The Ferrari Board of Directors, under the chairmanship of Luca di Montezemolo, has been told that the company posted record results in 2012, the best ever trading period in its 66-year history.

Record sales in USA, China, Germany and Great Britain saw revenue up 8 percent at 2.433 billion euro, with a trading profit of 350 million euro (up 12.1 percent, a net profit of 244 million euro (up 17.8 percent) and industrial net cash position of over one billion euro

All the main economic indicators exceeded the previous records set in 2008 despite a much poorer world economic backdrop as a total of 7,318 road cars were delivered to the dealership network, up 4.5 percent on 2011.

The company made significant investments over the last 12 months which, including Research and Development, amounted to 324.3 million euro (up from 280 million euro in 2011). This investment was completely self-financed thanks to the company's consistent cash flow generation, a fact confirmed by its industrial net cash position for 2012 of over one billion euro.

"We are all enormously proud of ending the year with these kinds of results despite the unfavourable economic backdrop in many European nations, and the distinctly hostile one in Italy," said Montezemolo. "The credit for this goes to the men and women in Ferrari, the strength of the brand, a very complete and highly innovative range, and our gradual expansion into automotive markets worldwide."

The 2012 results are in line with the company's geographical sales distribution plan which is divided into equal parts between America, Asia and Europe, including the Middle East. To further boost its presence on the various markets, Ferrari has reorganised its commercial network so that it now has four coordination centres: America, Europe and the Middle East, Greater China, Far East.

The results delivered by brand-related activities (Retail, Licensing and e-commerce), which underwent reorganisation in 2012, were excellent too, showing a 40 per cent increase in operating margin to over 50 million euro.

Retail results were up 5 per cent, thanks also to a new interior design concept which will be extended to the 50 Ferrari Stores around the world.

Growth was impressive too in licensing (+22 per cent), while e-commerce revenues were in excess of seven million euro (+31 per cent). Ferrari enjoys a particularly extensive presence on the various web channels and social networking sites, having recently passed the 10 million fan mark on Facebook.

On the sponsorship front, the Scuderia welcomed its first Chinese partner, Weichai Power, whose parent company, the Weichai Group, is one of China's largest conglomerates. Ferrari also strengthened its links with other companies that lead the world in their respective sectors, including Hublot, Kaspersky Lab and TNT.

As if this new wasn't good enough, it has also been revealed that Ferrari is the world's most powerful brand, according to the annual list compiled by leading brand valuation experts, Brand Finance.

Ferrari took the number one spot of the top five most powerful brands in 2013 ahead of the likes of Google, Coca-Cola, PwC and Hermes on a list that includes the 500 most famous companies in the world.