Chrysler could raise its financial targets for 2010 in the second half of the year and aims for a public offering of its stock "as quickly as possible," Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said on Monday.
Chrysler, which surprised analysts with a first-quarter operating profit last month, is well ahead of its cash flow and earnings targets and there is a strengthening basis for the company launching a stock sale "in a much shorter timeframe than most would expect", Marchionne said.
"It is clear that if we continue to perform at this rate we're going to be in excess of the guidance that was provided in 2009," Marchionne said in a conference call to review Chrysler's first-quarter financial results.
"We are not going to revise those numbers until the end of the third quarter. We want to see how well the second quarter performs, we want to see how well the Grand Cherokee performs in the marketplace," he said.
The Grand Cherokee, a crossover for Chrysler's Jeep brand, will launch in June and stands as the only all-new model that the automaker developed on its own and will have on the market during 2010.
Marchionne, who heads both Chrysler and Italy's Fiat SpA, also said that the No.3 U.S. automaker is working on a Fiat-designed subcompact car that could hit showrooms in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Chrysler is counting on a new generation of Fiat-based small cars and fuel-efficient vehicles, starting with the 500 small car in December, to revitalize its lineup starved of investment under previous owners Daimler AG and Cerberus Capital Management.
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