Fiat announced Thursday that the Italian company officially owns 58.5 percent of Chrysler. Chrysler is the third biggest automaker in the world and the announcement comes to some as a surprise considering Chrysler recently sued Fiat over the price of an additional 3.3 percent in the company.
Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive of both Fiat and Chrysler said Thursday that he is hoping to merge the two companies completely as early as 2014. Marchionne doesn't think that the dispute over how much Fiat should pay for another 3.3 percent of Chrysler should affect the merger. He considers the lawsuit a separate issue completely and it could be resolved very soon.
"There is no court date yet, that's not up to us," Marchionne said during a news conference at the Paris auto show. "But I think it will be soon."
The linguistics of the 2009 contract involving the U.S. Treasury as part of Chrysler's emergence from bankruptcy is unclear regarding call options for Fiat to buy pieces of Chrysler, which has forced the issue to court, Marchionne said.
Fiat offered to pay $108 million euros, or $139.7 million U.S. dollars for a 3.3 percent stake in Chrysler, which would increase Fiat's share of the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based automaker to 61.8 percent. Marchionne said he believed that plant closures in Europe to alleviate auto manufacturing overcapacity are "more likely" due to the current economic crisis on the continent.
Fiat is an Italian automobile manufacturer founded in 1899. The company is currently the world's ninth largest carmaker in the world.
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