New CEO of the world-famous Italian automaker Ferrari Louis Camilleri is excellent with the automobile industry and motorsports. At the same time, he has kept a low profile and has rarely been in the media spotlight before suddenly taking the wheel of Ferrari.
The first public appearance of Camilleri as CEO of Ferrari cost the company much. During a conference call with investors on Wednesday, August 1, he described the profit targets announced by his predecessor Sergio Marchionne as "aspirational" and said that they had "both risks and opportunities".
In February 2018, during the presentation for investors, Marchionne said that under his leadership, Ferrari would double the profit figures to $2 billion in five years to come.
The words of the newly appointed head raised investors’ doubt about the possibility to significantly improve the financial performance of the world-famous automaker.
Ferrari shares immediately went down. On Wednesday, shares declined by 8.3% on the Italian stock exchange. The New York stock exchange closed with a fall of 11%. This is the greatest decline in the last two years.
After a sudden death of Sergio Marchionne, there have been changes to the leadership of Ferrari, as well as in the number of other major Italian companies (in particular, FCA and CNH Industrial). Not only shares of Ferrari were affected. Previously, in July, a similar thing happened to the FCA papers. After new CEO Mike Manley lowered profit targets for the current year, share prices plunged by 16%.
