Pininfarina CEO dies in road accident

TURIN -- Andrea Pininfarina, CEO of Italian design and contract manufacturer Pininfarina, died Thursday morning in a road accident near Turin.

Pininfarina, 51, died after a car collided with the Vespa motorcycle scooter he was riding to the company's design and r&d center in Cambiano.

Pininfarina's death comes at a time when the family-controlled company is in the midst of a crucial restructuring.

Last year, Pininfarina's consolidated net loss increased to 114.9 million euros from 21.9 million euros the previous year.

Andrea Pininfarina has been Pininfarina's CEO since June 2001. He was also appointed chairman in May 2006. His father Sergio is the company's honorary chairman. His younger brother Paolo is Pininfarina's vice chairman and his elder sister Lorenza is a member of company's board.

Andrea Pininfarina is the grandson of Pininfarina founder Battista "Pinin" Pininfarina. He is survived by his wife Cristiana, and two sons and a daughter.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said in a statement Pininfarina was "the representative of a dynasty that helped bring the story of 'made in Italy' to the world."

Fiat and Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo praised his business acumen.

"Italy, Turin and the Fiat group have lost a business figure who knew how to follow and develop the work of his grandfather Pinin and his father Sergio," Montezemolo said in a statement.

The driver of the car, 78-year-old Giuliano Salmi, was taken to hospital suffering from shock.

"I didn't see him, I was going slowly and I really didn't see him," Salmi said, according to local news agency Ansa.

Andrea Pininfarina was born in Turin, the centre of Italy's car industry, on June 26, 1957 and joined the family business in 1983 after gaining a degree in mechanical engineering.

Pininfarina SpA, which designed Ferraris such as the Dino and Testarossa, boasts of "Experience, Creativity, Innovation" on its Website www.pininfarina.com, where it says it is a company of "art, design, innovation. The cars of kings."

News of the chief executive's death prompted market speculation that its ownership could quickly change.

The shares jumped so high they had to be suspended in Milan for excessive gains and were indicated up over 13 percent pending a resumption of trade.

"The market thinks that ownership change will speed up," said one trader.

On March 10, Pininfarina asked its shareholders for a 100-million-euro capital increase to cover of its losses.

The move means that the Pininfarina family will lose its majority in the company.

The family currently controls 55 percent of Pininfarina's voting shares.

The Pininfarina family will underwrite part of the capital increase and will rely on the support of new investors, such as Ferrari vice chairman Piero Ferrari, Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata and French industrialist Vincent Bollore.

After the capital increase, the Pininfarina family will remain the main shareholder of the company with about 30 percent of the shares.

Pininfarina agreed a deal with its creditor banks last week, which temporarily exempted it from repayments on 600 million euros of debt while it restructures its finances.

It has tried to cut costs as the economic downturn hits carmakers and narrowed its loss to 9.7 million euros in the first quarter, from 9.9 million in the same period a year ago.

Reuters contributed to this report