Fiat Chrysler chooses the boss of Jeep as pilot

Only a few days ago, the reason for concern of the Fiat workers lay in Ronaldo's arrival at Juventus. A snub for them who are constantly asked productivity efforts while the star star of Real Madrid has signed for four years with Juventus, a transfer to more than 100 million euros. The problem is that the car manufacturer and the football club of Turin share the same reference shareholder, the family Agnelli.

Eternal sweater

This time, it's another bad news that the Transalpine troops will have to worry about. Gravely ill, the tenor of the Italian automotive industry Sergio Marchionne, the man with the eternal jersey, goes a year earlier than expected to give way to Fiat Chrysler (FCA) on one hand and Ferrari on the other share. He who played the cumulative duties will be replaced respectively by the bosses of Jeep, Mike Manley, and Philip Morris, Louis Carey Camilleri

M. Marchionne was also president of CNH Industrial and will be replaced by the British Suzanne Wood, announced the latter of the three groups controlled by the Agnelli family.

In a statement, FCA announces "with deep sorrow that during the week, Mr. Marchionne suffered unexpected complications as he was recovering from surgery, which has seriously worsened in recent hours, so Mr. Marchionne will not be able to return to work. " The administrators of the three groups met in an emergency on Saturday afternoon to discuss this anticipated succession.

Aged 66, Mr. Marchionne had undergone surgery in June, officially on the right shoulder. His last public appearance dates back to June 27, when the son of a rifleman from Abruzzo handed a jeep to the riflemen of Rome.

The Italian-Canadian manager, who took Fiat's command in 2004, planned to take the reins of FCA in the course of 2019. In 14 years, it has deeply reshaped the group, first by straightening Fiat, combining it in 2009 with the American Chrysler, while detaching part of the heavy machinery / trucks activities in 2011 to create CNH Industrial and secondly the Ferrari jewel in January 2016.

John Elkann, grandson of Gianni Agnelli and CEO of Exor, the family holding company which holds nearly 30% of Fiat, 27% of CNH Industrial and 23% of Ferrari, said "deeply sad."

"This is a situation that was unthinkable a few hours ago, and leaves us all with a real sense of injustice." My thoughts go first to Sergio and to his family, "he said in a statement from FCA.

An American Strategy

That's So is Mike Manley, discreet British 54-year-old CEO of Jeep and Ram (pickups and vans), who will be responsible for taking over. A thunderclap as it rocked the group definitively on the other side of the Atlantic, from the dark side of the suburbs of Turin to the gleaming side of the New World. A singular effect of communicating slime that gradually shifted the center of gravity of the Italian group

Fiat, once flourishing, gradually emptied of its substance, making the success of the 500 declined to its trade. Meanwhile, Lancia collapses and Alfa Romeo is revitalized by concentrating the bulk of investments. In the factories of Turin, Melfi, Pomigliano d'Arco, there is no longer any illusion with this appointment.

The American preference of Sergio Marchionne is relayed here by the insolent success of Jeep that was said to have been condemned 30 years ago by the norms and the prohibitions to practice all-terrain. The brand was even relaunched in 1986 by Renault who had risen to the capital of American Motors in 1979. The engineer François Castaing will define what should be a modern Jeep and the success came but a little late for Renault to remain in control. The impetus was there and Jeep redeployed to become a "success story."

Jeep crushes Fiat and Chrysler

The proof, according to Morgan Stanley, Jeep alone should represent nearly 70% of FCA profits this year. A success that owes a lot to Mike Manley, who came to the helm of Jeep in 2009, in a storm in the US auto industry. Under his leadership, the manufacturer has grown from 337,000 vehicles sold in 2008 to nearly 1.4 million in 2017, and targets 1.9 million this year. And it is at the top of the "Premium" brands – with Alfa Romeo or Maserati – which are at the heart of the 2018-2022 strategic plan presented by M. Marchionne in early June, alongside the development of hybrid and electric cars.

"As FCA seeks a successor for some time, and that the successor participated in the development of the recently announced five-year plan, the transition could be smooth, "said Stephanie Brinley, IHS Markit Automotive Expert.

This transition could also be facilitated by the tone of FCA, which new record results in 2017 and brought its industrial net debt down to zero at the end of June – compared to 7.7 billion euros at the end of 2014. But unfortunately, this will be to the detriment of Fiat, whose future will be badured, but its weight should not be much change in the distribution of roles within the group.

Ferrari at full gallop

The case of Ferrari, another cap of Mr. Marchionne, is different because the financial results are more than satisfactory: the famous brand on horseback prancing, which claims to voluntarily limit its production to maintain its exclusive character, is still a race to the rise in cadence.

It does it intelligently with special versions but the 6,500 cars that were once set in production as an impbadable wall by Luca Di Montezzemolo, the boss of that time, no longer exists. Ferrari achieved in 2012 no less than 8,400 sales for a turnover of 3,417 billion euros (+ 10%) and a net profit of 537 million euros (+ 34%). It targets 9,000 cars in 2018.

The functions of Mr. Marchionne at Ferrari will now be split: John Elkann becomes president, while Louis Camilleri is appointed managing director. He has a tailor-made profile for the prancing horse with the right amount of glamor to make the covers of celebrity magazines.

Born in 1955 in a Maltese family in Alexandria (Egypt), Mr. Camilleri entered in 1978 at Philip Morris, and since 2002 he is the CEO of this group closely linked to Ferrari via the sponsorship of Scuderia. Since last year, he has been on the tabloids so often because of his connection to supermodel Naomi Campbell.