Ferrari leads in shareholder value during volatile Q2

The shareholder value of Europe's automakers increased by 6 percent in the second three months of this year, according to the latest Automotive News Europe/PricewaterhouseCoopers Transaction Services Shareholder Value Indices. The biggest gain, by far, was enjoyed by Ferrari, which improved nearly 22 percent.

While this was the second quarter in a row in which automakers showed an improvement, it represented a slowdown on the 9.7 percent recorded in the first three months.

The increase, however, was in line with the stock market, with the German DAX 30 up 7.6 percent, the Euro Stoxx Blue chip 50 rising 6.1 percent and the French CAC 40 up 6.2 percent over the same period.

Parts suppliers also remained in positive territory for the second quarter, although the gain of 1.3 percent was also a slowdown on the 8.9 percent recorded in Q1.

It was a similar story for Europe's auto engineering firms, which gained 2.0 percent in Q2 compared with a 10.9 percent gain in the first three months.

Among automakers, Ferrari again recorded the biggest improvement, following its 34.6 percent increase in Q1 with a 21.6 percent gain in Q2. The Italian sports car maker is continuing to benefit from positive investor sentiment, which has driven its share price up by about 75 percent since the start of this year.

In part this is due to its financial performance; the company's earnings per share has grown at an annual rate of about 40 percent over each of the last three years.

But market analysts are also encouraged that the company's new CEO, Louis Camilleri, has switched emphasis away from increasing volume sales of lower-priced cars to retaining brand exclusivity through higher-end models such as the upcoming midengine SF90 Stradale plug-in hybrid supercar.

Elsewhere, automaker gains in the second quarter were more modest, ranging from 7.4 percent for Volkswagen to 0.4 percent for Daimler, while Renault showed a very slight 0.1 percent fall, as did BMW, down 1.1 percent in Q2.

The slight movement in the Renault share price between the start and close of the quarter, however, masked significantly greater volatility over the course of the three-month period. Renault shares had hit a year's high of 63.87 euros in mid-April before collapsing to a year's low of 44.99 euros on 24 May. Three days later they jumped back up to more than 56 euros on the news that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was proposing a $35 billion merger with Renault to create the world's third-biggest automaker.

That proposal was ditched on June 5 and by mid-July Renault's shares were back to about $52, the level at which they had started the year.

The number of suppliers recording declines in shareholder value in Q2 exceeded those showing gains. Against the general trend, the Swiss-headquartered noise control and thermal insulation specialist Autoneum, which was one of the big losers in the sector in Q1 with a decline of 22.1 percent, recovered nearly all the ground lost through a 26.3 percent gain in Q2.

French-based fluids transfer and mechanisms specialist Akwell fully reversed its 10.4 percent decline in Q1 with a 13.8 percent improvement in Q2, while another French company, Faurecia, managed to repeat its Q1 performance with a 13.0 percent gain in Q2.

Elsewhere, however, gains by partsmakers were confined to single digits, while declines were recorded by 10 companies, ranging from a fall of just 0.7 percent for front end maker Plastic Omnium to a 24.3 percent drop for the Swedish safety systems and autonomous driving specialist Veoneer.

In the engineering sector six companies showed an improvement in Q2, while the number showing declines doubled to four. The best performance was by British powertrain specialist Ricardo, up 18 percent, followed by Edag, up 12.9 percent and the French-based engineering and technology consultancy Alten, up 10.8 percent.

At the other end of the scale, Italian firm Pininfarina shed a third of its value (down 33.8 percent) and Bertrandt, the German-based mobility engineering company in which Porsche has a 25 percent stake, saw its shareholder value slide 50.1 percent.