Cerberus chairman plans to keep Chrysler

Published July 12, 2007
[ From Lansing State Journal ]

By TOM KRISHER
Associated Press

ROCHESTER, Mich. - The chairman of the private equity firm that is buying Chrysler Group said this afternoon it will fix and keep the automaker and has no plans to sell it off.

Former Treasury Secretary John Snow, chairman of New York-based Cerberus Capital Management LP, also said the U.S. auto industry is poised for a turnaround.

"We want to be there to help the turn and benefit our investors from the turn," he told the Detroit Economic Club.

Snow would not say exactly when the deal to buy an 80.1 percent stake in Chrysler from Germany's DaimlerChrysler AG would close, only that he expected it to happen in the current quarter. He said Cerberus has no plans to fix Chrysler and take it public again, nor does it intend to run the company.

He also criticized new fuel economy regulations passed by the U.S. Senate, calling them unattainable under present technology and focused too narrowly on the auto industry as a solution to foreign oil dependence and carbon emissions.