Fiat chief taking on Chrysler

A Fiat spokesman confirmed that Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat Group, will head Chrysler when it leaves bankruptcy, most likely in May or June; he is also working on taking over Opel, Saab, and Vauxhall.

 Marchionne is a dual Canadian and Italian citizen, who has stated his goal as creating the world’s second largest automaker (and supplanting Volkswagen as Europe’s largest automaker). To do this, he plans to take the Fiat, Lancia, and Alfa Romeo operations and combine them with Chrysler, Opel, Vauxhall, Saab, and GM’s Latin American holdings. The combined companies would produce up to 6 million cars per year. 

Just as “New Chrysler” plans to leave much of its debt with an old shell containing generally unneeded assets, Fiat’s current debt of roughly $9 billion and the generally money-losing Ferrari and Maserati would remain with Fiat Group SpA. 

Fiat has altered its original plan and is now discussing taking on Opel’s debt to acquire the German-based GM division.