According to the CEO of both companies, Sergio Marchionne, Fiat SpA and Chrysler Group LLC will soon have a single management structure. The Bloomberg financial news agency reports that Marchionne told to journalists in Zurich that he intends to implement his unified management team “pretty quickly”, though he declined to specify a date.
It seems that Sergio Marchionne is working on management changes as he steps up the integration of the two companies. The CEO plans to merge this two carmakers in order to reduce costs and achieve a target of more than 100 billion euros ($140 billion) in combined revenue by 2014. The executive said in May that the timing of a merger hasn’t been decided yet, adding that a combination isn’t likely this year.
Initially the Italian brand acquired a 20% stake in Chrysler by the U.S. government but aims to hold 57 percent by the end of 2011, having already agreed with the government to pay $500 million for its remaining 6%, and expecting to receive another 5% as payment for developing a fuel-efficient car for the US carmaker.
Because in Italy was furor when Marchionne suggested that the unified Fiat-Chrysler could be headquartered in Detroit, the unified management structure could be yet another source of controversy. This it will be, after all, the most direct signal yet as to whether Fiat-Chrysler is an Italian firm with global operations, an Italian-American alliance or a truly global firm.
Source: Carscoop
