enthusiasm for buyers of luxury trophy vehicles.

The Italian sports carmaker raised its forecast for full-year revenues and profits after reporting a record second quarter, off the back of the popularity of new models and strong demand in China and the Americas.

The company, the latest luxury or supercar manufacturer to post record profits after Lamborghini and Bentley, said shipments rose 29% year on year to 3,455 units in the three months to the end of June.

Ferrari said sales were driven by its Portofino M and the F8 family models with overall vehicle shipments to China, Taiwan and Hong Kong more than doubling from 166 to 358 year on year, and surging by 62% to 1,053 in the Americas.

The strong demand, which included Ferrari’s net orders reaching a new high in the quarter, fuelled a 22% rise in net profit to €251m (£210m), while revenues climbed by a quarter to €1.3bn.

“Ferrari is selling more units than it ever has in its history,” said Gabriel Adler, an analyst at Citi, as the company aims to offset a dip in revenues from the end of the limited series sales of the €1m-plus Monza SP1 and SP2 models.

Ferrari moved to raise its full-year revenue guidance to €4.9bn, up from €4.8bn, and profits to a range of €1.15bn to €1.18bn, compared with a previous forecast of €1.1bn to €1.15bn.

“The quality of the first six months and the robustness of our business allows us to revise upward the 2022 guidance on all metrics,” the Ferrari chief executive, Benedetto Vigna, said.

In June, the company, based in the northern Italian city of Maranello and listed in Milan, unveiled plans to make 80% of its