Ferrari N.V. (NYSE:RACE) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Benedetto Vigna: Thank you for your extrapolation that we’ll pass toward the team that made it possible. Coming back to the story of Purosangue. In 2023, we shipped a few hundreds Purosangue. In 2024, we’ll be at increasing speed that it is 20% of the total. So basically — I mean, your assumption, your calculation are pretty in line with our plan. The personalization…

Antonio Picca Piccon: But if I may, Benedetto, just to complete on that. I wouldn’t focus on 20% of each single year. We said 20% of the yearly sales on average when we communicated around the Capital Markets Day, so then [Technical Difficulty] I mean, mathematically, even if Benedetto is in competition…

Benedetto Vigna: Yes, we are not that much. No, look, the story of Purosangue personalization, Steven, clearly, the Purosangue offers a lot of degree of the personalization. We see clients that are looking at the rims, the liveries, the painting, the roof. So there are some opportunities over there. And last year, we have been working a lot to strengthen our supply chain for all the personalization that the car is offering to all the client. The second question was about China. Well, China for us, I would like to say that there are three words about China. The number one for us is a young market. Young market it means that the client — let’s say, the number of car that we shipped with this market is not so big. To me the market is very young and we have to let it grow with the right speed to avoid, let me say, indigestion, [undigestion].

The second, it’s a niche market still, because if you make the math, we are talking about 1,200 cars, it is written in the chart. We have slightly decreased this year but we are talking about a decrease in the range of few tens of units that since the market is smaller, it may look a few percent over this. And then the number three, we said since the beginning that we will keep China, let’s say, around 10%, because it is not margin accretive. But again, it’s important that in each country as our history testifies, we let grow the attachment to the brand with the right speed. Because if you grow too fast, the clients don’t get used to what is Ferrari. This is what we have done in other countries and this is what we intend to do also in China.

Operator: And the question’s come from the line of Tom Narayan from RBC Capital Markets.

Tom Narayan: Question on the strong plug in hybrid performance. Just curious if you could extrapolate that for the eventual BEVs, full electric, you plan to sell. Is there really a translation there to say that consumer demand for the plug in hybrids could potentially mean that this cohort would be interested in full electrics, or are those buying the plug in hybrids just across the board similar to your existing portfolio of customers?

Benedetto Vigna: Look, we posed ourselves many times this question. We’ve been talking to our client, director [indiscernible] to the dealers. I don’t think there is any extrapolation possible in this respect. I believe that we will have clients that will only take the red car, the ICE. We’ll have client that will take ICE and hybrid as today. We will have client that will get in our family only because we have the electric cars. So I believe that we see very often that — the answer is that, you know, I need [Technical Difficulty] because I need to go in places not be allowed by recollection. So I think any combination of these three colors, the red, the blue and the green is going to be possible. And I don’t think that the hybrid car is an extrapolation.

The only thing we take as a lesson is that — I mean, looking at what happened at the end of 2023 that if there is always a way to use the technology in a unique way in the Ferrari way that also client skeptical at the beginning of hybrid turned to the hybrid. This is the point. I remember once I had a breakfast with a client that was skeptical about the hybrid and then he went to try it and he booked the hybrid, and this is pretty common. So this is a confirmation that our strategy to keep alive the three colors, the red, the blue and the green is the right one.

Tom Narayan: And my follow up, with obviously everyone really interested in your guys electrification journey that will happen. Just curious if we can expect capital markets events for investors and for ourselves as well coming up this year potentially or next year?

Benedetto Vigna: This year, for sure not. We are working for next year, but not for sure for this year. Only one point, the electrification journey, not really happening, is already started to happen since a while. So this is important. This is the key message we pass on the Capital Markets Day two years ago. We are already on the electrification journey since a few years.

Operator: And the question’s come from the line of Thomas Besson from Kepler Cheuvreux. We are now going to proceed with our next question. And the question’s come from the line of Henning Cosman from Barclays.

Henning Cosman: Interesting that you emphasizing price and personalization so much. I’m not sure I understood you correctly, Benedetto. Did you say you would raise price in the mid single digit percentage range on personalization specifically? If you could just confirm that. And if you would, also…

Benedetto Vigna: Confirm…

Henning Cosman: And on pricing, in general, are you willing to make some comments there? I think we recently talked a bit about the commercial opportunities on pricing in general, not just on the personalization. I know there’s always the balance, of course, not upsetting your loyal customers who’ve been waiting for so long. But then again, you have opportunities because the order book is so long already and you’re virtually sold out. If you could update us on the commercial pricing opportunities there? And then second question on personalization. If I understood Antonio correctly, the exit rate of 2023 was 19%. If I’m not mistaken, you’re guiding 18% for 2024. You typically have three months of visibility. So I was just wondering how it’s trending into Q1 where I believe you have some degree of visibility already, is it in line with the 18% or is it still on the level of the exit rate if that’s not too precise?

And then finally, third question on the Daytona, Antonio, you confirmed again in the opening remarks 30 to 40 per quarter. I believe you’ve sold around 150 so far out of the 600. So that would imply you still have 12 more quarters to sell worth of Daytona, that that seems pretty long. So I’m wondering if you would accelerate the Daytona volumes at some point so that it doesn’t become such a long life cycle.