By Andrew Bary

Sometimes the parts are worth more than the whole. That's the case with Exor, whose massive discount has created a low-risk bet for value-seeking investors.

Exor is a European investment company controlled by Italy's Agnelli family. It owns equity stakes in a group of public and private companies, notably a nearly 20% stake in Ferrari, the top luxury car maker in the world. Other assets include interests in auto maker Stellantis, farm equipment producer CNH Industrial, and Philips, the European maker of medical diagnostic equipment. Its smaller portfolio of private holdings includes stakes in the Economist magazine and Christian Louboutin, the high-end European maker of women's shoes.

The past two years have been subpar for Exor -- shares have dropped more than 20% over the past year alone -- as Ferrari stock has fallen 25% from its record high last year, and Stellantis, which recently took a $27 billion write-down keyed off its electric-vehicle business, has struggled. The decline has left Exor shares trading at 72 euros ($85.75) on Europe's Euronext exchange, or $86 for its lightly traded American depositary receipt, EXXRF. Exor now trades at a more than 50% discount to its estimated net asset value of $190 based on the recent value of its public company stakes and the company's estimates of its private holdings, most recently updated as of June 2025.

That discount is too extreme. Exor's management is led by CEO John Elkann, 49, a member of the Agnelli family. He has run the company since 2009 and is also chairman of Ferrari and Stellantis. Elkann's overall record has been strong, with NAV growing at a nearly 18% rate through the middle of 2025, against 11% for the company's benchmark, the MSCI World Index. With the stock trading at such a monster discount, and the possibility of a turnaround at its portfolio companies, it won't take much for Exor to become a winning bet.

"John Elkann has a great track record growing Exor's value per share at a strong rate, while steadily improving the qualitative mix of Exor's assets, yet the stock trades at an unusually large discount to NAV," says Ross Glotzbach, CEO and head of research at Southeastern Asset Management. "I don't think Exor will let a 50%-plus discount like this persist."

The common denominator among three of the main Exor holdings -- Ferrari, Stellantis, and CNH -- is a link to Fiat, the dominant Italian industrial company founded by Giovanni Agnelli in the late 19th century and whose descendants now own over half the stock in Exor. Auto maker Stellantis was formed by the merger of Fiat's auto business with Chrysler in 2014 and the subsequent combination with France's Peugeot. CNH, the No. 2 farm equipment maker behind Deere, was created by the merger of Fiat's industrial business and CNH Global in 2013. Ferrari was jettisoned by Fiat Chrysler in 2015.

The company has a strong balance sheet with net debt of about $2 billion relative to total assets of almost $40 billion. The dividend is modest at under 1% as the company prefers to invest or repurchase stock. European analysts are almost uniformly favorable on Exor. UBS' Patrick Hummel, who has a Buy rating and price target of EUR117 on the stock, up 60% from recent levels, wrote in late 2025 that the company was "well positioned to seize on significant investment opportunities."

Like many conglomerates and investment companies, including Loews and Graham Holdings, Exor trades at a discount to NAV in part because investors doubt its holdings will be sold off, while family control at all three companies makes it difficult for activists to push for breakups. Berkshire Hathaway, the world's largest conglomerate, is an exception, trading around intrinsic value, according to UBS analyst Brian Meredith. Exor benefits from its domicile in the Netherlands since it doesn't pay taxes when it sells any of its equity holdings at a profit. U.S. companies generally get no such tax break.

The current Exor discount of more than 50% hasn't always been like that. It stood at 35% in 2023 and 15% a decade ago, and the average has been 30% since 2009. Management doesn't seem too worried. Elkann said last March that Exor simply needs to deliver. "As one performs, the discount will take care of itself," he said. Ferrari stock has bounced some 20% off its recent lows, and Stellantis stock looks cheap at a discount to its auto peers.

Investors can view Exor as a cheap, backdoor way to invest in Ferrari, since Exor's 19.5% stake is valued now at $14.8 billion and accounts for nearly 40% of Exor's NAV and about 80% of its market value of $18 billion. Ferrari has been a big winner for Exor, rising nearly sevenfold in price since its 2015 initial public offering, while Stellantis and CNH stocks are lower in the past five years.

While not cheap, Ferrari trades for about 35 times projected 2026 earnings, down from a price/earnings ratio of 50 last year. Its stock got hit in late 2025 when Ferrari disappointed investors with lower-than-expected financial guidance through 2030. With a fanatic following, limited auto production, and high margins on cars averaging about $500,000 each, Ferrari is more like a luxury company than an auto maker. Larry Pitkowsky, manager of the Goodhaven mutual fund, says Ferrari is now more reasonably priced than it was a year ago. That makes Exor a better value since Ferrari is its biggest asset.

Elkann hasn't maintained a static portfolio. Exor sold PartnerRe, a reinsurer, for $9.3 billion in 2022 and made a well-timed sale of over $3 billion of Ferrari stock near the highs in February 2025. Exor bought around $4 billion of Philips stock starting in 2023.

The company has said it wants to focus new investments on healthcare and luxury goods, but it's hard to argue that those are better values now than Exor's own stock. Exor bought back about $1.2 billion of its shares in the first half of 2025, or about 6%, but the company has the wherewithal for more repurchases with a strong balance sheet that includes $4 billion of debt and $2 billion of cash.

Exor should net over $1 billion this year from the sale of Iveco, a maker of commercial vehicles, giving it more cash to buy back stock, though the company was noncommittal on buybacks in September. Expect management to face analyst questions on the discount and buyback when Exor reports its second-half 2025 results in late March.

Pitkowsky, echoing words from legendary value investor Ben Graham, says Exor offers an "ample margin of safety" now. And plenty of upside too.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com

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February 13, 2026 08:01 ET (13:01 GMT)

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