Chrysler May Create Formal Holding Firm : Would Oversee 4 Units of Reorganized Corporation

As expected, Chrysler Corp. announced a reorganization Thursday and said it is “studying the possibility” of asking shareholders to create a formal holding company to oversee its four newly defined operating units as subsidiary corporations.

But there aren’t any plans to offer separate stock for any of the units, a Chrysler spokesman said.

As reported, the new umbrella organization will oversee four operating groups that the company described as autonomous: Chrysler Motors, the car and truck business; Chrysler Financial, which with recent acquisitions has become the nation’s fourth-largest non-bank finance company; Gulfstream Aerospace, the recently acquired jet maker, and a new aerospace and high-technology group to be known as Chrysler Technologies.

Executives Elevated

Chairman Lee A. Iacocca, 61, will be chairman and chief executive of the parent company, but the big winners appeared to be Iacocca’s heir-apparent, Gerald C. Greenwald, 50, who was named chairman of Chrysler Motors as expected, and Robert S. Miller Jr., 44, chairman of Chrysler Financial, who was elevated to Iacocca’s inner circle and named a vice chairman of the parent company.

Miller joins Iacocca, Greenwald, Bennett E. Bidwell, 58, and Harold K. Sperlich, 55, in a new corporate executive committee. Bidwell was also named a vice chairman, and Sperlich was named president of Chrysler Motors.

“Chrysler is a growing company, expanding its operations and becoming more international and complex,” Iacocca said. “We can no longer continue to run it like a North American car and truck company.”

No appointments have yet been made to the technologies operating group, which Iacocca said will consist of future acquisitions in aerospace, electronics, computers or other fields.