JANUARY 23, 2002

Fiat selling off assets

THE Fiat group, Italy's largest industrial company, is to sell off more than $2.6bn worth of non-core businesses as it tries to reduce its massive $5.2bn debt load. This is a lot more than had been expected. The full details of the restructuring are not yet clear but amongst the companies being put up for auction are likely to be the electrics company Magneti Marelli, which supplies electronic systems to various F1 teams.

Fiat is always called the parent company of Ferrari but this is not strictly true as Ferrari belongs to a holding company controlled by the Agnelli Family, which is also the biggest shareholder in Fiat. There have long been rumors that Ferrari will eventually be floated but this is not likely to happen in the current wave of restructuring.