Chrysler files for public offering of up to $100m
CHRYSLER Group filed paperwork yesterday for an initial public offering of up to $100m (£62.3m), an action that could slow majority owner Fiat’s plans to take full ownership of the US automaker.
The offering will be underwritten by JP Morgan, the company said in a securities filing posted more than four years after the third-largest US automaker emerged from a government-sponsored bankruptcy under Fiat management.
The size of the offering was not mentioned in the filing papers, and Chrysler officials did not comment on the figure.
Chrysler’s minority shareholder, the United Auto Workers (UAW) retiree healthcare trust fund, said in January it would sell part of its 41.5 per cent stake in the company in an IPO.
Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of both Chrysler and Fiat, said in mid-September that the IPO is likely to take place in the first quarter of 2014.
Marchionne and the UAW trust, a voluntary employee beneficiary association, or VEBA, have been at odds over the value of Chrysler.