Fiat Chrysler attracts more investment from hedge fund manager

Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global Management has invested more than $1 billion in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles after more than doubling its position in the automaker since the end of June. 

The U.S. fund becomes the fourth biggest investor in the Italian American company. Tiger Global increased its stake to 59.67 million shares as of Sept. 3, Dutch regulator AFM’s website shows. Tiger Global, which oversees about $22 billion in assets, had 26.05 million Fiat Chrysler shares at the end of June, according to Bloomberg data.

The hedge fund manager, which unveiled a stake worth more than $1 billion in SoftBank Group in July, boosted its holding in Fiat Chrysler during a dramatic period for the company. Former CEO Sergio Marchionne, who created the world’s seventh biggest automaker out of two struggling players, died in July after complications from surgery. Fiat shareholders confirmed Mike Manley as the new CEO last week at a meeting in Amsterdam.

Manley, 54, who also still runs the Jeep brand, is working to put his stamp on Fiat Chrysler and will announce a new management structure by the end of this month. He took the CEO reigns on July 21 as Marchionne’s condition worsened. The former CEO died July 25th, the same day Manley told investors that the automaker was cutting its its profit target for the year.

Coleman founded New York-based Tiger Global in 2001. He is a so-called “tiger cub,” a term coined for alumni of Julian Robertson’s hedge fund Tiger Management, where Coleman was a technology analyst. The firm has a hedge fund business and an $11 billion venture capital unit.

In the second quarter, Tiger built its stake in music-streaming company Spotify to $2.15 billion, according to regulatory filings. The firm was poised to make about $3 billion from its $1 billion investment in Flipkart Group after selling about three-quarters of its position to Walmart, according to a person familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported in May. That transaction closed in August.

Carolyn Sargent, a spokeswoman for Tiger at Rubenstein Associates, declined to comment on the Fiat Chrysler investment.