Industry News

Rumors Abound: Who Isn’t Interested in CNH and/or Iveco?

July 15, 2009

A mere 90 days or so after saying it would not sell off any of its CNH ag and/or construction equipment group, or its Iveco truck group, rumors abound that Fiat is talking to, well a whole lot of people, about perhaps splitting and selling CNH, and maybe Iveco.

In April, Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said, “I don't think, in my view, that you will ever see a condition where Fiat will dispose of one of what you would call its prized assets to finance a recovery of car. The solution is elsewhere.”

Apparently, a lot can happen in three months.

Rumors abound in the agricultural press of a merger between CNH Global and AGCO, spawned by a Reuters report in which AGCO President Martin Richenhagen said 'if we could do a major deal in North America, we would be very interested in doing something like that.” Of course, everyone is taking that to as a signal of a possible CNH and AGCO link-up.

And Bloomberg.com, citing a report in the Italian newspaper Il Giornale, said Fiat may be in talks to sell its CNH construction equipment to John Deere, as well as selling Iveco to someone. None of the reports cited anything or anyone definitively, save the apparent Richenhagen comment.

Sometimes where there is smoke, there’s fire. Other times, there’s just rumors. And with business like it is, the rumor mill may be the busiest part of the industry right now.

Stay tuned.