Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne had discouraged investors from participating in the initial public offering launched by Chrysler Group LLC. The move which set the automaker to go public was forced by the largest shareholder in the company last month.
Marchionne is also the chief executive of Fiat SpA. The CEO said that Chrysler has a financially attractive future which included a forecast for a 7% to 8% profit margin by 2015. This was according to a published noted from Bernstein Research last Tuesday.
CEO Marchionne wanted to avoid an IPO by having Fiat acquire all Chrysler shares from a union affiliated retiree healthcare trust. The trust currently holds 41.5% of Chrysler. The rest of the 58.5% of Chrysler is owned by Fiat.
The trust, Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association (VEBA), had been given a stake in Chrysler. This was a part of a bailout fund given to the third largest US automaker in 2009. As a part of the bankruptcy deal, VEBA would be allowed to force Chrysler to go public in order to achieve the highest possible payment for the loan.
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