Italy’s Fiat, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Fiat North America, has completed its previously announced acquisition of all of the United Auto Workers' employee medical benefit retirement trust interests in the Chrysler Group and is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fiat. 

The purchase consisted of a special distribution paid by Chrysler Group on Tuesday of $1.9 billion to the UAW VEBA Trust, with another $1.75 billion paid by Fiat.

Chrysler will provide another $700 million, $175 million now, and three more equal annual payments to the VEBA UAW trust, while Fiat is paying $4.3 billion for 41.46% of Chrysler that it did not own, with $2.6 billion of that coming from money that Chrysler has on hand.

The deal was announced early this year and puts aside legal differences between Fiat and the UAW over the Italian auto-giant wanting complete interest in Chrysler.

The last time Chrysler was taken over by a foreign corporation was in 1998 by Daimler-Benz in an ill-fated marriage that resulted in it being sold off to a private investment firm in 2007.

In 2009 Chrysler filed for bankruptcy reorganization with the U.S. and Canadian governments, as well as Fiat and the UAW as the main owners. Gradually, Fiat gained more interest, now having total control in the company.

More details are available from The New York Times. 

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