The following article, written by Luca Ciferri, appeared in Automotive News Europe, 16 December 2002.

Fiat Auto's December 2001 restructuring, which split Alfa Romeo from Fiat and Lancia, has now created two options for Fiat: selling Alfa Romeo or merging it with Ferrari and Maserati.

The latter scenario is now viewed as the most likely, but a number of details are still unsettled. One is the complex ownership of the companies.

Alfa Romeo is fully owned by Fiat Auto SpA, which is 80 percent controlled by Fiat group and 20 percent by GM.

Ferrari is 56 percent controlled by Fiat group, 34 percent by Italian investment bank Mediobanca and two allied banks. But Fiat group has a buy-back right on this stake, which was sold in June 2002 for €775 million. The remaining 10 percent is owned by Piero Ferrari, son of company founder Enzo Ferrari. Meanwhile, Maserati is 100 percent owned by Ferrari.

Two ideas are under consideration: merging Alfa Romeo with Ferrari or creating a new company in which Alfa and Ferrari would be joined.

By moving Alfa Romeo - valued by financial analysts at between €2 billion and €2.5 billion - Fiat would own about 77 percent of the new company. Mediobanca's share in the new company would be almost halved to about 18 percent. The Piero Ferrari stake would be cut to around 5 percent.

Sources say a fourth shareholder could be Audi, which would give the Alfa-Ferrari-Maserati entity some cash as well as Bugatti, Lamborghini and possibly Bentley. Audi last week confirmed only that it was having technical and commercial talks with Maserati. But a Fiat source said: "Audi's involvement is much more than a press report."

Other private and institutional investors are expected to buy shares in the new company, which would probably remain under the control of Italians, though not Fiat alone.

Ferrari Chairman and CEO, Luca di Montezemolo has said that he would love the "challenge of adding Alfa Romeo to Ferrari and Maserati, but the decision is up to the shareholders, Fiat group and GM."

Piero Ferrari said: "My father begun his career at Alfa Romeo ... and the idea of reuniting Alfa and Ferrari would also mean recapturing a piece of history and tradition."

Volkswagen group could benefit from technical and commercial synergies as a minority shareholder in a company that included Alfa Romeo, Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati and possibly Bentley. The new union of sports car brands would be unrivaled in the world.

But the situation at Fiat remains in flux.

"When a company seals a deal, you see it but you do not know a single word about the dozens of other dossiers that have been discussed, but never closed," said a high-ranking Fiat group executive. "Currently, we have continuous leaks about the dossiers we are discussing internally. But it is too soon to say which are the ones which will be closed and the ones to be simply abandoned."

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