Chrysler Group venduto alla Cerberus

Cerberus to Buy 80.1% Stake
In Chrysler Group
By GINA CHON, JASON SINGER, DENNIS K. BERMAN and JEFFREY MCCRACKEN
May 14, 2007 5:08 a.m.

DaimlerChrysler AG announced Monday a deal to sell a controlling stake in Chrysler Group, Detroit's No. 3 auto maker, to private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP.

The German-American auto maker said in a statement that an affiliate of Cerberus will acquire 80.1% in the new Chrysler Holding LLC, while DaimlerChrysler will keep a 19.9% stake. It said that obligations for pensions and health-care costs would be retained by the Chrysler companies.

DaimlerChrysler said the deal is still subject to the approval of its supervisory board, but has been backed by the United Autoworkers Union. The closing of the transaction is expected to take place in the third quarter of 2007.

Due to the new corporate structure, the name of DaimlerChrysler AG is to be changed to Daimler AG.

A private-equity takeover of Chrysler marks a watershed for the industry, which is struggling under the weight of massive pension and health-care obligations to its union workers. Those debts and the cash required to fund them have hobbled General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler in the face of relentless competition from Asian and European rivals. Chrysler has estimated that Japanese auto makers like Toyota Motor Corp. enjoy a labor-cost advantage of as much as $30 an hour.

Cerberus has a record of slashing costs at operations it acquires, and some analysts say a Cerberus-owned Chrysler could move much more aggressively to cut labor costs, prune Chrysler's crowded dealer network in the U.S. and shift investment to developing markets overseas. But any final deal for Chrysler also hinges on what happens this summer, when the United Auto Workers kicks off negotiations for new master contracts with all three Detroit auto companies.

Negotiations were at an advanced but fluid stage yesterday, with terms subject to change. Conference rooms at New York law firm Shearman & Sterling, which represents Daimler, were abuzz with executives, lawyers, and bankers filing between meetings, said a person familiar with the matter.

The board of management of the new company will be reduced to six members. Tom LaSorda, Eric Ridenour and Tom Sidlik will leave the board of management.

The plan amounts to a massive bet by Cerberus that Chrysler can be turned around. Private-equity buyers typically acquire public companies or parts of them and take them private, seeking to refurbish them outside the public spotlight, in hopes of selling them later at a profit. In many private-equity deals, the buyer borrows against the company's assets or makes other financing deals to help ensure an acquisition pays off.

Other parties bidding for Chrysler were Canadian auto-parts maker Magna International Inc. and a team made up of the Blackstone Group and Centerbridge Capital Partners. The groups recently submitted a second round of bids to DaimlerChrysler. Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who publicly offered $4.5 billion for Chrysler, was frozen out of the talks.

The proposed sale to Cerberus would mark the end of DaimlerChrysler's turbulent nine-year effort to make a success of an ambitious global expansion strategy pushed by former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jürgen Schrempp. Mr. Schrempp rocked the auto industry in 1998 with his deal to buy Chrysler, which at the time was at a high point in its profit and product cycle.

Billed at the time as a "merger of equals," the deal never delivered the synergies that Mr. Schrempp and his successor, Dieter Zetsche, argued it could. Instead, Chrysler's performance seesawed from losses to profits to, most recently, losses again. For 2006, Chrysler Group had a loss of $633.3 million on revenue of $63.6 billion.

Mr. Zetsche, who led a Chrysler turnaround effort from 2000 until shortly before he became the parent company's CEO in 2006, at first resisted calls to sell Chrysler after the U.S. unit stumbled back into the red last year. But shares of DaimlerChrysler surged after he acknowledged in February that it was considering selling Chrysler.

Cerberus was viewed as a strong contender to buy the company because of its deep pockets and the potential synergies to be had by marrying Chrysler's Chrysler Financial arm with Cerberus's 51% stake in GMAC, GM's former financing arm. Cerberus could slash costs by consolidating Chrysler Financial and GMAC, analysts say.

Cerberus has invested in various auto-parts makers, including Germany's Peguform, which manufactures interior and exterior plastic parts. Earlier this year, Cerberus strengthened its hand further when it hired Mr. Bernhard, the former Chrysler operating chief, as an adviser. Mr. Bernhard is highly regarded by his former Chrysler colleagues.

Chrysler would be an especially high-profile acquisition for Cerberus, a firm that actively eschews publicity. Until about a year ago, the firm didn't have a Web site. Even now the site is glaringly sparse; it doesn't identify any top executives and gives only an 85-word description of the firm's business activities.


Behind the scenes, the firm is guided by Stephen Feinberg, a former Princeton University tennis champion and paratrooper, who is an avid deer hunter. Mr. Feinberg is known for his self-effacing style, but he is a tough deal maker. In the 1990s and earlier this decade, his New York-based firm made its name by buying distressed debt around the globe, and foreclosing or settling it at a profit using hard-nosed business tactics. Then Cerberus slowly moved into buying whole companies in countries like Germany and Japan that were struggling with high costs or bloated work forces.

After acquiring these companies, it swiftly slashed costs, laid off workers and closed factories, shifting production to lower-cost spots in Asia. Though many industries in the U.S. and Europe are making similar moves, buyers like Cerberus typically make profits by drastically speeding up the process.

Over the past couple of months, Chrysler officials have been asked by potential buyers like Cerberus for details and potential strategies for the coming UAW talks. One person familiar with the talks said they expected the groups vying for Chrysler would seek a provision tying an acquisition to certain concessions by the UAW.

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Per chi non conoscesse la Cerberus è la società che ha acquistato la Olivetti con il falso intento per risanarla. In realtà ha mangiato parecchio sulla sua distruzione.
Si preannuncia un'altro caso Rover. La Cerberus taglierà in tutti i campi (powertrain, sviluppo, ricerca, marketing) per poi rivendere un'azienda che è sana solo nella facciata....
Chi ha una Chrysler meglio che la rivenda entro pochi anni....

 

L'unico marchio che portrebbe interessare la Fiat è la Jeep.....
MA:
1) E' l'unico marchio del CG che produce utili
2) Utilizza motori Chrysler Powertrain (V6, V8) e Mercedes Benz/Volkswagen (diesel)
3) Jeep è un marchio da sempre legato alla Dodge e alla Chrysler

Quindi, o si porta a casa tutto o nulla.
E con un gruppo da risanare completamente (la qualità degli ultimi prodotti è a dir poco scandalosa), meglio lasciar perdere