John Elkann, the grandson of Fiat patriarch Gianni Agnelli who has hand-picked him as his heir, took a first public step in his grandfather's shoes last Thursday, presenting a family art collection to the world. Jane Barrett on the first public performance of Fiat's future boss
With Agnelli battling a prostate condition in private, the fresh-faced Fiat director took to the podium, facing a packed hall of journalists more interested in him than in his billionaire grandparent's masterpieces.
Despite the carefully worded questions of reporters trying to prise open the man who will be king of Fiat, 26-year-old Elkann remained smilingly tight-lipped, fielding questions with his grandfather's measured politeness.
On Friday Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said that Fiat's honorary chairman, Gianni Agnelli, seemed well after he met privately with the automaker's ailing patriarch, who has not been seen in public for months.
Agnelli "is well, I found him in his usual form", Ciampi said after meeting the powerful businessman.
However, when reporters asked Elkann about his role at Italy's most famous industrial group, now caught in a crisis of deep debts and debilitating losses, Elkann carefully replied: "Today I am a member of the board and am working with current management." But the question many are still asking is what role he will have tomorrow.
Fiat chairman Paolo Fresco has said he would like Elkann, the son of Agnelli's daughter Margherita and French writer Alain Elkann, to play an ever bigger role in the family firm but has not specified how.
Elkann took on the mantle of heir when Agnelli - who had already overlooked his own two children as potential successors - saw his first-choice protege, nephew Giovannino Agnelli, die of cancer in 1997.
Elkann has already rolled up his sleeves as a Fiat board member, helping thrash out a €3 billion rescue package with banks this year. He now faces tough and emotional decisions about the future.
Slumping sales and bleeding losses at Fiat Auto have dragged the energy-to-insurance group deep into the red and many analysts expect Fiat to sell its historic carmaker under a "put" option agreed with General Motors Corp.
GM bought 20 per cent of Fiat Auto - which also owns the Alfa Romeo and Lancia marques - in 2000 and Fiat has the option to sell the rest to GM from 2004.
Agnelli, the grandson of Fiat's founder, has often pledged his allegiance to Fiat Auto, which once ruled 60 per cent of the Italian car market but has now been squeezed to half that. But the 81-year-old, once Italy's main man about town, has not been seen for months, even missing Fiat's shareholders' meeting in May to receive prostate treatment in New York, and investors feel his voice is weakening in the company.
John's brother Lapo and great-uncle Umberto this week said Agnelli is doing well but speculation about the white-haired patriarch has died rumble through the market frequently, boosting Fiat's flagging shares on hopes the car sale might be closer.
On Thursday, Elkann, known as Jaki by his friends but whose private life remains largely a mystery, gave no clues as to what he thought about selling off the business which turned the northern city of Turin into Italy's 20th-century industrial capital. Asked if the art collection was a sign of solidarity between the Agnellis and Fiat Auto, he smiled slightly and said: "More than anything it is a sign of solidarity with Turin."
(Reuters)