Sergio Marchionne can either please shareholders or motoring fans. But not both.
With stock prices slumped amid speculation of a massive recall, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is disregarding all negative news, seeking to focus on positives like healthy sales from the marques it maintains. In the meantime, FCA is now under increased scrutiny by investors, spurred on by rumours that Maserati and Alfa Romeo, two of FCA’s more upmarket brands, may be sold to help the group get to grips with its burgeoning debt.
From April through to September of this year, FCA share prices have been slowly but steadily decreasing, with values ticking up in October. At present, stocks hover at a EUR9, which is largely where it was before the beginning of the year, according to information obtained by Forbes. The recent slump in stock prices have been due to reports that the US government is looking into RAM trucks and Dodge SUVs for a glitch in their gearboxes, permitting up to as many as a million cars to roll away after being left in ‘Park.’
FCA prices have, very recently, seen a small rise thanks to President-elect Donald Trump’s continuous mantras of bringing jobs back to America. A bulk of the group’s profit comes from the sales of SUVs and utes in the Land of the Free, where there’s a certain amount of disdain regarding any other kind of car.
With Alfa Romeo now offering both the Giula compact saloon and Stelvio SUV, and Maserati out and about with its new Levante, we think this might be a bad move for FCA, as both these marques are well-poised for greatness in the coming years; Selling now may mean losing out on the sales boom that the new models (SUVs especially) are capable of achieving. But we’re just motoring hacks.
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