Ferrari vehicles are expensive, but now, you can buy your very own piece of the company, albeit a small one.
On Wednesday, Ferrari officially entered the stock market with its Initial Public Offering (IPO), releasing some 17.2 million shares — roughly 9 percent of the company — into the New York Stock Exchange. Trading under the appropriate ticker symbol “RACE” (“RED” was apparently taken), the Italian brand’s shares were initially valued at $52 each, but debuted at $60 before settling down to roughly $55 at the end of the first day. Added up, the Ferrari nameplate is now worth just under $10 billion, despite delivering just 7,255 cars last year. In comparison, Porsche shipped nearly 189,850 vehicles to customers in 2014.
Why the stock market? Simply put, Ferrari’s parent company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) needs the money for its revitalization plan, and thus the IPO was successful in raising $893 million for the cause. FCA now owns roughly 80 percent of the brand with the Ferrari family owning 10 percent and the public rounding out the rest.
As you would expect from the prancing horse, the event was quite the spectacle. Wall Street went from grey to red as Ferrari vehicles littered the area on trading day, including the new 488 GTB, a classic 1961 SWB, a Formula One competition car, and of course, the LaFerrari. FCA vehicles such as the Dodge Challenger and Chrysler 200 also made an appearance.
The Maranello-based automaker is and always has been an exclusive outfit, but the manufacturer hopes to boost out to 9,000 cars a year by 2019. One way to do that is to diversify your portfolio, and Ferrari has just announced a new model called the F12tdf. With 780 horsepower on tap, the limited-edition vehicle blurs the line between race car and road car, and you can read more about it here.
