DETROIT, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Resurgent automaker Chrysler is ready to test its fate with a public stock sale, paperwork filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission says.
The company, which has been privately held since 1998, is now owned by Fiat, which holds 58.5 percent of the company, and a United Auto Workers retirement fund that holds 41.5 percent, USA Today reported.
Chrysler filed for and emerged from bankruptcy in 2009. At that time, the restructured company was also owned, in part, by U.S. taxpayers, who bailed out the company when a prolonged slump dovetailed with the economic downturn that included a financial meltdown in 2008 and 2009. Fiat has since bought the taxpayers' share.
When Chrysler filed for bankruptcy, it was, at the time, privately held by an investment group, Cerbus Capital, which purchased the company from German automaker Daimler-Benz, which bought Chrysler in 1998.
Fiat started with a 20 percent share, after which it periodically bought shares held by the U.S. government.
Since then, Chief Executive Officer Sergio Marchionne has been focused on buying the shares owned by the UAW's Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, but the two sides have failed to agree on a price.
