Fiat Chrysler to list robot manufacturing business after Peugeot merger

Fiat Chrysler said it planned to list its robot manufacturing business, giving new details on Monday about the future of Turin-based Comau, which was already planning to spin off.

Comau will split shortly after FCA completes its merger with Peugeot maker PSA and its shares are distributed to shareholders of the new group.

The deal to create the world’s fourth-largest automaker is expected to end in the first quarter of next year.

FCA said it had appointed Paolo Carmassi as Comau’s new CEO to pursue the listing.

For the past four years, Carmassi has led scientific equipment maker Malvern Panalytical, a unit of Britain’s Spectris, and previously worked for more than 20 years at Honeywell, he said.

He also named Alessandro Nasi, a board member of Exor, the Italian family holding company Agnelli that controls FCA, as the new president of Comau.

Exor will become the combined group’s largest individual shareholder after the merger of FCA with PSA, and Comau’s largest shareholder after its listing.

“The appointments … are an important step forward for Comau as he prepares for life as a public company,” FCA Chief Executive Mike Manley said in a statement.

Fiat Chrysler’s shares rose 3.9 percent to $ 9.18 in mid-afternoon.