Financial Times:"Fiat come Italia, lo specchio del fallimento del governo Berlusconi"

[Guido Di Tacco]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d57bc126-4f...00e2511c8.html

Fate of Fiat
Published: December 16 2004 02:00 | Last updated: December 16 2004 02:00

There is something pathetic, and pointless, in an ailing company threatening to sue a reluctant buyer into taking it over - especially when the ailing company is Fiat, Italy's largest private employer, and the reluctant buyer is General Motors, which has enough problems of its own elsewhere in Europe to want to rescue or restructure Fiat.


But confirmation that Fiat is just a symptom of Italy's wider economic plight has now come from Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, who chairs both Fiat and Cofindustria, Italian industry's trade association. In a speech this week, he described the country's economic underperformance as more serious than at any time since 1945.


In the past, it had always seemed that, however heavy the burden of the Italian state's finances and administration, Italian business would somehow keep its head above water. This is evidently no longer the case.


For the moment, Fiat and GM are talking to each other, rather than resorting to court action, on how to unwind the "put" deal they signed in 2000. At that time of merger frenzy in the car sector, GM paid $2.4bn for a 20 per cent stake in Fiat Auto, and it was agreed that Fiat could sell the rest of its stake in the car-making subsidiary to GM after next January. However, now that Fiat has sunk into deep losses, GM is refusing to go through with the "put", partly on the grounds that Fiat Auto's business parameters are no longer what they were in 2000.


There may well be an element of bluff in Fiat's position. The Fiat group would love to dump Fiat Auto on GM. But it is hard to see a foreign takeover of such an icon as Fiat winning political or public acceptance, especially if GM then shuts most or all of it down. More likely would be a payment of some kind from GM that would be part of yet another rescue of Fiat.


But Fiat's decline, to a mere 7 per cent of the European car market, mirrors underperformance in the rest of Italian industry. The latter has successively failed to turn world trade liberalisation and creation of Europe's single market and the eurozone to its advantage. Since 1995-96, Italy's share of world exports has fallen from 4.5 to 3.3 per cent, and of exports in the eurozone from 14.4 to 12.2 per cent.


Reversing this trend will take time, and far more investment in R &D by Italian companies. As business argues, it will also take government action, which is conspicuously absent.
Having backed the election of Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister in 2001, business is turning against him, sharply criticising his 2005 tax cuts, his refusal to cut social spending significantly, and his failure to generate a primary budget surplus that could switch money from public debt service to public investment. The problems are chronic, and business can legitimately argue that Mr Berlusconi has signally failed to use his time in government - the longest administration since 1945 - to do anything about them.

[Guido Di Tacco]

perfetto, banana.....


non potrai certo dire che si tratta di un giudizio di parte........

......
Having backed the election of Silvio Berlusconi as prime minister in 2001, business is turning against him, sharply criticising his 2005 tax cuts, his refusal to cut social spending significantly, and his failure to generate a primary budget surplus that could switch money from public debt service to public investment. The problems are chronic, and business can legitimately argue that Mr Berlusconi has signally failed to use his time in government....
.....

[Iannis]

Ma vantate, voi di sinistra, un giornale che critica Berlusconi (o meglio appoggia le critiche di Confindustria) per non avere fatto più tagli alla spesa sociale?

[brunik]

Il punto è: il governoi Berlusconi è un fallimento o no?

Le statistiche e il Financial Times dicono di sì, poi voi bananas potete fare gli ottusi faziosi quanto volete, bananas siete e bananas resterete.

[yota71]

Strano in mezzo mondo dicono che il governo berlusoni ha fallito, non è che per caso sia vero eh ?

Troppo dura da accettare ?

[frontista]

Agli statunitensi dà fastidio che la FIAT mandi affanculo la Gm, tutto qui.