Великий альфист » Пн окт 04, 2010 7:35 am
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01.10.2010 TALK CONTINUES TO SWIRLS AROUND POTENTIAL VW BID FOR ALFA ROMEO
The future of the the Fiat Group's Alfa Romeo division continues to dominate much of the conversation in Paris and following VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech's comments on Wednesday, Group CEO Martin Winterkorn has also expressed interest in the struggling brand.
Piech's comments at a pre-show VW Group gala evening saw Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne respond yesterday by telling reporters at the Paris Motor Show: "None of our brands are up for sale." Marchionne only late last year publicaly questioned the very future of the Alfa Romeo brand and froze development of new models while he carried out a comprehensive review of the unit.
The Fiat Group acquired Alfa Romeo in 1986 to prevent the other suitor, Ford, from gaining Italian factory capacity and its stewardship of the sports brand over the intervening quarter of a century has been little short of dismal. The brand, which has now quit its birth city Milan, has never been given a coherent strategy by Fiat executives or boasted a fully joined-up model range, instead it has staggered from one "vital to its survival" new model to the next, with most of these products exhibiting flaws. Only really with the arrival this summer of the new C-segment Giulietta hatchback, coming to the showrooms a decade after the launch of its segment predecessor, has Alfa Romeo introduced a fully all-round accomplished model that has been thoroughly developed and in particular launched with the right engine range and technology.
Alfa Romeo reportedly loses around 200 million euros a year, although the Fiat Group doesn't break down individual brand financial statistics. This year the input of the new Giulietta is estimated by Fiat to be set to help the brand's sales climb to around the 150-160,000 unit mark.
Following Piech's comments in which he hinted at the Fiat Group sliding into further financial trouble and having little option but to sell in around two years time, Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn has also stated that the German car maker, which is aggressively targeting taking over Toyota's global number one spot by 2018, would be interested in Alfa Romeo. "Alfa is a very emotional brand," he told Autocar yesterday. "If Fiat considers selling, we’d be interested." He also poured some scorn on the products that Alfa Romeo has turned out in recent years, telling the British magazine: "It’s a beautiful brand but there are quality issues with the engines and suspension systems for example. I’m quite sure we could make a beautiful brand out of Alfa again." Winterkorn also noted that Alfa Romeo's global sales have slumped by nearly two-thirds from its highs of 300,000.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times last night quoted an unnamed VW executive as confirming that the German carmaker, which owns a plethora of brands including Audi, Lamborghini, SEAT, Porsche and Skoda, seriously looked to buy Alfa Romeo during the onset of the last crisis at the Fiat Group in the early years of the previous decade and would have used it to replace its own SEAT brand. Curiously he also told FT that VW recently sent some of its Italian born managers to meet with Milan's mayor, as well as representatives of the regional government of Lombardy, to lobby for support to acquire Alfa Romeo. This secret delegation could well have included Luca De Meo, the VW Group's marketing chief, who is a former rising star within Fiat, having headed the Fiat Automobiles brand (including having responsibility for launching the new Fiat 500) and was then parachuted into Alfa Romeo as CEO to restructure the ailing division before he jumped ship to the German company.
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