Business Blog Posts

MILAN (Reuters) � Italian automaker Fiat (FIA.MI) is considering listing part of its sports car unit Ferrari to raise cash in order to increase its stake in U.S. carmaker Chrysler, Il Corriere della Sera said on Sunday.

Citing information gathered at Fiat's Turin headquarters Corriere said Fiat's main priority is to find liquidity to allow it to fund the acquisition of 51 percent of Chrysler and listing Ferrari could be the way of achieving this goal.

A Fiat spokesman denied the report.

"There are no plans for any Ferrari listing," he said.

Fiat, which owns 20 percent of U.S.-based Chrysler, is expected to increase its holding to 35 percent once it meets restructuring goals. It has an option to grow to 51 percent.

In a recent study Sanford C. Bernstein said it expected Fiat to raise its stake in Chrysler to 51 percent in 2011 or 2012.

According to Il Corriere, Fiat would keep a majority 51 percent stake in Ferrari which, it said, is worth $3.1 billion.

Fiat currently owns 85 percent of Ferrari. In September Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, who is also Chrysler CEO, said he wanted to return to an historic 90 percent level without however losing Abu Dhabi investment fund Mubadala which owns 5 percent.

(Reporting by Stephen Jewkes; Editing by Louise Heavens)

KOBE, Japan (Reuters) � Japan will ease monetary policy appropriately if necessary, while keeping an eye on the impact of the yen's rise on the economy, Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Sunday.

Shirakawa, speaking at an event hosted by the Japan Society of Monetary Economics in Kobe, western Japan, also said the BOJ was watching the "downside risk" to the economy more closely.

He said the Japanese central bank had done the most aggressive easing in the world when looking at the size of its balance sheet in comparison with gross domestic product but that it did not mean he saw no need for further action.

"We'll respond (to the need of easing) timely and appropriately," Shirakawa told the seminar.

Tokyo intervened in the currency market on September 15 by selling yen for the first time in more than six years as the yen's surge to a 15-year high versus the dollar threatened to derail Japan's export-reliant recovery and worsen deflation.

The BOJ's next scheduled policy meeting is on October 4-5. Easing policy at this meeting cannot be ruled out, and options include increasing government bond purchases and expanding a cheap fund-supply tool, sources say.

(Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Nick Macfie)