Fiat-Chrysler Looking to Hook Up With Another Big Manufacturer Like VW or Ford?

Merging Fiat and Chrysler to create FCA Automobiles in 2014 and deciding to spinoff Ferrari this year to raise the cash necessary to fund new products has kept CEO Sergio Marchionne quite busy.

As auto manufacturers are trying to reduce costs in developing new technologies, such as “green” and autonomous cars, though, Marchionne could be looking to find another manufacturer to hook up with.

The Agnelli family that is currently FCA’s biggest shareholder and also controls Ferrari, which it won’t give up, would most probably be “open to strategic combinations that will reduce, or eliminate, their stake in Fiat Chrysler”, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Max Warburton told Autonews. On the other hand, they invested US$886 million in FCA’s recently issued US$2.8 billion convertible bond to sustain their share in the company.

Regardless of whether the Agnellis would be willing to sell their stakes, Marchionne commented in November that “I’ve always had the view that this industry over the middle to long term needs to look at other consolidation opportunities”, fueling the speculation that he is looking for a suitable partner to further reduce costs.

In a September 30 interview, Marchionne and FCA Chairman John Elkann stated that the group is strong enough to stand on its own. Nevertheless, they also said that an ideal partner would be a global automaker that’s not too exposed to European markets, while being culturally compatible with the group.

Could it be that they were talking about Ford? Giuseppe Berta, former head of Fiat’s archives and a professor at Bocconi University certainly thinks so: “Ford has been the North Star for Fiat ever since its founder, Giovanni Agnelli, visited Detroit in the 1910s”, he said. “There are distinct affinities between Fiat and Ford.”

Other analysts, like Evercore ISI’s George Galliers, see Volkswagen as an ideal candidate. “VW would be the most likely hypothesis, given VW is relatively underexposed in North America. I don’t see Ford or GM as buyers.”

Lastly, there are those who believe that Fiat Chrysler “is neither attractive nor rich enough to attract anyone better than a desperate castoff”, as business professor at the University of Michigan Erik Gordon put it.