Agnelli's family, the successor of the big American-Italian Fiat Company, has decided to sell it. They assure their supporters that the company is now in its best condition and they only want to rescue the company from crisis and debt.
Khodrocar - These days, there are many rumors about Fiat-Chrysler. Following the announcement by the Chinese company, Great Wall Motor and its desire to seize the American brand, there are some rumors about selling Maserati and Alfa Romeo. But Fiat-Chrysler had previously announced that it has no plan to selling these two brands and the company’s strategy is to separate non-automotive subsets.
According to Bloomberg, a branch of luxury, evoked for several months, would finally be created and could be worth up to 7 billion Euros. If Maserati fits perfectly into this category, Alfa Romeo's stimulus plan is not yet ready and new investments will be needed to complete its move into a genuine premium brand. Last month, during the presentation of the half-year results, Sergio Marchionne said that nothing prevented the "spin-off" of Maserati and Alfa Romeo but that it would be discussed at the next "investor day", in the first half of 2018. What will be effective by the end of the year, however, is the sale of its equipment maker Magneti Marelli. Last year's negotiations with Korean Samsung did not succeed. This time FCA is determined to separate with its subsidiary that equips the world's leading manufacturers and is currently working on new batteries for future electric cars. The value of the company based near Milan, with its 7.9 billion Euros of turnover last year, is estimated at about 5 billion euros.
Sergio Marchionne explained to the analysts: "It is necessary to clean the FCA title of its non-strictly automotive components and create more value for the shareholders." With the decline in the indebtedness of the group, it is miracle of the Italian-Canadian manager who has been working on it since its arrival in 2004, excelling in financial engineering operations which it is customary.
Fiat weighed at the time 5.5 billion euros before the merger with Chrysler. Today, CNH Industrial (its subsidiary trucks and agricultural machinery), FCA and Ferrari represent nearly 50 billion euros.
As for debt, it has risen from 7.6 billion euros in 2014 to 4.2 billion euros in June, with the goal of falling below the 2.2 billion euros at the end of the year and will be disappear completely in 2018.
A business without debts will thus be easier to sell, the real goal of John Elkann, the great-great-grandson of the founder of Fiat, Giovanni Agnelli. He wants to accentuate the diversification of the portfolio of the Exor family holding company by relinquishing it from an uncertain sector, which is in a state of flux, like that of the automobile. This would explain the discretion of FCA regarding the autonomous or electric car that require expensive investments. PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) ranks this company in the top ten in terms of R & D investment.
Investment at half-mast but booming results on the Stock Exchange, where the stock has gained 57.4% since the beginning of the year and + 102% over the last twelve months. Sergio Marchionne will leave FCA in 2019. He will announce the next industrial plan by 2022 and, perhaps, a purchaser for FCA.
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