After more than five years of negotiations, the merger of Fiat S.p.A. with and into Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCA), has now been completed. The company will be legally registered in the Netherlands with a London headquarters.
The merger means that Fiat and Chrysler combined will make FCA into one of the big three automotive companies in the US behind Ford Motor Co and General Motors.
FCA has ambitions to increase vehicles sales by almost 60%, and aiming to increase net income fivefold to about US$6.3 billion (A$7.23 billion) in 2018, backed by a US$61 billion investment program that calls for more upscale vehicles and doubling worldwide Jeep sales by pushing the off-road brand beyond its American roots.
However some analysts have expressed concerns over FCA’s ability to expand Jeep in Europe and Asia and whether Alfa Romeo can become a luxury auto brand able to compete with top German makes: Mercedes, BMW and Audi.
“As a car company, as a global producer of vehicles, I think we’re fully equivalent to the other Detroit two,” says Sergio Marchionne, FCA’s CEO.
“And the objective in coming to New York as a stock listing is really to get us evaluated and benchmarked against them,” he notes.
FCA’s goals, outlined in a five-year growth plan in May, include exporting Jeeps globally, growing net profit five-fold and increasing sales to 7 million vehicles globally by 2018.
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