Deutsche Bank AG is expected to table a bid to buy the majority stake in Fiat Auto's retail finance arm, Fidis Retail Italia Spa. The news that Germany's biggest bank was interested in the Fidis sale came from the head of Deutsche Bank's Italian division, Vincenzo Figarola De Bustis, "I think it is among the group of banks that will make an offer," he told financial reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of a conference.

Fidis Retail Italia was created as the result of the spin-off of the retail financing activities of Fidis S.p.A., the financial services division of Fiat Auto, which took place during 2003. A majority stake (51 percent) in the company was sold at the time to a consortium made up of four major Italian banking groups: BancaIntesa, Capitalia, San Paolo–IMI and Unicredito Italiano. At at point in time Fiat was urgently looking to raise cash funds to keep its struggling auto division afloat, and the Fidis personal car-loans division was one of its few very strongly-performing and consistently-profitable units.

Fidis Retail Italia S.p.A. is now non-bank financial institution registered by Bank of Italy according to art.113 of Testo Unico Bancario. It has over 9 billion euros under management and operates through its retail subsidiaries located across 12 European countries. Fiat retained an option to repurchase the 51 percent stake in Fidis from the consortium of banks which took up the controlling share in 2003, and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne is very keen to resolve the issue, buying back the share and selling it to a single partner who can bring long-term strengths to the operation.
 

Influential Italian newspaper La Repubblica stated on 6th June that four non-Italian financial institutions were in the running to buy the stake, naming them as BNP Paribas SA, Credit Agricole SA, Deutsche Bank SA and Societe Generale SA. The same day, as newspapers speculation continued to build, the Fiat Group issued a statement to the stock markets that said: "With regard to rumours published on newspapers in the past few days, Fiat confirms that several evaluations are currently being studied to identify a sole partner for the Financial Services of Fiat Auto. No decisions have however been finalized yet," it concluded. It has been widely reported in financial newspapers that the asking price for the Fidis stake will be around 1 billion euros, with Reuters last week quoting its own sources as saying that French banking institution BNP Paribas SA had tabled a bid close to this figure. A similar offer has reportedly also been made by Deutsche Bank AG.

Meanwhile ratings' agency Standard & Poor's recently improved outlook for the Fiat Group "is a prize for those who work at Fiat and Sergio Marchionne, and the whole team is pushing to do even better," Italian news agency AGI reported Fiat President Luca di Montezemolo as saying on hearing the news. This result, he added "pushes us to continue to work with determination and humility and these are the two most beautiful things I see in Fiat today. It is a great satisfaction."