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Fiat chief calls for Chrysler tie-up
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-05 07:55
Fiat SpA Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne flew to Washington yesterday to make the case for a planned partnership with Chrysler LLC, seeking to convince officials the US automaker is viable with more help. Automakers are trying to survive the worst slump in two decades with a combination of government aid, production slowdowns and, in some cases, cooperation. Marchionne's Fiat is poised to take a 35 percent stake in Chrysler in return for access to designs for small cars that will help the Detroit manufacturer loosen its reliance on big gas-guzzlers. "This is the time to create alliances," Marchionne said at the Geneva International Motor Show. "Despite the arrogance of the CEOs, the market is taking us in that direction." Chrysler is surviving on a government bailout. Marchionne says he needs a strong alliance for Fiat to remain tenable. While he won't run Chrysler as Lee Iacocca did in saving the company in the 1980s, the Fiat CEO is betting that his company's small-car, clean-engine approach can have as profound an impact on America's third-largest automaker. While Marchionne is supporting Chrysler in a request for US aid, he used the motor show as a platform to criticize competitors feeding at the state trough. Fiat failed to get direct financing from the Italian government and has warned of distorted competition. German aid proposed for General Motors Corp's Opel unit would "put Fiat in a difficult position to compete", Marchionne said. A French program to give loans to PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault SA similarly "creates big imbalances." Bailout questioned The Fiat leader wasn't alone. Martin Winterkorn, chief executive officer of Volkswagen AG, Europe's largest carmaker, also complained about state aid. "The state mustn't act as a bailout firm for companies that are threatened by collapse," Winterkorn said in response to a question about German assistance for GM's Opel. France is lending 6 billion euros to its two major carmakers. GM wants help from Germany to keep Opel alive and assistance from Sweden to aid Saab. GM said on Feb 27 that it might give up a stake in Opel to help win 3.3 billion euros in European aid. The U.S. has lent $17.4 billion to GM and Chrysler. Opel needs government aid because "the balance sheet is weak and the crisis is too deep", GM European Chief Carl-Peter Forster said in Geneva. Marchionne, a 56-year-old who began his career as an accountant, said carmakers should work together to solve problems and that about five major automakers will survive the recession. "We're doing it all on our own and self-financing in this difficult market," he said. Agencies (China Daily 03/05/2009 page16) |
