U.S. government encouraged by Fiat’s plan for Chrysler, no IPO before 2011

Though they are encouraged by Chrysler’s turnaround plan, the U.S. government will not push for a quick IPO, a senior official told Reuters. Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Fiat, who now controls Chrysler, released Chrysler’s five-year plan earlier this month, and said that Chrysler should be operating on a break-even basis by 2011.

Marchionne’s plan rests on the anticipation that Chrysler can recover market share that it lost before hitting bankruptcy, and that the U.S. market will gradually recover. 56 percent of Chrysler”s vehicles will be derived from Fiat platforms by 2014.

Ron Bloom, head of the administration’s autos task force said that it is unlikely that we will see a Chrysler IPO before 2011, and that they weren’t going to push for an early IPO.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Reuters