Italy: Fiat swings to first-quarter profit helped by Ferrari

Turin, 20 April (AKI) - Fiat said a jump in sales of luxury brand automobiles like the Ferrari allowed it to swing to a profit during the first three months of the year, from a loss a year earlier.

The Turin-based company on Wednesday reported 29 million euros in first-quarter profit, compared with a loss of 25 million euros in the same period of 2010.

Sales at Italy's biggest manufacturer advanced rose 7.1 percent to 9.2 billion euros.

The widely followed earnings before interest, tax and one-time items, which Fiat calls trading profit, totalled 251 million euros, 21 million euros more than a year earlier.

For the first quarter of 2011, Ferrari reported revenues totalling 491 million euros, a 19 percent increase over the same period in 2010. Ferrari's trading profit rose 36 percent.

Maserati sales gained 6 percent to 135 million euros.

Chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne in January sold shares of Fiat’s trucks and tractors businesses, creating a separate company.

It is Fiat's first quarterly earnings report since the spinoff of the industrial unit in January.