Fiat, which wants a US court trial next May on the value of Chrysler stock it wants to buy from a union healthcare trust, will probably have to wait until 2015 for the case to be heard.
The United Auto Workers’ trust has asked the court in Delaware to delay the hearing because of the complex nature of the accounting issues involved in Fiat’s bid to buy part of the trust’s 41.5% stake so that the two companies can be fully merged.
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The UAW became Chrysler’s second largest shareholder when Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 and the union swapped future healthcare payments owed to it for a stake.
Fiat filed the lawsuit a year ago and the trust says Fiat’s schedule is aggressive. But Fiat told the court this week that it would fly executives to the US for depositions to help meet its request for a May trial. The car maker also said it was demanding only a limited number of documents from the trust.
Fiat claims the first block of shares it wants to buy is worth US$139.7m; the trust values them at US$343.1m.
