Automotive News Europe (ANE) reports that the two heads of the family that controls Fiat ‘don’t seem to agree on the future of Fiat Auto’.
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The report says that the Govanni Agnelli, 82, honorary chairman of the Fiat group, ‘won’t abandon the car business’, but his younger brother Umberto is said to be ‘impatient’ with the performance of Fiat Auto.
The ANE report adds that ‘sources say that many within Fiat’s controlling family would like to sell Fiat Auto well before a put option enabling the unit to be sold to General Motors takes affect in two years’. However, Giovanni Agnelli is said to be of the contrary view that Fiat without autos is simply inconceivable.
Last month Fiat announced that it will sell off assets and that to prop up Fiat Auto, Fiat SpA plans to raise EUR 4.49 billion by selling several group companies over the next two years – including all of Magneti Marelli.
The group will sell 51 percent of Comau-PICO, its production equipment maker.
Jack Welch, the 65-year-old former head of American conglomerate General Electric, will have a major role in Fiat’s restructuring programme.
