"Fiat may acquire additional membership interests, at any time and from time to time, including through the exercise of options it holds on certain membership interests held by the U.S. Treasury and the VEBA Trust," read the statement submitted by the Chrysler Group to the SEC yesterday. "If Fiat exercised these options in full [...] its ownership could exceed 70 percent."

Fiat currently holds a 30 percent stake in the Chrysler Group (made up of the 20 percent initial stake it was given when the U.S. carmaker emerged from the Chapter 11 process two years ago plus two further 5 percent increments that have been successfully triggered). At the end of last month the Chrysler Group announced a timetable to repay U.S. and Canadian government debt and this "Incremental Equity Call Option", which is set to be exercised at a price of US$1,268 million, will be closed by the end of June and will in turn raise Fiat's stake by a further 16 percent. A further 5 percent tranche, that Fiat has already indicated will be completed during the course of this year, will bring its total stake (once the loans are repaid) to 51 percent.

Yesterday's SEC filing added two further options for Fiat to raise its stake in the Chrysler Group further upwards from 51 percent, and potentially to more than 70 percent. The first option regards the U.S. Treasury's stake, the filing saying: "The U.S. Treasury has granted Fiat a call option [...] held by U.S. Treasury. This call option has the same post-IPO pricing terms as the call option under the LLC Operating Agreement. The pre-IPO option price is to be a negotiated price or, absent agreement, a price established by the average of the closest estimated values determined by two of three investment banks. This option is exercisable during the 12-month period following the repayment in full of the U.S. Treasury loans."