Fiat chairman Umberto Agnelli, who helped lead his family’s vast Turin-based carmaker out of hard times and into better financial shape, has died of cancer little more than a year after taking the company’s top position, a company spokesman told the Associated Press (AP) on Friday. He was 69.
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He died late on Thursday, Fiat spokesman Raffaello Porro reportedly said. AP noted that the company acknowledged last month that Agnelli was undergoing treatment for cancer but his health appeared to have taken a sudden turn for the worse.
AP said that Agnelli, who was long sidelined in his family’s vehicle empire, got his chance to take over after his elder brother Giovanni “Gianni” Agnelli died in January 2003 – that death came after a dramatic decline in the company, whose share price and market share had plummeted.
In February, Umberto Agnelli spoke with delight about the company’s improved financial results of late, AP said. “What gives us a certain satisfaction is that, despite significant losses, we can still see notable improvements in the fourth quarter due to the work that’s been done,” he said then.
However, AP added, at a shareholders’ meeting three weeks ago, Agnelli was absent – highly unusual for top Fiat brass and a hint that his health was suffering.
The report said that, in Turin, the northern city where Fiat has long been the main industry, the news arrived on a grim foggy morning, and set the place abuzz – many worried about the fate of the city’s major employer.
“This is the end,” cafe owner Lucio Manfrinato told Associated Press morosely. “You’ve got to be obsessed with automobiles to carry forward a car company, and these people had the obsession of making cars. Their heirs are young men in their 30s, and I wonder if they will have the fire in their belly.”
In January 2003, when Giovanni Agnelli died, the family met immediately and named Umberto to take over, as Fiat faced its gravest crisis since its founding in 1899, AP said. The previous year, Fiat’s car unit had lost more than €1 billion, while its share price had lost about 80% since a high in 1998.
Many speculated that Umberto would be more willing to relinquish the automaker, to finally move the Agnellis out of the auto business but they were wrong, AP said.
Instead, he helped consolidate operations, focussing above all on the carbusiness. That appeared to bring some improvements in the company’s financial health, although even Fiat executives acknowledge there is a long way to go, AP added.
The report said it was unclear who in the family might take over the reins of the company now, or if indeed that position would be held by an Agnelli at all – two of Giovanni Agnelli’s grandsons have been groomed for future roles, but many believe they are still two young.
