The saga of Sergio Marchionne’s health and just how much Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) knew took a new twist yesterday, a day after he passed away, with the hospital where he was operated on stating that he had been under treatment for more than a year while the carmaker continued to claim it had no knowledge of his condition.
The last time Marchionne was seen in public was during the handover of a specially-adapted Jeep vehicle to the Italian Carabinieri on 26 June, which took place in Rome at a ceremony in the grounds of the Carabinieri High Command in the presence of Commander-in-Chief Giovanni Nistri, Vice Commander Riccardo Amato and FCA EMEA Region COO Alfredo Altavilla. He hasn’t been seen since in public.
FCA issued a short statement on 5 July saying that Marchionne was recovering from an operation to his right shoulder and that he would require “a short period of convalescence”.
At the same time, it also poured cold water on a report by the sensationalist “Dagospia” website that added rumour to the seriousness of his condition by claiming than Marchionne would be replaced by the 56-year-old Italian Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao, who announced back in May that he would step down from his position with the mobile phone operator in October.
The Italian news website Lettera 24 broke the news of Marchionne’s deteriorating condition last Friday (20 July) and it’s clearly very well sourced as it has provided accurate updates since while there has been a continuing news vacuum coming from FCA.
In a report on its website last Friday Lettera 24 says: “Confidential sources reveal that Chairman John Elkann has called for a meeting of the company's top management on 21 July at Lingotto in Turin to address the current situation and discuss the redistribution of [Marchionne’s] responsibilities.” It added that “The same redistributions could also be decided for Ferrari.”
The news website suggested a new line up for the announcement of the Q2 results which were coming up on Wednesday (25 July). “Responding to analysts' questions should be Richard Palmer, the current CFO and one of three managers in the running to take the place of Marchionne along with Michael Manley and Alfredo Altavilla.”
FCA immediately denied this was the case and a report by the Bloomberg news agency, posted late that same night on US time, said: "A spokesman for Fiat said there is no meeting on Saturday to discuss redistributing Marchionne’s powers, but wouldn’t comment further."
However, the next day later FCA backpedaled and announced that Jeep-boss Mike Manley would replace Marchionne as CEO while the separately listed Ferrari and CNH Global companies also appointed new people to the top jobs the same day.
Yesterday, a day after it was announced that Marchionne had passed away and with speculation continuing to swirl, the University Hospital Zurich took the unusual step of issuing a statement that said Marchionne – known for being a workaholic as well as a heavy smoker – had in fact been treated by the Swiss facility for more than a year.
“Mr. Sergio Marchionne was a patient at USZ,” a press release from the University Hospital Zurich read. “Due to serious illness, he had been the recipient of recurring treatment for more than a year. Although all the options offered by cutting-edge medicine were utilised, Mr. Marchionne unfortunately passed away.”
Also yesterday, FCA claimed that they were unaware of the serious nature of Marchionne’s condition – a key factor any the listed company potentially has a legal duty to update its shareholders in a situation such as this, which is a similar case too for both Ferrari and CNH Global.
“The company was made aware that Mr. Marchionne had undergone shoulder surgery and released a statement about this,” an FCA spokesperson said. “Due to medical privacy, the company had no knowledge of the facts relating to Mr. Marchionne’s health.”
A statement issued by FCA yesterday claimed that they were in the dark over his health status. “On Friday July 20, the Company was made aware with no detail by Mr. Marchionne’s family of the serious deterioration in Mr. Marchionne’s condition and that as a result he would be unable to return to work,” it read. “The Company promptly took and announced the appropriate action the following day.”
However, the Reuters news agency cast doubt on this as it reported that it had asked the spokesperson whether the scope of the statement included the board and the chairman and that “the company declined to comment.”
Obituary: Sergio Marchionne 1952-2018
