“The talks with Veba are going on. I don't know when we will reach an agreement, not even if we will." In any case, given that "we have been working on the project for a long time", the attempt is "to carry on the project as soon as possible". This was stated by Sergio Marchionne, referring to the negotiations with the fund headed by the American syndicate Uaw and which holds 41,5% of Chrysler which Lingotto wants to acquire to complete the merger operation between Turin and Detroit and open the doors to the listing of post-merger reality. The Italian-Canadian manager also reiterated that the group has sufficient liquidity, over 21 billion cash; Marchionne spoke from Venice, where the Council for relations between Italy and the USA is held, which he himself chairs.
A tense tug of war has been going on for months between Marchionne and the union, which also involves a lawsuit before the Delaware court. In July, the justice of the US state should express itself on the value of a package of just over 3% of Chrysler's capital (3,3% to be precise), which will be an excellent point of reference for fixing the overall price. The distance between the two parties is considerable: Fiato is offering 3 billion dollars and the Uaw is asking for 4,3 billion. In the psychological warfare there has been no shortage of moves to weaken the opponent's resistance: the Veba fund has recently sold its share of General Motors on the market (about which the US Treasury has accelerated the disposal in view of a return to trade) cashing over 600 million dollars. As if to say to Marchionne: we have stocked up on liquidity, now we are in no hurry to sell off.
