Fiat Acquires 49% of Italian Rival Maserati

Fiat, Italy’s auto giant, acquired a nearly 50% stake in Maserati Thursday in a decisive step toward effective control of Italian auto production.

The Turin-based industrial group, which is controlled by the Agnelli family, announced that it would pay an undisclosed amount in cash for 49% of the stock of Societa Maserati, a new corporation formed by Fiat Auto and Officine Maserati of Modena, the Italian luxury-car maker owned by Argentine-born industrialist Alejandro De Tomaso.

In addition, Fiat would acquire from Maserati 51% of the stock of Innocenti Milano, a Maserati subsidiary that makes sub-compact cars.

De Tomaso Industries, the U.S.-based company that controls Maserati, will hold 51% of Societa Maserati.

Under the agreement, the new company would manufacture and distribute Maserati cars through an existing Maserati network of independent distributors and dealers. It will also produce 30,000 Panda models for Fiat Auto annually, beginning in 1990.

The agreement was seen by analysts as a move to help resolve Fiat’s production capacity problems while granting some relief to Maserati’s debt troubles.

The new acquisition will give Fiat, which took over Alfa Romeo of Milan in 1987, an annual production capacity exceeding 2 million cars.