Fiat Owns 68.49% Of Chrysler, Will Soon Own More

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Fiat bought another 3.3 percent of Chrysler, “bringing it a step nearer to its goal of creating the world’s seventh-largest automaker by sales,” says Reuters. What Fiat really wants is to consolidate loss-making Fiat with profitable Chrysler, and to get “access to some of Chrysler’s cash flow for investments in new models,” the wire says.

With any luck, this time we won’t hear forever “that all they wanted was Chrysler’s cash.” This time, the unions will get a hefty chunk of the cash, and silence is guaranteed once the final price has been agreed.

Fiat was handed 20 percent of a worthless Chrysler in 2009 for free, and has options to increase its stake to 75 percent until July 2014. Fiat can buy 16.6 percent of Chrysler from UAW’s Veba. A court decision on the price Fiat will pay for the shares is still pending, but Fiat said its calculation of the value of the shares is $254.7 million. The UAW probably has a different opinion.


Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Pgcooldad Pgcooldad on Jul 09, 2013

    So much misinformed members here. Fiat is run by an American born in New York, John Alkann, who is the grandson of Gianni Agnelli (Who happened to be a very good friend of Henry Ford) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Elkann Chrysler is actually owned by an Italian conglomerate who just sold interest in one of their holdings to the tune of several billion dollars in order to continue buying more of Chrysler. The money is not coming from FIAT's pocketbook. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exor_(company) Fiat will be an American Company when the shares for the Fiat-Chrysler Group are listed in the NYSE. Mr Elkann was in Auburn Hills a couple of months ago for several award ceremonies and mingling with his employees. He's a really nice guy, normal and down to earth.

    • See 2 previous
    • Highdesertcat Highdesertcat on Jul 09, 2013

      @pgcooldad People affiliated with the industry know this but it isn't germane to the day-to-day operations of who runs the company and who calls the shots that set policy where the rubber meets the road.

  • Schmitt trigger Schmitt trigger on Jul 09, 2013

    Someone should tell Sergio Marchionne that the the casual, unemployed-engineer-look worked for Steve Jobs, but it doesn't work for him.

  • Lorenzo Lorenzo on Jul 09, 2013

    Okay, the salt and pepper stubble goes, but not the sweater! It's his trademark!

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