Fiat To Become Independent Company?

MILAN, July 1, 2003; Reuters reports that Italy's Fiat wants to turn its ailing carmaker into a "profitable independent auto manufacturer" and an option to sell it to General Motors is only a "secondary possibility", Fiat said in an SEC filing.

In a document dated June 30, said Fiat it may need to sell more assets and find fresh capital to complete a 19.5 billion-euro restructuring plan unveiled last week which aims to drag the Italian industrial group back to net profit by 2006.

Last week, Fiat said a 1.8 billion-euro capital increase due to run this month, seven billion euros from already agreed asset sales and future cashflow would be enough to pay for the plan.

In the SEC filing, Fiat said it was in talks with its creditor banks about changing the terms of a three billion-euro loan extended last year and which "could also involve the banks' provision of additional financing".