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BUSINESS A25
Tuesday 5 January 2016
Ferrari completes spinoff with stock listing in Milan
COLLEEN BARRY and coveted red road- Chrysler Automobiles SpA. exchange “a new start- develop, Marchionne told
sters began trading Mon- The new company is con- ing line” for the prestigious a news conference, and
Associated Press day morning, the first busi- trolled by Exor SpA, the brand. so the company intends to
ness day of the year, at 43 Agnelli family holding com- But he is treading carefully avoid doing “anything big
MILAN (AP) — Sports car- euros ($47) under the RACE pany that also controls Fiat with plans to expand the and stupid.”
ticker. After a volatile day, Chrysler, with a 23.5-per- Ferrari brand, whose val- “If you put a Ferrari sticker
maker Ferrari is following the shares closed at 43.24 cent share, and Piero Fer- ue relies on its exclusivity. on a toaster it doesn’t go
euros. rari, founder Enzo Ferrari’s Marchionne wants to turn faster,” said Marchionne.
up its successful Wall Street The listing, which comes son, who retains a 10-per- Ferrari into a luxury goods Back in October, for the
after Ferrari made its pub- cent stake. company in order to prof- NYSE listing, Fiat Chrysler
listing with a stock market lic debut on the New York Ferrari chairman Sergio it more from the brand’s listed a 10 percent stake
Stock Exchange in Octo- Marchionne, who is also prestige. at $52 a share, valuing the
launch in Milan, ber, completes the com- CEO of Fiat Chrysler, called Ferrari is “probably the most company at nearly $10
pany’s separation from Fiat the entry onto the Milan difficult brand extension” to billion.q
as it begins a new era as a
stand-alone company free
of the mass-market associ-
ations of its former parent,
Fiat Chrysler.
The company famed for its
Formula 1 racing machines
General Motors invests $500m in Lyft, forms partnership
DEE-ANN DURBIN This photo shows the General Motors logo at the company’s world headquarters in Detroit. On Uber Technologies Inc.,
AP Auto Writer Monday, Jan. 4, 2016, General Motors Co. announced it is investing $500 million in ride-sharing which is working on its own
DETROIT (AP) — General company Lyft Inc. GM gets a seat on Lyft’s board as part of the partnership, which could speed driverless cars.
Motors Co. and ride-hail- the development of on-demand, self-driving cars. Lyft Co-Founder and Presi-
ing company Lyft Inc. are dent John Zimmer and GM
forming an unprecedent- (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) President Dan Ammann
ed partnership that could say the two companies
help them beat their rivals in more than 100 countries. vehicles. That could ex- own ride-sharing services. began serious discussions
to the self-driving future. Lyft operates in 190 U.S. pand Lyft’s business by giv- Longer term, GM and Lyft about three months ago.
Lyft said Monday that GM cities, although it recently ing people who don’t own will work together to devel- Both see big changes
invested $500 million in formed partnerships with cars a way to drive and op a fleet of autonomous coming in the traditional
the company as part of a ride-sharing services in Chi- earn money through Lyft. It vehicles that city dwellers model of car ownership,
round of a $1 billion round na and India. Together, the will also give GM a leg up could summon using Lyft’s and they had similar ideas
of fund-raising. companies plan to open a on competitors like Daim- mobile app. Partnering about how to address it.
GM gets a seat on Lyft’s network of U.S. hubs where ler AG and Ford Motor Co., with GM could give Lyft a “It felt very natural very
board and access to the Lyft drivers can rent GM who are developing their boost over its arch-rival, quickly,” Zimmer said.
three-year-old company’s Ammann said the resulting
software, which matches partnership is unlike any
riders with drivers and au- other in the auto and tech
tomates payments. It also industries. “Do we want to
becomes a preferred ve- deploy the resources and
hicle provider, with the people to do everything
chance to get many more ourselves, or get there
people behind the wheel faster by working in part-
of a Chevrolet, Buick, GMC nership?” Ammann said.
or Cadillac. San Francisco- “We see a really com-
based Lyft gets the exper- pelling, complimentary
tise of a 108-year-old au- set of capabilities.” Fol-
tomaker with decades of lowing its latest round of
experience in making con- fund-raising — which also
nected and autonomous included a $100 million in-
vehicles. Detroit-based vestment from Saudi Ara-
GM also has an enviable bia’s Kingdom Holding Co.
global reach; it sells almost — privately-held Lyft set
10 million cars each year its value at $5.5 billion. q
Insurer: 2015 saw lowest natural disaster losses in 6 years
BERLIN (AP) — Last year an annual survey that both the insurance industry was coverage remains very low. unit. “In the North Atlantic,
saw the lowest financial insured losses and overall a series of winter storms that In several other years, El Nino helped to curtail
costs from natural disasters costs resulting from disas- hit the northeastern U.S. hurricanes hitting North the development of heavy
worldwide since 2009 as ters were the lowest since and Canada in February. America in particular have storms.”
the El Nino weather phe- 2009. They generated insured caused significant costs to El Nino is caused by the
nomenon reduced hurri- losses of $2.1 billion and to- the insurance industry. warming of waters in the
cane activity in the North It said that there were tal losses of $2.8 billion. However, “in terms of finan- Pacific Ocean that causes
Atlantic, a leading insurer some $27 billion in insured In contrast, the earthquake cial losses, we were some- changes in rainfall patterns.
said Monday. losses, while overall costs in Nepal caused total dam- what fortunate in 2015: Hoeppe cautioned that
The year’s most devastat- — including losses not cov- age valued at $4.8 billion, strong tropical cyclones scientists believe the phe-
ing disaster was the earth- ered by insurance — to- but only $210 million of that frequently only hit sparsely nomenon may be followed
quake in Nepal in April, but taled $90 billion. was insured. populated areas or did not by its twin sister, La Nina,
only a fraction of the result- That underlined the fact make landfall at all,” said which would encourage
ing losses was insured. Those figures were down that, in developing coun- Peter Hoeppe, the head of the formation of North At-
Insurer Munich Re said in from $31 billion and $110 tries, the level of insurance Munich Re’s risk research lantic hurricanes. q
billion respectively in 2014.
The costliest single event for
