Plans to spinoff Fiat Group Automobiles (FGA) have been put on hold indefinitely following the Italian group's failure to acquire German automaker Opel from General Motors, Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said on Wednesday.
In an interview to the Bloomberg news agency, Marchionne explained that ''we need a very clear industrial plan to get that done. Opel would have been a real opportunity, which would have allowed us to get to 6 million units, but we're not there yet''.
Fiat lost out to Canadian-Austrian autoparts-maker Magna International in its bid for Opel, but Magna is reported to be in difficulty over drawing up a viable business plan.
Speaking last week, Marchionne said Fiat was still interested in Opel but would not change its original offer, which was rejected by GM and the German government.
''I don't think we can improve Fiat's bid. It was the most rational thing we could offer from the industrial standpoint,'' Marchionne said.
Marchionne recently took over the reins at American carmaker Chrysler, after Fiat successfully acquired a controlling interest in the company, and he told Bloomberg that he has already succeeded in slowing the pace at which the company was losing money.
''We are still burning cash, but it's slowed down by far. The question is how quickly we can stop the bleeding. That is priority No. 1,'' Marchionne said.
Turning his attention to the situation at Fiat, Marchionne said the Italian automaker did not need cash and had met its operating profit and cash-generation targets in the second quarter.
