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

Yesterday, Fiat purchased the remaining Chrysler LLC shares held by the U.S. and Canadian governments. Specifically, the company acquired a 1.5% stake from Canada for $125 million and a 6% stake from the United States Department of the Treasury for a price of $ 500 million.

After acquiring the shares, the Fiat Group is currently holding a 53.5% fully diluted stake in Chrysler LLC.

Upon the completion of the deal, U.S. Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Tim Massad, spoke “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 have supported $12.5 billion for the Chrysler Group under TARP’s Automotive Industry Financing Program (AIFP), and up until now, has received back over $11.2 billion and cancelled commitments. This means, U.S. taxpayers lost around $1.3 billion.

As of this time, Fiat had the right to put a member in the board of Chrysler Group.