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Pininfarina Reaches Debt Deal With Banks

 
2 1,747 views Feb 16, 2012
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Riddled with debt, legendary Italian coachbuilder and design house Pininfarina has announced that it has reached a debt restructuring deal with its lenders that provides the firm with additional time to pay back its loans.

Through a series of meetings with its lenders, Pininfarina has reached a new deal to prolong the repayment of its medium and long-term debt from the end of 2015 to the end of 2018.

A final draft outlining all the terms is expected in the coming weeks and should be signed by the end of March.

Importantly, the new deal would mean that the Pininfarina family will be able to maintain its control of the company that their patriarch Battista "Pinin" Farina started back in 1930. Due to several unsuccessful car manufacturing projects, including production of several Ferrari and Maserati models, Pininfarina recently decided to focus purely on its automotive design business going into the future.

This downsizing of the firm has entailed a significant organizational and structural change, which necessarily produced unavoidable, large operating losses that saw the firm’s debts reach levels close to $100 million.

Pininfarina now plans to strengthen its engineering and styling operations by implementing the technical and commercial linkage with some of its German subsidiaries, work closer with Asian firms in the areas of design, and establish more brand licensing arrangements.

At next month’s 2012 Geneva Motor Show Pininfarina plans to unveil the Cambiano Concept, which celebrates two anniversaries for the firm taking place this year: 30 years of its Styling Center, whose operations started in Cambiano in 1982, and 10 years of its Engineering Center, which was inaugurated in 2002.



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Comments (2)

  1. fb_100000079225802 avatar Samuel Choi Posted: 2/16/2012 1:56pm PST

    I think it would be best if Fiat bought them. They do design mostly Ferraris and Maseratis.
     
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  2. WizardsLore avatar WizardsLore Posted: 2/16/2012 4:49pm PST

    agreed Samuel.

    although they did want to branch out on their own whicch was probably where alot of their collateral went when doing the R&D on expansion !
     
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