MILAN: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) Tuesday beat analysts' forecasts with significantly higher first-quarter net profits driven by sales in North America but the Italian-US automaker's debt pile also rose.
The results were FCA's first as a single, unified global group since its January's split from luxury unit Ferrari.
Helped by the sale of Ferrari, FCA said it had reduced net industrial debt "significantly" in 2015 to 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion), down from the 7.7 billion at the end of 2014.
But the automaker said the total was back up to 6.6 billion by the end of March, owing to seasonal and currency factors.
Fiat Chrysler shares fell 3.25 percent to 6.99 euros in the afternoon.
CEO Sergio Marchionne said the group was determined to cut debts to below 5 billion euros this year.
Net profit for the first three months accelerated to 478 million euros compared to 27 million a year earlier, the carmaker said. Analysts had expected profits of around 356 million euros.
Adjusted operating profit for January to March exceeded expectations in almost doubling to 1.379 billion euros -- ahead of analysts' forecasts of 1.07 billion -- while sales jumped three percent to 26.6 billion euros, bolstered by strong demand for jeeps.
The firm confirmed its objectives for 2016, including sales of over 110 billion euros and adjusted net profit of 1.9 billion, up from 1.7 billion in 2015.
Those ambitions remain in place despite the recall announced on April 22 of more than a million vehicles worldwide after dozens of people were injured by cars they thought were locked in "park" mode but kept moving.
The group, which also said it remained open to an alliance with other marques, forecast improved results in the second quarter for its luxury Maserati brand following the recent launch of its first SUV, the Levante.
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