Fiat becomes majority owner of Serbia's Zastava car factory

Italian carmaker Fiat on Wednesday became a majority owner of Serbian car manufacturer Zastava, Belgrade media reported. Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Mladjan Dinkic and Alfredo Altavilla, vice president of the Fiat group, signed Wednesday an annex of the contract made in September last year, making Fiat owner of 67-per-cent stake of the Zastava factory in Kragujevac, 110 kilometres south of Belgrade.
The Serbian government owns a 33-per-cent stake in the company. The Italian carmaker is now expected to invest 100 million euros (142 million dollars) into Zastava by the end of the year and a total of 700 million euros for the modernisation of the factory. The factory would produce two new models along with the Punto, which is already being made at the Zastava plant. Fiat would also raise output to 200,000 units per year, bringing to Serbia almost 2 billion euros in export income.