The completion of the purchase of the best assets of Chrysler into a new entity that will be driven by Fiat is set to be completed this morning after the Supreme Court gave the go-ahead having rejected a request for a hearing by objectors. The group of Indiana state pension funds that have fought to delay the asset sale pronounced by the Bankruptcy Court took their action through the Court of Appeal and right to the Supreme Court. It means the Chapter 11 process has been completed in just 40 days.

To be granted a 'stay' [delay] the applicants must convince four out of the nine Supreme Court Justices that their petition warrants a full hearing and the majority of the Justices must conclude that the Court of Appeal made the wrong decision. The Indiana state pension funds, which held just 1 percent of Chrysler's secured debt, failed to meet these criteria and in a brief statement yesterday the Supreme Court said: "The applicants have not carried that burden". The decision by the Supreme Court is binding and means that the pension funds, which have seen their arguments rejected at every step, have finally run out of options to halt the sale.

Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock who had led the petition by the objecting funds expressed his disappointment that his attempts to overturn the asset sale decision had finally come to an end. "Obviously the supreme court of the land is the supreme court of the land," he said last night. "The United States government has, I continue to believe, acted egregiously by taking away the traditional rights held by secured creditors." The objectors were in part politically motivated as they only held US$42.5 million in debt and thus stood to loose very little if the asset sale to the Fiat-led group went ahead.

The new Chrysler entity, to be known as Chrysler Group LLC, see Fiat take an initial 20 percent stake as well as providing a new management structure including the CEO's position, which will be taken up by the Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne, as well as nominating members to two more seats on the board. These will be taken up by Fiat Powertrain Technologies CEO and Fiat's business development chief Alfredo Altavilla, who was formerly the CEO of Fiat Turkish joint venture company Tofaş and the 70-year-old former Exxon Mobil Vice-Chairman Lucio Noto. Noto retired from his senior position with Exxon Mobil in 2001 and currently is a managing partner of Midstream Partners LLC as well as holding directorships with Penske Automotive Group, Phillip Morris International and Commercial International Bank of Egypt.

Fiat will be able to raise its 20 percent stake up to 51 percent in incremental stages once a string of soft targets are met. The United Auto Worker's union retiree healthcare fund will take a 67.69 percent stake in the new Chrysler Group with the U.S. government holding onto 9.85 percent of the stock and the Canadian government getting the balance. The new company is set to be the world's sixth biggest carmaker.

"The new company will build upon Chrysler’s proud history of innovation and Fiat’s complementary technology and expertise to expand Chrysler’s product portfolio in the U.S., Canada and overseas," Chrysler said in a statement issued last night once the Supreme Court's decision was delivered. "As the new company restarts operations in its facilities, it will continue work already underway on new environmentally friendly, fuel-efficient, high-quality vehicles that will become Chrysler's hallmark going forward. Chrysler LLC thanks the Courts for their expeditious work throughout this process," the statement concluded.