Fiat has been fast out of the blocks in 2014, announcing on 1 January its wholly-owned subsidiary Fiat North America LLC will buy the remaining 41.46 per-cent of Chrysler Group.
The $US 3.6 Billion transaction (which includes one-off payments to the United Auto Workers’ pension fund for Chrysler employees) gives Fiat 100 per-cent ownership of the American giant.
Sergio Marchionne, Chief Executive of Fiat and Chairman and CEO of Chrysler Group said: “In the life of every major organization and its people, there are defining moments that go down in the history books. For Fiat and Chrysler, the agreement just reached is clearly one of those moments. The unified ownership structure will now us to fully execute our vision of creating a global automaker.”
Of course in Australia, the benefits of the Fiat-Chrysler partnership are already obvious – the Fiat Freemont is a close relative of the Dodge Journey and Fiat diesel engines are found in a number of Chrysler models.
And 2013 saw the combined company shatter many sales records in Australia – across the entire brand portfolio including Fiat and Alfa Romeo.
