MILAN/NEW YORK (Bloomberg) -- Fiat may retreat further from its heritage by selecting New York as the primary exchange for its stock after a planned merger with Chrysler Group.
CEO Sergio Marchionne is evaluating the Italian automaker's switch from the Milan exchange as the carmaker's revenue and profit center shifts to the United States, said the people familiar with Fiat's financing plan, who asked not to be named as the matter is private. Fiat may keep Milan as a secondary listing, another person said.
A Fiat representative declined to comment.
While no final decision has been made and other possibilities have been considered, the move would be highly political and symbolic for debt-ridden Italy as it struggles to emerge from a humbling cycle of recessions.
Fiat is a key part of Italy's commercial fabric. Its name is an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, or Italian Car Factory of Turin. The company, pushed by the Agnelli industrial family, played a significant role in Italy's emergence as a manufacturing power after World War II.
"Italy and Turin should understand that the old Fiat, as we knew it, doesn't exist anymore," said Giuseppe Berta, a Fiat historian and business professor at Milan's Bocconi University. "The carmaker now has the U.S. as its biggest market, so I would be surprised if Marchionne doesn't choose the New York Stock Exchange.