Both Fiat and GM officials have remained tight lipped over today's crunch meeting between top executives from the two companies.

Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, and his GM counterpart Jack Wagoner, were due to come face to face today on the fringes of a Powertrain quarterly 'steering committee' meeting in Zurich, Switzerland.

Instead, in a bid to avoid strong media interest, they secretly flew to a hotel in Friedrichshafen, a town on the Swiss-German border.

Fiat spokesperson Raffaello Porro was keen to downplay the meeting. "No announcement is foreseen about exercising the put option," he commented in a statement, as rumour and speculation swept the trading floor of the Milan bourse this afternoon.

At Friedrichshafen, which is situated on Lake Constance, Marchionne was expected to formally tell Wagoner that Fiat would be seeking to clarify the status of the infamous 'put' option by legal means if necessary, and that the Italian carmaker was prepared to excercise the option if it so wished, once the window for its use reopens in January.

As the tough-talking Fiat CEO continued to crank up the pressure, yesterday he told the Financial Times that it "would be very difficult for GM, being the largest carmaker in the world, to walk away from its responsibilities."

"There is a very good argument to say that Italian car plants could benefit from the relocation of other GM business in Europe," Marchionne added.

Fiat's European market share slipped last month

Europe-wide new car sales data released today by Brussels-based car manufacturer agency ACEA, revealed that Fiat's share of the European market slipped year-on-year during last month, ending at 6.8 percent (as opposed to 8 percent in November 2003).
 

In terms of new cars registered, Fiat shifted 77,166 units for the period, against 88,012 in November 2003, with this figure equating to a 7 percent fall.

The Italian company failed to follow a market trend that saw European car sales putting behind them a four month falling trend, to sharply rise by 9.5 percent, year-on-year. This was partially put down to a longer than usual trading month, and a number of top manufacturers introducing long awaited new models.

However, taken over the first eleven months of 2004, Fiat's market share has continued remained steady, up by 0.1 percent year-on-year, with 990,576 cars having now been registered during the course of this year.

With a series of key new models, including the best-selling Punto 'supermini', due around the middle of next year, Fiat are more than happy to see this position remain steady.

Powertrain to trim workforce

Reuters reported today that Powertrain, the GM-Fiat joint venture company, is to lay-off just over 700 workers employed at four Italian factories.

The cuts, which have been agreed with three out of the four unions involved, will trim slightly the 8,000 staff employed by Powertrain in Italy. The joint venture company, which covers engine and transmission development and production, as well as joint purchasing initiatives, has around 22,000 employees in eight European and South American countries.