PARIS: Shares in French auto parts maker Faurecia fell by slightly more than 6.0 percent in morning trading on Wednesday after the group reported a halving of net profit last year and a big increase in debt.
The share price was down 6.27 percent to 13.0 euros in an overall French market showing a fall of 0.31 percent.
French auto group PSA Peugeot Citroen owns 57.4 percent of Faurecia, and PSA shares fell by 3.29 percent to 6.37 euros.
Faurecia advanced the publication of its results by one month because its debt had surged, reporting that debt had risen to 1.8 billion euros ($2.4 billion), exceeding the figure it had expected of 1.6 billion euros.
The company said that this was the result of a sharp fall in car production in Europe which in turn had pushed up its inventories.
Inventories of materials for processing, and of unsold finished goods, have to be financed and are a drain on a company's available cash.
But Faurecia said that its preliminary results for 2012, excluding the debt problem, were in line with its expectations.
Sales rose by 7.3 percent to 17.4 billion euros and the company made a net profit of 140 million euros, but this was less than half the figure for 2011.
Across the auto sector, shares fell on the French market on Wednesday after trade data showed that car sales in the European Union fell heavily last year and after Renault announced job cuts late on Tuesday.
The price of shares in Renault was showing a fall of 1.39 percent to 41.0 euros.
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