UPDATE 1-Brembo raises yearly forecast after jump in core profit

* H1 EBITDA up 88.6% to 270.2 million euros

* Margin increases to 19.9% from 15.1% a year ago

* Shares up 5.7% (Adds deputy chairman comments, writes through)

MILAN, July 29 (Reuters) – Italy-based Brembo, maker of brake systems for carmakers including Ferrari , raised its full-year guidance on Thursday after posting a near 90% increase in core earnings for the first half of 2021.

Its shares rose as much as 7.5% to hit their highest in more than two years and were up 5.7% by 1410 GMT.

Brembo, which also makes brakes for Tesla as well as several Formula One teams, said it expects solid order levels in coming months while it monitors the impact of the pandemic-driven global chip shortage.

The company now expects full-year revenue to increase between 20% and 25%, having in May forecast revenue would grow around 15%.

Executive Deputy Chairman Matteo Tiraboschi told Reuters that the general economic environment was giving signs of stabilisation, despite persistent challenges including from spiking prices of raw materials and logistics.

“All raw materials prices have increases in a way we had never seen before, not just those used in automotive industry,” Tiraboschi said in a phone interview.

In the first six months of the year the company’s core earnings or EBITDA rose 88.6% to 270.2 million euros ($321 million) while its margin increased to 19.9% from 15.1% a year ago.

It forecast its margin on core earnings to reach about 19.5% this year, having previously seen a range of 18.5% to 19%.

Tiraboschi said Brembo was “privileged” as most of its contracts were indexed to raw materials.

However Brembo’s EBITDA was negatively impacted by costs, including those of raw materials, by more than 28 million euros in the first half, Brembo said in slides prepared for an analyst call.

Tiraboschi added he expected the rising trend in raw material prices would level off in coming months.

Source: Read Full Article