The escalating fears that
Fiat could abandon Turin as its historical headquarters,
gained further momentum this morning with Italian
newspaper reports quoting Fiat's CEO Sergio Marchionne
and Chairman John Elkann reactions to politicians that
didn't appear to dampen any of the flames.
The row blew up on Friday
evening when Marchionne, speaking after delivering a
speech at the JD Power Automotive Roundtable
conference in San Francisco, suggested that Fiat and
Chrysler could in fact merge within "two or three years"
and that the new entity's headquarters could well be
located in the United States.
Those comments provoked
an instant furore in Italy amongst politicians and
unions and an "immediate clarification" was demanded by
Sergio Chiamparino, the Mayor of Turin, the northern
Italian city where Fiat has been headquartered since its
incorporation in July 11, 1899.
Marchionne and Elkann
immediately put over their viewpoint by telephone to
leading Italian political figures yesterday with the key
national daily papers reporting this morning that the
line taken didn't serve to dampen the gist of the
comments, more so added to them with the more general
mooted proposal being that Fiat and Chrysler would
eventually be controlled by four management centres,
located in Turin and Detroit as well as Brazil and Asia.
Turin was though described as retaining its current
management capacity and position.
"Marchionne has explained
the sense of the plans which refer exclusively to future
possible company arrangements and which have not been
decided," the Italian Welfare Minister Maurizio Sacconi
commented after discussing the issue with the Fiat and
Chrysler CEO, reported Reuters this morning.
"Elkann has explained
Fiat's strategy foresees the integration with Chrysler
and that there will be more management centres where
there is a strong market presence," the Turin mayor was
quoted this morning in an Italian daily newspaper,
reported Reuters. There will "one [mangement
centre] at Turin, one at Detroit for the United States,
one in Brazil, and if possible, one in Asia," Chiamparino
stated that Elkann had told him.
