Yet in recent days there has been no shortage of criticism and perplexity from some trade unionists and some commentators, who by profession always have to declare themselves skeptical of the possibilities of car development in Italy. But none of the critics of Marchionne's strategy mentions the ruinous fall of the Italian market where car sales have halved in the last four years, much less any self-criticism is advanced on the competitiveness situation of our country and on the constraints of the labor market that make it uneconomical to produce in Italy. Instead, the emphasis is placed on the weakness of the financial situation of the company, invoking a capital increase considered a moral obligation for the Agnelli family, but forgetting that there are also another hundred thousand shareholders, and that all those who operate on the capital market should be guided only by the intent to do good business.
Thus Marchionne replies to Mauro that today a capital increase would be "a destruction of value". Key words that however the editor of Repubblica drops, probably not having fully understood their meaning from the point of view of the effective functioning of the financial markets. This means that today the company believes that its capitalization is undervalued compared to the real value of its assets and that therefore making a capital increase at these prices would mean giving away a piece of the unexpressed value to the new shareholders. After all, just think that Fiat today has a capital of just over 8 billion euros, while for example Ferrari alone could be prudently valued at between 4 and 5 billion. Chrysler at the prices of the transaction just concluded with Veba would be worth 10 billion. And everything else from Marelli to the commercial vehicles built in the Val di Sangro model factory must be worth something. The convertible is a bond loan that could be issued at fairly low rates for Fiat as it offers the option of being converted into shares at a price that must be higher than the current one but lower than the target that can be reached once it starts the new industrial plan based on the complete integration of the two companies also in terms of the commercial network in the world.
But our champions of forced industrialization in the style of a five-year plan like the Soviet Union, from the general secretary of Fiom Maurizio Landini to the president of the Senate Industry Commission, Massimo Mucchetti, insist on the magic word of investments even if the market does not exist and if the conditions productivity of the plants are hampered by an antiquated regulation of the labor market and contractual agreements continuously upset by the incursions of the Judiciary and most recently by the Constitutional Court which canceled the art. 19 of the Workers' Statute, also wanted by the unions themselves at the time. Marchionne clearly explains that certain investments have been postponed due to the very depressed Italian and European markets and that today a plan can be reformulated thanks to the availability of the international commercial network ensured by Chrysler. In short, while hoping for a recovery in Europe, the true destiny of Italian factories will be that of producing, at least for a significant portion, for export. Here a discourse could usefully be opened for our trade unionists and our politicians, namely that of outlining an economic policy plan to favor our exports. But it would be an uncomfortable and complicated speech. Easier, and less responsible, to launch slanderous digs at Fiat and the Agnellis, in any case no one will be able to hold them accountable for any actions pertaining to them, promises that have not been made.
Finally, it would be useful to remind Massimo Mucchetti that one of his illustrious fellow citizens, the late Luigi Lucchini, a great iron and steel industrialist from Brescia, said that there are two sure ways to bring a company to bankruptcy: the first was to gamble one's fortune at the casino or with women (but at least it was fun) and the second was to make wrong investments (i.e. excessive or too early with respect to the market) because that capital can no longer be recovered, with the result of leading to a crisis that destroys both the company that jobs. Certainly investments are necessary to make a country progress, but it would be good if those who too easily fill their mouths with the word "investments" remembered the warnings of the wise Lucchini.
