FINANCIAL TIMES: …Fiat will pay $3.65bn to acquire the 41.5 per cent of Chrysler it does not already own, resolving one of the car industry’s biggest strategic issues.
The Italian carmaker announced on Wednesday a deal to buy out a union healthcare plan’s share in Chrysler, one of the US’s three big carmakers. As part of the deal, Chrysler will pay the Veba union pension trust an additional $700m in cash over four years, starting from the date of the deal’s completion…
Fiat and Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of both carmakers, had been haggling for months with Veba, which had threatened to take its shares to the public market. The agreement allows Mr Marchionne to avoid an initial public offering of Chrysler, which Fiat was obliged to arrange if the two sides were unable to agree on a price for Veba’s shares… (more)
