Thomson Reuters
A woman walks past a logo of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) in Turin
The world's seventh-largest carmaker said adjusted operating profit for the October-December period rose to 1.64 billion euros ($1.78 billion) from 1.18 billion the previous year and compared with an analyst consensus forecast of 1.3 billion euros. Sales rose percent to 30.1 billion euros from 27.1 billion, above expectations.
The US market has been a lifeboat for most global automakers. The American consumer has continued to buy vehicles - especially profitable trucks and SUVs - as gas prices have plunged. Meanwhile, other markets have slowed, such as in China, or collapsed, such as in Russia.
In 2015, US auto sales set a new record for a single year, with 17.5 million new cars and trucks rolling off assembly lines and into garages and driveways. Throughout the industry, the big question now is whether the boom can continue through 2016, or whether a softening global growth picture will ultimately affect the US recovery.
FCA has been leaning heavily on its pickup trucks and SUVs to keep the money coming in and is considered to more vulnerable to a downturn than either General Motors or Ford. As a result, CEO Sergio Marchionne spent a fair amount of time in 2015 stumping for a merger between FCA and GM but was unsuccessful.
FCA's fourth-quarter numbers still included luxury unit Ferrari, which was spun off at the start of this year. Excluding Ferrari, adjusted operating profit in the quarter stood at 1.53 billion euros, while sales were at 29.4 billion euros.
Net industrial debt fell to 6 billion euros at the end of 2015, down from 7.85 billion at the end of September. Including the effect of Ferrari's spin-off, net debt fell to 5 billion euros.
(Reporting by Agnieszka Flak; editing by Francesca Landini)