Fiat chief Sergio Marchionne has said the Italian company “will never” walk away from its deal with Chrysler despite yesterday’s US Supreme Court decision to temporarily block the sale of the American carmaker’s assets.
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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ordered the delay while the Supreme Court considered a request for a longer postponement to hear appeals against the sale by opponents of the deal including Indiana pension funds which hold US$42.5m of $6.9bn in Chrysler’s secured loans.
They claimed the proposed sale favoured unsecured stakeholders, such as the United Auto Workers union, and penalised holders of the company’s secured debt. The funds also claimed the US treasury acted without Congressional approval in using federal funds to help finance Chrysler’s bankruptcy plan.
Fiat has the option to abandon the deal if it is not completed by 15 June 15 but Marchionne told Bloomberg News he would let the process take its course and that Fiat had no intention of walking away from the planned alliance with Chrysler.
