Motorcycle Sales

The Piaggio Group results for the first nine-months reflect improvements in all economic and financial indicators and confirm the importance of the strategic moves made by the Group to strengthen its industrial operations in the world's fastest-growing regions.

In the first nine-months of 2010 the Piaggio Group sold a total of 493,700 vehicles worldwide, for a 3.9% improvement in volumes compared with 475,100 vehicles sold in Jan. to Sept. 2009.

The commercial vehicles business sold 169,400 vehicles (+18.8% from the first nine months of 2009)

The motorcycle business sold 324,300 vehicles, a slight decrease (-2.5% in the first 9 months), reflecting the significant weakness of the Italian market; the motorcycle sector in the first nine-months of 2010 fell by 19.8% in Italy.

Europe-wide the demand for two-wheel vehicles fell by 11.4% in the scooter segment and 10.4% in the motorcycle segment.

In this scenario, the Group has improved its market share in several product segments and in the key markets, with a growth in sales of 3.5% in Europe excluding Italy and consolidating its leadership in scooters and improving its market share in motorcycles.

This result reflected the warm response to the new products presented by Aprilia and Moto Guzzi.

In Asia Pacific, with 40,900 motorcycles sold in the first nine-months of 2010, the Group reported an increase of 120% from the year-earlier period, driven primarily by Piaggio Vietnam.

Group consolidated net sales in the first nine-months of 2010 were 1,176.3 million euro, up by 3.2 million euro from 1,173.1 million euro in Jan. to Sept. 2009.

Motorcycle revenues were 812.1 million euro (-5.8% from the first nine-months of 2009).

Revenues for commercial vehicles were 364.2 million euro (+17.2% from the year-earlier period).

Results were particularly strong for commercial vehicle sales in India (net sales of 282.0 million euro, +35.8% from the first nine months of 2009) and for two wheelers in Asia Pacific, with revenues of 93 million euro, an improvement of 111.5% from the first nine-months of 2009.

The industrial gross margin for the nine months was 380.3 million euro, an increase of 1.6% on 374.3 million euro in the year-earlier period. The return on net sales also improved, rising to 32.3% (31.9% in Jan. to Sept. 2009), thanks to constant control of production costs.

Consolidated EBITDA for the first nine-months of 2010 amounted to 172.3 million euro (14.7% of net sales), an increase of 0.1% from 172.1 million euro in Jan. to Sept. 2009.

EBIT was 108.1 million euro, rising 4.9% from 103.1 million euro in the first nine-months of 2009.

For the first nine-months of 2010 the Piaggio Group posted profit before tax of 88.7 million euro, an improvement of 11.5% on 79.5 million euro in the year-earlier period.

The first nine-months of 2010 closed with a net profit of 46.7 million euro, an increase of 16.5% on the first nine months of 2009 (40.1 million euro), after tax of 41.9 million euro (39.4 million euro in the first nine-months of 2009).

Net debt at 30 September 2010 was 342.9 million euro. The decrease from 352.0 million euro at 31 December 2009 and 352.6 million euro at 30 September 2009 arose as a result of the positive trend in operating cash flow.

Shareholders' equity at Sept. 30 2010 totaled 445.7 million euro, compared with 423.8 million euro at Dec. 31, 2009.