Chrysler Group filed for an initial public offering of stock this afternoon.
No price was listed, JPMorgan is listed as the investment banker.
If the Securities and Exchange Commission approves and the sale of shares takes place, it would be the first time since 1998 that all three Detroit automakers are publicly traded. Chrysler was bought by Germany’s Daimler-Benz in 1998, then sold to private investment group Cerberus Capital.
Fiat now owns 58.5% of Chrysler and wants to buy the remaining stake, held by the United Auto Workers Retiree Medical Benefits Trust, and fully merge Chrysler and Fiat.
But they have not been able to agree on a price after extended negotiations on what Fiat should pay for the trust’s 41.5% stake, which it acquired as part of Chrysler’s 2009 government-brokered bankruptcy reorganization.
Chrysler and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has continued to say that he wants Fiat to buy the remaining shares and to merge the two companies, so there is significant chance the IPO will not take place if they can agree on a price.
