Fiat Considers Relocating Headquarters To US After Merger

Fiat S.p.A. is considering moving its corporate headquarters to the United States following a planned merger with Chrysler Group, three people familiar with the matter said.

CEO Sergio Marchionne is evaluating the switch from Turin, where Fiat was founded in 1899, to the United States as the carmaker's revenue and profit center shifts to North America, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing the internal deliberations.

Fiat generated 75 percent of 2012 operating profit in North America. No final decision on the headquarters has been taken and other options are being examined, they said.

A Fiat representative declined to comment.

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dumpsty - 5/16/2013 2:09:26 PM

+1 Boost

Marchionne had mentioned relocating the Fiat HQ to the US a while ago. It's pretty clear that he'd prefer to spend most his time in N.A. though. Don't know how that would be advantageous to the overall merged company.

mini22 - 5/16/2013 11:10:36 PM

+1 Boost

I think the sales figures,the difficult Euro market,the poor Italian economy really play into this possible decision.Once the 2 companies are legally merged it makes the most sense as the bulk of the revenue for Fiat is N/A.The other thing is that Fiat needs to be astute about the American pulse. It's hard to do that from Turin. I would think that Italy will be more of a an engineering development center for new technologies, the design center for Fiat cars and Alfa Romeo.Since Alfa is only going to be a slice of the entire company it would make sense to keep that part of Fiat in Turin. The other possibility is that Marchionne could still sell Alfa and Magnetti Marelli to VAG.If that's the case then there is little to no reason to keep main headquarters in Turin. The 500 range is built in Poland and all future 500 replacement vehicles are to be built in Poland. I'm not sure he will sell Alfa only because all future platforms both FWD and RWD are going to be shared with Chrysler. Only the Spider will be shared with Mazda.Time will tell.

commander104 - 5/17/2013 7:59:07 AM

+1 Boost

HQ should be in the top sales market so they'll be moving to china any day after they get to the US.

commander104 - 5/17/2013 7:59:45 AM

+1 Boost

Other companies have just put factories and R&D in the top markets so whtevr.