It is true that the Stock Exchange thrives on rumours, but it is also true that each rumour must be rigorously verified and investigated. Especially in mid-August, where even modest purchases can generate incredible leaps due to the limited trade and volumes. This is why rumors of Chinese interest in the purchase of Fiat Chrysler were and should be taken with caution and not just because of President Trump's aversion to Chinese colonization of American-based companies. But the denials that promptly arrived from the Dragon, from Geely to Donfeng, must be weighed with equal caution.
But one thing the mid-August stock market exploit of about 10% of FCA cannot erase: the appeal, not only Chinese, that the group led by Sergio Marchionne has won and that the memorandum of understanding on cars without drivers signed by FCA with BMW and Intel right in the hours of the Piazza Affari boom was worth confirming. As Marchionne has explained several times, the new industrial plan, which will be ready in the first months of 2018 and which the Italian-Canadian CEO will bequeath to FCA before leaving and concentrating only on Ferrari, will serve to better understand where it will go and what what Fiat Chrysler will be like after Marchionne, whether or not Alfa Romeo and Maserati are spun off.
However, two points are clear right now and already constitute the appeal of FCA. The first is that for many reasons FCA presents itself at the wedding appointment that the logic of dimensional consolidation will impose in the coming years in the best conditions and, in a certain sense, in the conditions of being able to choose the partner for its future. The second reason behind FCA's international appeal is that the group has sharply cut debts, has a variety of relevant models, very strong margins and a presence in Europe, the United States and Latin America that few can boast.
The more intelligent trade unionists, as the leader of the metalworkers of the Cisl Marco Bentivogli wrote in his blog on FIRSTonline, scrutinize the future of Fiat Chrysler without prejudice but with understandable anxiety, but they certainly cannot forget that among the many elements that have allowed – thanks to the 'farsighted work of Marchionne and the contribution of workers - to save first Fiat and then Chrysler there is the defense of work. Contrary to what has happened in other countries and in other car manufacturers, starting from the French ones, in the Italian plants not a single job has been lost and wages and welfare have significantly increased for workers, also thanks to the wise trade union policy of Fim-Cisle of Uilm.
In times of erratic finance, the defense and valorisation of work are no small matter and are certainly another of the elements that make today's Fiat Chrysler appealing.
