In news that nearly sent us ass over tea kettle off of our rickety shop stool, Chrysler has announced that it plans to have the $7.5 billion dollars in outstanding loans owed to the United States and Canada paid, potentially by next month. This would remove the US government from Chrysler’s operations completely, which is a big deal. Of all the companies that looked over the abyss a couple years back, none were in as bad of shape as Chrysler was. That makes this announcement all the more pleasantly shocking!

The cash to pay off the loans will come from selling new bonds to investors. Ditching the loans, which carry a high interest rate is imperative for Chrysler because they are currently being buried by the interest payments on their debt. The only reason the company was not profitable last quarter was because of interest payments. Secondly, Fiat plans to up their ownership stake when shares become available to somewhere in the high 40% range. That additional investment would mean another billion or so dollars for the company to dedicate towards wind tunnel time and styling. 

You can hit the link below to read the whole story, but we never thoght that Chrysler would be the first to actually square up on their debt and to take the opportunity to tell the government to hit the bricks! Their volume is far smaller than Ford and General Motors so ol’ Sergio must have really tightened up the ship!

(Chrysler to pay back all of government loans)