Fiat has raised its stake in Chrysler Group to 58.5%, and CEO Sergio Marchionne “wants to elevate the company to a global player through Chrysler,” noted a report in
Reuters Breakingviews.
But, the report noted, “Going global, though, comes at a price: Fiat’s Agnelli family may need to put pragmatism over sentimentality and move its headquarters from Italy.”
Fiat was given a 20% stake in Chrysler when the U.S. automaker filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Marchionne plans to merge Fiat and Chrysler into a single global company by buying out a stake held by the United Auto Workers’ health trust fund but will not make any decisions in this regard until 2013, according to
a
Wall Street Journal
report.
The Reuters Breakingviews article pointed out that this year Fiat relinquished its membership in Confindustria, the federation of Italian employers; a couple of years ago, Fiat’s chairman led the organization.
The
Wall Street Journal
article said Marchionne plans to stay at Fiat and Chrysler until at least 2015 but may leave after that. Marchionne told the
Journal
his successor “will come from the inside.”
Regarding the possibility of moving the headquarters out of Italy, Marchionne told the
Journal:
“The emotional attachment to your country as a producer needs to be rethought. It doesn’t mean that you’re betraying anybody, it just means that you’re growing up, just like your children are leaving home. It doesn’t mean that they don’t love you. It just means that they’re going to go do stuff and live alone. I thank that businesses are no different than that.”
(Sources: Reuters Breakingviews, Jan. 9, 2012;
Wall Street Journal,
Jan. 9, 2012.)
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