(Reuters) -Shares in Renault plunged as much as 17% on Wednesday after the French carmaker lowered its 2025 guidance due to weaker-than-expected sales volumes in June and a challenging European market.
The company said late on Tuesday it now aims to achieve a full-year operating margin of 6.5%, below a previous target of at least 7%.
It also warned on its free cash flow, which in the first half came to just 47 million euros ($54.49 million), hit by a negative working capital requirement of around 900
million euros due to delayed billings and a decline in the European passenger car and van market.
Shares were down 15.5% at 0753 GMT to 34.80 euros, on track for their worst day since March 2020, after earlier falling as much as 17%.
Renault said it would step up cost-cutting measures to improve margins in the second half but some analysts said longer-term market pressure could continue.
"We foresee longer-term market pressure playing out beyond June. Most of the European carmakers released a new lineup of affordable electric vehicles, increasing competition," said analysts at Morningstar.
They said this raised concerns about leadership uncertainty in a volatile market.
Renault named finance chief Duncan Minto as an interim CEO on Tuesday and said the process for naming a permanent CEO was "well underway" but gave no update on timing.
($1 = 0.8602 euros)
(Reporting by Dimitri Rhodes in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak and Bernadette Baum)
