Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) made its Wall Street debut on Monday, with a muted response from investors.
Analysts critical of FCA have led to investors being cautious about the listing. IHS Automotive, an industry research firm said it does not expect FCA to meet CEO Sergio Marchionne’s aggressive sales targets for the OEM overall, and for several of its brands, including Jeep and Afla Romeo.
Marchionne is targeting especially aggressive growth for Jeep, with attempts to nearly double sales to 1.9m by 2018. FCA will need to increase annual China sales of Jeep to 500,000 to meet that target. The OEM plans to open a second Jeep assembly plant in the country in 2016, which will see a significant supply shift to China.
FCA has projected an increase in sales of 60% to 7m vehicles, and a fivefold increase in net profit by 2018. Ian Fletcher, IHS analyst, said the firm “does not currently expect this plan to succeed,” but does still predict modest growth sales of 5.1m in 2018.
The shares opened at $9.00 and rose up to $9.55, before closing the day at $8.92. This was up 2.5% from a Friday close of $8.70 for Fiat SpA. Around 5.8m shares changed hands on the first day in New York. However, in Milan, where FCA will continue to have a secondary listing, shares rose more than 4% during the day, closing up 1.2%.
