“There are important moments in the life of every large organization and its people that go down in the history books. The agreement just reached with Veba is undoubtedly one of these moments for Fiat and Chrysler”: high-sounding words those of the managing director of Fiat and Chrysler, Sergio Marchionne, the first person protagonist of the first major financial operation of the new year, the total acquisition of the third largest US automotive group by Lingotto.
"The work, commitment and results achieved by Chrysler in the last four and a half years are something exceptional", underlined the chairman John Elkann, who also gave "welcome to all the people of Chrysler in the new reality resulting from the 'integration of Fiat and Chrysler”, and wrote a moving letter from 300 employees of the group, which has become the seventh largest in the world: “We have been waiting for this moment since day one”.
To reward Marchionne's big coup, the enthusiasm of the markets was not long in coming: mid-morning Fiat continues the race on the stock exchange (+12,78% to 6,70 euros) after reaching a maximum increase of 15,8% to 6,88 euros, supported by the almost unanimous opinion of analysts for the agreement with Veba on Chrysler . Banca Akros, for example, has raised its assessment from 'accumulate' to 'buy', Hammer Partners from 'sell' to 'buy', Equita has raised its target price by 11%, Kepler Cheuvreux from 4,4 to 5 euro. All analysts underline the structure of the agreement which limits the direct outlay by Fiat to pay Veba's share and excludes the need for a capital increase.
And, for once, the consent of the union world has arrived. “The agreement signed in these hours will allow the merger and integration between Fiat and Chrysler to proceed - comments the national secretary of the Fim Cisl, Ferdinando Uliano - making available additional financial resources useful for relaunching all the Group's plants, with more positive prospects for workers. Now it is essential to proceed quickly to invest, as announced, in the Italian factories a starting from Mirafiori and Cassino”. The secretary general of Uilm, Rocco Palombella, speaks of the “right conclusion of choices that we have considered prudent, which consist in looking outside Italy. This confirms that it was the right choice."
