Chrysler CEO says stock sale could come in 2011

TORONTO (AP) - Chrysler's new CEO says the automaker is considering a public stock offering sometime in 2011.

Sergio Marchionne, who also heads Italy's Fiat Group SpA, said Thursday there is enough demand in the marketplace to support initial public offerings for Chrysler and General Motors Co., both of which were restructured in government-funded bankruptcy protection cases last year.

He says Chrysler struggled through a painful restructuring last year, and he never wants to see the company lose money again.

Chrysler would have been sold off in pieces in late 2008 or early 2009 if the U.S. government had not stepped in with billions in aid. The government put Marchionne in charge of turning around the Auburn Hills, Michigan, automaker and gave Fiat a 20 percent stake in the company.