Hearing to decide which way Chrysler turns
NEW YORK (AP) — Chrysler tried to fend off hundreds of objections Wednesday to its plan to sell most of its assets to an Italian automaker, hoping in a marathon court session to save itself from liquidation.
The company was waiting to see whether Judge Arthur Gonzalez of U.S. bankruptcy court would approve the sale. If he does, Chrysler could emerge from bankruptcy within weeks.
The hearing was expected to continue well into Wednesday night, with a decision from the judge perhaps not coming until the wee hours of this morning.
Attorneys for Chrysler say unloading the assets to a group led by Italy’s Fiat Group SpA is the company’s only hope to avoid selling itself off piece by piece. They say a leaner Chrysler could shift more easily to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars.
But many Chrysler dealers, debtholders and former employees say they are being steamrolled by the bankruptcy proceedings. Fiat could back out if the deal doesn’t close by June 15.
By emerging so soon from bankruptcy protection, Chrysler would defy skeptics who insisted such a filing would leave the automaker mired in court for many months.
Bringing Chrysler and Fiat together would dramatically change the face of the country’s third-largest automaker. The current plan calls for Fiat to bring a handful of its small cars to the U.S. in the coming years, filling one of Chrysler’s biggest product gaps and pleasing a White House intent on making the nation’s fleet of automobiles greener.
Chrysler itself entered bankruptcy with a handful of new vehicles in the works. It plans to begin selling an electric car next and have six electric vehicles on the road by 2014.
Some of the strongest opposition to the sale came from lawyers representing a pair of Indiana state pension funds and a state construction fund that own Chrysler bonds.