Chrysler is seeking to become a publicly traded company again, according to a filing on Monday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The carmaker filed a registration statement with the government regulator, but did not specify the number of shares to be offered or price range for the offering, news reports said.
Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of both Fiat and Chrysler, has said he expects the automaker would be able to conduct an initial public offering of stock before the end of 2013. However, the company likely would wait until early next year.
Fiat owns 58.5 per cent of Chrysler, and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union healthcare trust fund owns the rest.
The healthcare trust is selling all of the shares in the offering, and neither Chrysler nor Fiat will receive any proceeds from the sale, according to the filing.
Fiat has been seeking to buy the trust’s 41.5-per-cent stake to merge the two companies into a conglomerate that could compete with GM, Toyota Volkswagen and other major carmakers. However, a stock sale may delay a Fiat-Chrysler merger, Marchionne has said.
Marchionne has been locked in a dispute with the trust over Chrysler’s value. Fiat sued the trust, but a judge declined to set a price, saying that should be settled in a trial.
However, it could be 2015 before such a trial begins, USA Today reported. Meanwhile, the public stock offering would be a means for the trust to establish a value for its shares.
If the Securities and Exchange Commission approves the public offering and shares are sold, it would be the first time since 1998 that all three US automakers are publicly traded. Chrysler, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, was bought by Germany’s Daimler-Benz in 1998, then sold to private investment group Cerberus Capital, before being bought during bankruptcy reorganization by Fiat.