Fiat Completes Purchase of Chrysler from U.S. and Canadian Governments

The Fiat Group today purchased the remaining Chrysler LLC shares held by the U.S. and Canadian governments. The Italian company acquired a 1.5% fully diluted stake in Chrysler Group LLC from Canada for US$125 million, and a 6% stake from the United States Department of the Treasury for a price of US$ 500 million.

After acquiring the shares in the two separate deals, the Fiat Group now controls a 53.5% fully diluted equity interest in Chrysler LLC.

Upon the completion of the deal, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Tim Massad released this statement:

“With today's closing, the US government has exited its investment in Chrysler at least six years earlier than expected. This is a major accomplishment and further evidence of the success of the Administration’s actions to assist the US auto industry, which helped save a million jobs during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.”

The U.S. Treasury noted that it committed a total of $12.5 billion to the Old Chrysler and Chrysler Group under TARP’s Automotive Industry Financing Program (AIFP), and up until now, has received back a little over $11.2 billion through principal repayments, interest, and cancelled commitments. This means, U.S. taxpayers lost around $1.3 billion.

“[The] Treasury is unlikely to fully recover the difference of $1.3 billion owed by Old Chrysler,” said a statement from the U.S. Treasury. “Treasury has the right to recover proceeds from the disposition of the liquidation trust associated with the bankruptcy of Old Chrysler but does not expect a material recovery from those assets.”