Fiat Chrysler Automobile's NYSE debut is an important step
Yesterday was a historic day for Fiat Chrysler听听[NYSE:FCAU] whose shares started trading on the New York Stock Exchange. The day marked an important step for CEO Sergio Marchionne鈥檚 efforts to turn听, which includes brands as diverse as Dodge and Ferrari, into one of the world鈥檚 leading automakers, by opening it up to global capital markets in order to听听a vast array of new models under a five-year strategy announced in May.
FCA鈥檚 shares are listed under the stock ticker symbol 鈥淔CAU鈥� and opened at a price of $9. The price rose briefly before ending the day at $8.92, which isn鈥檛 bad considering the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 222 points late in the day. The stock also trades on an exchange in Milan, Italy.
It鈥檚 been a long road for Marchionne, who was asked by John Elkann, Agnelli family heir and then-chairman of Fiat鈥攈e鈥檚 now chairman of FCA鈥攊n 2004 to help turnaround the company鈥檚 fortunes. He then oversaw the merger of Fiat with Chrysler and the eventual full takeover of the recently听听automaker to form the new FCA. He recently revealed that he鈥檒l stay on as FCA CEO only until the听.
Marchionne told media after yesterday's market close that he felt automakers in general were underpriced and that he expects future values to reflect this. However, there鈥檚 been much skepticism over whether the 62-year-old will be able to reach some of his stated goals for FCA.
His five-year strategy calls for $60 billion to be invested in new products that, if all goes to plan, will see FCA鈥檚 sales grow 60 percent to around seven million听听annually. Of course, rival automakers such as Ford Motor Company [NYSE:F], General Motors Company [NYSE:GM], Toyota and the Volkswagen Group all have ambitious plans of their own. FCA is the world鈥檚 seventh largest automaker by volume.
