Chrysler takes first step toward IPO

By Reuters
Posted March 1 at 8:56 a.m.

Chrysler Group LLC has taken the first step to re-enter the U.S. capital markets through filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the automaker’s boss Sergio Marchionne said Tuesday.

“Last Friday, we filed an S-1 with the SEC. I can’t and will not make any statement,” he told Reuters Insider TV on the sidelines of the Geneva Motor Show when asked about the debt repayment plan. “Anything we say now is going to interfere with the filing process.”

Marchionne defined the S-1 filing as “the first step to re-enter U.S. financial markets.”

The only filing that was available on the SEC website as of Tuesday morning was a Form 10 the U.S. automaker filed Friday. The form gave a detailed look at the company’s financial operations last year and listed risk factors to its business outlook.

Spokesmen for Fiat and Chrysler were unable to clarify Marchionne’s comments.

Marchionne, who is also chief executive of Italian carmaker Fiat SpA, declined to comment on how quickly Fiat, which owns 25 percent of Chrysler, would repay the U.S. and Canadian governments and on the timing of Chrysler’s planned initial public offering, citing the recent SEC filing.

Last week, Chrysler said it would start filing annual, quarterly and period updates with the SEC to provide transparency to its stakeholders, which includes the health- care trust affiliated with the United Auto Workers and the U.S. and Canadian governments.

At the time, the company said this move was not linked to a potential IPO. Marchionne has previously said the company was aiming for an IPO in the second half of 2011.

Read more about the topics in this post: , , ,
 

Companies in this article

One comment:

  1. jack (me) March 1 at 9:17 a.m.

    So, how many of you want to step up and invest in a subsidiary at least 25% and up to 40% owned by Fiat, and other good chunks still owned by the government and VEBA even after this offering. Sounds like the Insull utilities pyramid to me.

    Besides that, Fiat hasn’t brought any real new product to Chrysler/Dodge/Ram/Jeep yet, not even their multiair engines.