Milan, Jan 14: A new cash-flush player joined the tussle for power at stricken Italian industrial icon Fiat SpA on Monday but the old guard refused to be sidelined, with the founding Agnelli family insisting its wallet was still open. The latest character to jump on the Fiat bandwagon was Emilio Gnutti, a financier close to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has been grasping for solutions to the crisis since Fiat announced plans to lay off thousands.
A financial source told Reuters that creditor banks and Fiat's founding Agnelli family had asked Gnutti to help with an on-going restructuring at the Turin-based company.
"Gnutti has been invited to study taking a financial part in the Fiat rescue but it is too early to say whether it will be in (car arm) Fiat Auto or in the holding company, partly because we need to see which plan will prevail," the source said.
But before the day was out Berlusconi himself had poured cold water on Gnutti's involvement.

"Absolutely not," the prime minister told reporters, when asked if a Gnutti proposal existed.
Bureau Report