Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne has been publicly shopping the automaker around for over two years, and his buyer may come from China.
After a few failed attempts to cozy up to General Motors, and Volkswagen for that matter, Automotive News reports FCA has a handful of Chinese automakers interested in buying out the automaker. The report states one Chinese automaker has already presented an offer to FCA, though the automaker rejected the sum and deemed it not enough.
Chinese automakers are under immense pressure from the state government to expand their operations outside of the country. FCA would be a turn-key operation for whichever automaker writes the big enough check. The report goes on to state FCA officials have flown out to China to discuss buyout options and Chinese delegations have been seen at FCA’s global headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
Should a Chinese automaker succeed in buying FCA, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, Fiat and Ram would be included with the sale. However, Maserati and Alfa Romeo would be spun off and held by Exfor for maximum profits in a similar way Ferrari was plucked from the FCA portfolio.
Potential Chinese automakers reportedly bidding for FCA include Dongfeng Motor Corp., Great Wall, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group and FCA’s current joint venture partner in China, Guangzhou Automobile Group. Geely, in particular, has already begun to expand its automaking business after it acquired Volvo from Ford years ago. It also recently bought a 51-percent stake in Proton, which earned it Lotus in the process.
If Marchionne is keen on seeing FCA merged or sold off to another automaker, after rejections from both VW and GM, it seems his answer will arrive from the east, not the west, at this point.
Comments
What would Stepdad Trump say?
why would he say anything? isn’t all of his and his daughter’s tacky schlock made in china?
The Chinese like the Russians have already bought Trump. Notice how he no longer says anything about China. His empty rhetoric only serves to stir-up the uneducated and ignorant masses…
This is the beginning of the end.
If the Chinese do buy them, will they be content with Chrysler’s fumbling ways and their perennial status of also-ran? Will they invest heavy in US factories and American jobs? Or is their intent to save what’s worth saving, and replace and expand the portfolio with Chinese imports?
To answer your question, Mr. Steriling, any negative outcome will surely be blamed on the real presidents that preceded him.
This was a long time coming.
The Chinese are looking to break in to our market and Chrysler is the patsey to fill the roll.
They will take control of what FCA has no interest in. They will supply the small cars and mis size cars along with the CUV models.
If they hints get tough I expect them to take more control of FCA if not all.
The auto market is one they have failed to comprehend yet.
All this will be placed on Obama as that is where they were sold to a 4n mfg. They had some tough options and this is what they chose and they just will have to accept the responsibility. It may be this may be the best out come of many tough choices so it is what it is.
The real issue was Chrysler was in bad shape and no one wanted them. Fiat just picked their bones and took their profits for their own used from a Jeep vs fixing Chrysler.
The big mistake was not requiring FCA to keep a percentage of Chrysler profits at Chrysler but if they did even FCA may not have touched them.
Scott, it was bazaar that Marchionne and FCA didn’t invest in Dodge and make them the volume brand.
The lack of new vehicles & investment for Dodge and Chrysler are now obvious by what FCA was doing.
Really a shame since before that Chrysler was starting to do fairly well.
in time the Chrysler division will be a memory….I wonder if the Dodge division will stick around. The Charger and Challenger are on an ancient platform. The Dart and Avenger disappeared.
I guess Dodge has the 2 SUVS.
They can sell off RAM and Jeep?
Can they sell off RAM and Jeep?
Certainly they wont do that. RAM is converted to a separate brand for pickups and LCVs (Light Commercial Vehicle) as the Promaster and Promaster City, the “federalized” versions of the Fiat Ducato and Fiat Doblò (Fiat Ducato is also known as Peugeot Boxer and Citroën Jumper, the Doblò as Opel/Vauxhall Combo).
Jeep is becoming a global brand, and is growing.
I have said for years FCA never cared about Chrysler. Killing the cars and not doing a new RWD platform tells the story.
The Hellcat was a left over program the engineers brought back to buy time and maybe to convince Sergio to give them a new program.
The minivans are forgetible and the SUV are too few and so under marketed.
Imagine what the profits from Jeep could do at Chrysler vs Alfa.
Sergio has been delusional on making Alfa a high volume brand.
I am not convinced he even loves Ram. They are old and only sell with $15k on the hood.
Why should Mr. Marchionne “love Ram”? It is a business relation.
But fact is that FCA made Ram to a brand by itself, and added the LCVs ProMaster and ProMaster City. I would think that those sell well.
Also, as far as what I had read in the FCA five-year plan as published in 2014, Alfa Romeo is not to become a “high volume brand” but an international premium brand with cars that can compete on par with BMW, e.g. Like the Stelvio and Giulia. Just as they want to turn Jeep into a global brand with its SUVs and real off-road cars.
I can’t remember what specific roles FCA has assigned to Chrysler and Dodge respectively, but there is the new Chrysler Pacifica which I understand as a successor to the Voyager, and the global compact car project “Aegean” which is already on the market in Europe as Fiat Tipo is to come to North America, too, as Dodge or Chrysler — but I am not sure about the brand being chosen for that.
Hellcat was about keeping platforms alive a little while longer and going out with a bang. The day he announced no more small cars it was clear it’s all about the short game. They would no succeed with no small cars and they would never hit cafe numbers, meaning paying even bigger fines eating up the barely any profit they are making. Speaking of no profit, they are selling the cars cheap to buy market share, further exposing their hand off in it for the short term.
I’m still surprised about no one wanting Chrysler, then it now. The company has huge potential with it’s keenly focused brands (Dodge for muscle, Jeep SUV, Ram as pick up, Chrysler as vanilla CUV and sedans).
FIAT has looted Chrysler instead of creating a valud 21st century company.
Had is the key word.
They have Jeep that is relevant because of much investment.
Ram is getting old and not making money like they were. The new trucks can’t get here soon enough.
The muscle cars are old and while they are stringing along a new model would do much better. Right now they survive on hype of limited models and large discounts.
The minivan is dying with the growth of the CUV and Chrysler is hurting there.
The lack of small cars and CUV is killing them and China can supply this and FCA can supply the establish names.
Oh boy, you know this week is going to be ugly.
Geeky has acquired the position of 49% operator at Proton, while the Malaysian company remains the 51% owner.
OTOH, Geeky took ownership of Lotus out of Proton and now owns Lotus directly 100%.
Real Americans choose death before driving a Geeky! But we’re a dying breed anyway.
Or MIA. Most car segments are dominated by Asian cars. Look how easily Hyundai/Kia conquered the US. On the other hand, Koreans don’t buy US cars despite having a free trade agreement with the US. They are far more nationalistic than Americans.
@Bob
That is exactly the same situation with the Australian auto industry also.
All the Australian auto factories are closing later this year and we will no longer be manufacturing cars.
Australians are now buying Korean and heaven forbid Chinese cars instead.
There used to be pride in buying an Australian made Commodore, Falcon, Caprice or Fairlane.
But most “imported” Australians aren’t patriotic.
RIP Australian car industry.
Think about the reasons why there is no automobile industry in Malta.
Or try to find out how many countries with a population less than 30 million haven an automobile industry.
Also think about why an automobile industry in Australia can’t exist without subsidiaries by the state.
I only wanted to point out the error in the article, which confused the 49 with the 51 percent.
Geely is not the 51% owner, but the 49% operator.
A fate worst than death.. Sergio Marchionne knows if a Chinese company buys FCA, China will chop up the company and keep anything worth salvaging and throw out everything else meaning Sergio won’t have a seat within the company as he had hope to have with General Motors or VW.
On the one hand, I have always said that if FCA looks for a partner, they should not try the look to another US-American company in decline, but to China.
On the other hand, after having researched the economic imperium of the Agnelli family, their leveraging their power via the second level holding Exor, I do not think that the Agnellis would want to give up control over the origian of their wealth and power, which is the automobile industry with FIAT and everything they assembled around it, which is now FCA, CNHI with its 12 brands (Case, New Holland, Iveco, Magirus, etc), and Ferrari, plus the other investments beyond machines with wheels.
2014 FCA started with a 5 year plan which is bearing fruit, as far as I can see. It comprises projecting both Alfa Romeo and Jeep as international brands, Alfa Romeo as the premium brand, and Jeep — of course — for SUVs and real All-Terrain vehicles. FIAT with a two tier strategy; the 500 line playing with the retro image and high prices, and other, rather basic cars like the new Fiat Tipo (Typ 356) which is produced as Fiat at Tofaş in Turkey for 40 countries in Europe, Africa, and West Asia, and is to be produced as Dodge Neon in Mexico for the North American market.
I have the impression that the turnaround both for the Italian subsidiary as well as the North American subsidiary of FCA is working.
I don’t think that it make sense to spin off Maserati and Alfa Romeo, like Exor/Agnelly had done with Ferrari.
Ferrari is not just an automaker. Ferrari’s business in the Formula One circus is something quite different from simply building cars, and the brand name Ferrari as such is a commodity which is being used expensively in merchandising by Ferrari themselves and by renting out the Ferrari name to other companies.
Alfa Romeo and Maserati on the other hand need to be embedded in a larger auto manufacturing company with their large development, research and design centers, plus actual manufacturing, tooling etc. BTW, Maserati already does buy engines from Ferrari.
But the real question to this site, is GM next?
No Ford is in deeper trouble. Their stock is only on third GMs.
But they too will survive.
The time is coming where everyone will need a dance partner even VW.
I see Ford and GM doing more joint projects but both remaining independent like the transmission deal.
Hope GM and Ford work together to survive and thrive and again become the dominate forces in the auto industry. Do not like the idea of them being also ran in their home country.
I predict that Ford and GM will be forced to merge in the next recession or GM will also be purchased by the Chinese, leaving Ford whistling in the wind looking for a bride. In this age of globalization GM and Ford are now too small to survive on their own with roughly a 50B market cap each. None of these companies are really prepared for the upcoming steamroller of electrification. The Chinese on the other hand, control over 90% of the global supply of rare earth metals and also own the electronics supply chain.
Ford and GM will not merge.
I do see GM forming partnership with various mfg that will keep them all independent but they all will share in cost savings.
The key is GM has the greatest R&D and tech ability. They can share the cost and take the lead on the work.
This is how the Ford deal is working as GM did most of the work and tailored the Ford to their needs. This was why the Aluminum Fords were at the Warren proving grounds. Ford helped with the cost.
GM did this for BMW too.
GM also is working more and more with Honda as they can not do it alone but the want to remain independent.
Ties like these will continue to grow and expand.
If the Chinese to buy FCA they will throw out anything that they see as not viable and replace the models with Chinese engineered and built vehicles . Ford an GM had better lobby hard to not let this sale go through .
The Chinese government is in control of their automakers and will throw money into this venture and could very well eliminate our auto industry .
Americans are getting tired of buying everything that has the ” Made in China ” tag on it , and if the deal goes through China will have that big footprint in our country that they have been wanting . Why are we not seeing this potential threat on the news , this is a big frickin’ deal . Where is the UAW , they have lobbyists in Washington so does Ford and GM . They should be fighting this or are they bought by big donors like the whole House and Congress .
If we had a ‘ real ” President in the White House and not one that owes Russia money and is nothing but a puppet for Putin maybe we would be hearing about this on the news . But even if Trump would tell the American public about this sale of our third largest automaker in the country being bought by the Chinese government who would believe a word he says anyway . He is afraid of press confronces so he tweets his thoughts in 140 characters or less at 3a.m so he doesn’t have to deal with reporters questions .
What a mess this country is in . JMO
How very far we’ve fallen
Just read an article on AutoBlog’s website about this , a very interesting article . Worth a check .
Who the Hell ever decided that it was our destiny to sell our heritage to China? And why did we let him live?
When the 1% own 90% of the assets, they decide what is best for them. Now they want to get the biggest tax cut in the history of the US at the expense of the bottom 50% of the population. To add insult to injury, they have convinced the masses that the giant dick being shoved up their posteriors is good for them.
Your post so helpful with me Exfor for maximum profits in a similar way Ferrari was plucked from the FCA portfolio.