Chrysler Group LLC is going full speed to get an IPO done by mid-December, ratcheting up pressure on the company's two owners to strike a deal that would allow majority owner, Fiat SpA, to buy full control before Chrysler lists, the Wall Street Journal reported today. Chrysler had initially targeted the IPO for the first quarter of 2014. The U.S. automaker and its underwriting banks are considering setting the price range to raise $1.5 billion to $2 billion, in a sale that would help monetize part of a minority stake held by a health-care trust affiliated with the United Auto Workers. The price range implies a total value for Chrysler of between $9 billion and $12 billion, based on the 16.6 percent stake the health trust has demanded that the company register for the IPO. The UAW trust has demanded the stock sale because it needs the money to pay out medical benefits to retired Chrysler workers. The trust, officially known as the UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust, took a stake in Chrysler during the auto maker's 2009 bankruptcy restructuring.
