Chrysler mulls selling assets

Chrysler LLC ended 2007 with more cash on hand than its new private owner Cerberus Capital Management projected, but the automaker is looking to sell real estate and other assets to boost liquidity, Chief Executive Officer Bob Nardelli said on Sunday.

"We have cash. You would always like to have more as in life. But we have cash. We've got liquidity," Nardelli said.

He was unsure whether the US economy was facing an outright recession this year, but said it was clear that consumer spending had slowed.

"We certainly have seen a slowdown in the consumer overall," Nardelli told reporters on the sidelines of the Detroit auto show. "I wouldn't want to generalize, but there are signs that we are under some stress."

Cerberus took over an 80.1-percent stake in Chrysler from former parent Daimler AG in a $7.4-billion deal that closed in August and immediately moved to install Nardelli at the helm of the troubled automaker.

Since then, like its larger Detroit-based rivals General Motors Corp and Ford Motor Co, Chrysler has had to contend with a slowing US economy, tighter credit markets and the need to push faster into fuel-saving technologies.

Chrysler sales dropped 3 percent in 2007, in line with the decline in the overall US market for cars and light trucks.

But Nardelli and other Chrysler executives have said the newly independent automaker has the freedom to move faster than rivals to make product decisions and strike new alliances on vehicle production and development.

More cash on hand

Nardelli said Chrysler ended 2007 with more cash on hand than Cerberus had projected for its own investors. As a private company, Chrysler no longer reports financial information.

Asked if Chrysler had the cash on hand to fund its turnaround efforts, Nardelli said: "We do."

He also said Chrysler was looking to generate cash by selling property it no longer needs and those assets were being drawn from a list compiled last year under a restructuring that the company started before Cerberus took over.

"Our job is to execute that in as aggressive fashion as we can and then put that cash back into technology," he said.

Agencies

(China Daily 01/15/2008 page16)