Chrysler IPO in 2011

After earlier this month Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne announced a possible initial public offering (IPO) sometime in the near future, he now sets a possible date for Chrysler's listing: 2011. During a meeting with reporters in Toronto, Marchionne said his company will go public, but he'd rather want to let GM go first.

“I think there is enough appetite, and I am always respectful of the bigger guy,” Marchionne said according to Autonews, referring to his rival, GM's Ed Whitacre. “Let him go, he's been itching to go. I spoke to Ed a while back, he wants to go public."

Chrysler is still fighting the effects of last year's crisis. For the first quarter of the year, the American manufacturer managed to post a 3 percent increase in net revenues for the period, amounting to $9.6 billion and a net loss of $197 million.

The carmaker sold 334,000 units wolrdwide for Q1 2010, a slight increase over the 318,000 cars sold in the last quarter of 2009. The US market share for the carmaker now stands at 9.1 percent, leaving room for hope the upward trend of sales will continue in Q2, largely thanks to the launch of the Ram Heavy Duty truck.

Under the five year plan presented by Sergio Marchionne in April, Fiat and Chrysler need to build around 6 million vehicles a year, a figure which he believes volume car makers need to achieve in order to survive in the global auto market.