Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Chrysler spin-off?

DaimlerChrysler has opened the door to a total or partial sale of its Detroit-based Chrysler unit, acknowledging the shortcomings of one of the most ambitious transatlantic business mergers. The German carmaker has hired JPMorgan to explore Chrysler’s future. “All options are on the table,” said Dieter Zetsche, chairman. He declined to set a time frame for the review. A person familiar with the matter said the options included an outright sale, spinning off Chrysler to shareholders or continuing with the recent integration between the Detroit company and the Mercedes car group. The latter is the least preferred course of action.

Financial Times

Given the current economic situation, Chrysler is a perfect private equity target. It's cheap, it's about to restructure, and Ford and GM have recently been upgraded to "Buy" by several analysts. Sounds like a good deal to me. Very beneficial to Daimler, obviously. Analysts have waited long for it to begin spinning off stakes in EADS and Chrysler.

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