BRE Brembo NV

Brembo SpA (BRE.MI), an Italian maker of specialty brakes, Thursday forecast sales to rise next year on the back of growing demand for premium cars, but one of its executives expressed concern that the crisis in Italy risked hurting business abroad if it wasn't resolved quickly.

"There is a risk of credibility," Matteo Tiraboschi, executive deputy chairman, told Dow Jones Newswires in a phone interview.

Although Brembo had an international presence with plants in Brazil, China, Poland and elsewhere, it was still based in Italy, he said.

The decline of the country's image on the world stage could eventually harm the reputation of its companies, including Brembo, he said.

"It is a handicap that our competitors do not have," he said.

"(So) things become complicated to manage," he added, referring to keeping existing customers and getting new ones.

Faced with soaring borrowing costs, Italy has vowed to turn crucial economic policy proposals into law as early as this weekend to quicken Silvio Berlusconi's resignation as prime minister and usher in a government with more credibility to steer the country through Europe's debt crisis.

For the third quarter, Brembo, which supplies braking systems to premium car makers including Daimler AG's (DAI.XE) Mercedes-Benz and Fiat SpA's (F.MI) Ferrari, reported a 0.9% rise to EUR33.3 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda.

Sales rose 16.1% to EUR312.3 million.

Based in Bergamo, Italy, Brembo forecast sales growing until the end of the year, but it did not give a specific figure.

Tiraboschi said Brembo was having difficulty keeping up with the number of orders it was receiving from its customers.

As for financing, he said Brembo had borrowed enough money for the moment.

More than 90% of its debt--which stood at a net EUR326 million at the end of the quarter--had medium- to long-term maturity, so there was no need for refinancing, he said. "We're talking five, seven, 10 years (in maturities)."

Brembo dealt with Italian and foreign banks and had no intention of changing them despite the stress under which the European banking sector had come under as a result of the crisis, he added.

-By Gilles Castonguay, Dow Jones Newswires; +39 02 5821-9908; gilles.castonguay@dowjones.com

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