By any measure Fiat represents an enormous challenge. The group has a crushing net debt of euro5.8 billion ($5.6 billion) which it is struggling to reduce through a mixture of cost-cutting and disposals. Its car-making division, Fiat Auto, has been badly managed and looks set to lose more than euro1 billion this year on top of heavy losses in recent years.[..]
Mr Galateri may be forced to shrink the car business, in what would no doubt be seen as a repeat of the traumatic purge led by Mr Romiti two decades ago