(AFP) Posted Monday January 9, 2012– 10:45am
Chrysler is poised to rake in almost $2 billion in cash this year
after sales of cars and trucks soared in 2011, the head of the US
automaker and Italy's Fiat, Sergio Marchionne, said Monday.
"We're generating cash. The house is in good order," Marchionne told a news conference at the annual Detroit auto show.
He estimated "almost two billion" would flow into the Fiat-controlled company's coffers.
Chrysler
Group, the smallest of the Detroit "Big Three" automakers, has made a
solid U-turn under the guidance of Marchionne after emerging from
bankruptcy in 2009.
The company raised its 2011 forecast of cash
flow to more than $1.2 billion from previous estimate of above $1.0
billion when it reported in October a swing into profit in the third
quarter.
Last week the Auburn Hills, Michigan-based company posted
the biggest 2011 gain in US vehicle sales among its major competitors: a
jump of 26 percent from the prior year.
Confirming that by 2015,
Fiat and Chrysler "will be one single company," Marchionne said that
operationally "it is already functioning as one company."
Marchionne,
the chief executive of Fiat and Chrysler, said the next steps will
involve defining the corporate structure of the transatlantic firm.
The
decision on where to locate the future company's headquarters has not
been made, but he confirmed media reports that it could be in the
Netherlands.
"The Europeans would see it as a victory" and "the
Americans wouldn't care" as long as Chrysler remains a viable company,
he said.
Fiat took over operational command of the US automaker in
June 2009, when Chrysler emerged from a government-supported
bankruptcy. In June 2011, it took a majority stake and now controls 58.5
percent of the company.
Copyright © 2012 AFP
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