FIAT in the Big 3???
First Chrysler, now FIAT is going after GM Europe. Which if they acquired, it would pole vault them into the number 2 spot. Assuming they don't drown in their ambitious goals first.
Another link. Or Read Below.
(Reuters) - Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne is trying to put together an automotive empire that combines the Italian group's core car business with the European operations of General Motors.
Including Fiat's planned takeover of U.S. car maker Chrysler , the combined group would be the world's second-largest automaker with about 80 billion euros ($106.3 billion) in revenue and annual sales of 6-7 million units.
Here is how Fiat and GM Europe line up:
FIAT
Europe's sixth-largest carmaker by unit sales posted 59.4 billion euros in group revenue last year and has almost 200,000 staff. It is Italy's largest industrial group.
Based in the northwestern Italian city of Turin, Fiat makes cars, vans, trucks and engines. Its brands include Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Maserati and Iveco. Its U.S. unit, CNH Global NV, makes agricultural combines and tractors.
Marchionne has said he could combine Fiat's core car business with that of GM Europe and spin off the combined "Fiat/Opel" group.
The core Fiat Group Automobiles business (which does not include the luxury Ferrari and Maserati brands) had 2008 sales of nearly 27 billion euros. It delivered 2.15 million cars and light commercial vehicles and employed 52,634 staff.
The core car business has five plants in Italy, two in Brazil, one in Argentina and one in Poland, excluding joint ventures and plants producing under license.
ITALY
Plant Workforce
Mirafiori (Turin) 10,700
Cassino - Piedimonte S. Germano 4,000
Giambattista Vico 5,000
Melfi 5,200
Termini Imerese 1,400
BRAZIL
Betim-Minas Gerais 8,700
Sete Lagoas Minas Gerais 1,200
ARGENTINA
Cordoba 700
POLAND
Tychy 5,800
GM EUROPE
The loss-making European arm sold just over 2 million vehicles in 2008 and generated $34.4 billion in revenue. Its market share fell to 9.3 percent from 9.5 percent in 2007.
It operates 10 vehicle production and assembly plants in seven countries and employed 54,500 at the end of 2008.
Its top five markets were Germany, Russia, France, Britain and Italy.
German group Adam Opel GmbH and its British sister brand, Vauxhall, accounted for just under 1.46 million unit sales last year.
The main Opel plants include:
GERMANY
Plant Workforce
Ruesselsheim 16,000
Bochum 5,300
Eisenach 1,800
Kaiserslautern 2,300
SPAIN
Zaragoza 5,780
POLAND
Gliwice 3,120
BELGIUM
Antwerp 2,380
BRITAIN
Ellesmere Port 3,560
RUSSIA
St. Petersburg 800
SWEDEN
Trollhattan 1,380
Source: Fiat and GM Europe websites
($1=.7528 Euro)
(Editing by Simon Jessop)