Another American icon could soon become foreign owned. A Chinese auto manufacturer wants to buy Jeep.
One of the plants in the region has a stake in the future of Jeep, the Grand Cherokee is built at the Jefferson North Assembly Plant.
A Chinese car company not the government wants to buy the Jeep brand.
“Just about every car company in the world would like to buy Jeep,” says analyst John McElroy. “Some analysts say it is worth more than the rest of FCA.”
The talk of selling started at the top of FCA when the CEO shopped a merger with Ford and General Motors.
FCA says it is not in talks with the Chinese, but a Chinese auto manufacturer called The Great Wall has told automotive news it is interested in Jeep.
Jeep and Chrysler have been part of Daimler, a German based company that also owns Mercedes Benz, and now Fiat, based in Italy.
President Trump invited the Big 3 car companies to the White House right after he was elected.
Trump has also been a frequent critic of China in trade with the US.
How would he fit this into his theme, lets make America great again?
“Trump would not like it. Not for one second,” says McElroy. “But it is not an American company, it is a European company and the stock is publicly traded. Anybody could go buy those shares and who knows what’s going to happen.”
There’s no timetable on this. But Marchionni has said he wants a deal before he retires at the end of next year.
