(Adds details on Morchio, Montezemolo to board)
MILAN, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Giuseppe Morchio, a former Pirelli executive, will be nominated as Fiat's fourth chief executive in nine months later this week, Fiat's controlling shareholder Ifi-Ifil said on Wednesday.
In a statement, Ifi and Ifil said Umberto Agnelli, due to take over as Fiat chairman at a board meeting on Friday, would propose Morchio as CEO to join him "to accelerate the group's industrial relaunch".
In a 21-year career at tyre-to-cables group Pirelli, Morchio oversaw the acquisition and integration of several power cable assets, gaining a reputation as a top-class manager.
Morchio, 55, would replace Alessandro Barberis who took over as Fiat CEO late last year after a boardroom battle. Barberis would stay on as deputy chairman working alongside top management, Ifi and Ifil said.
The Agnelli family holding companies, which together own about 30 percent of Fiat, said the head of Fiat's Ferrari sportscar unit Luca di Montezemolo would be nominated to the board of the loss-making industrial group.
Morchio will be joining the company in the middle of the worst crisis in its 104-year history, taking over delicate, key negotiations with General Motors Corp. which owns 20 percent of the group's cash-burning car arm Fiat Auto.
Fiat has a "put" option to sell its 80 percent stake in Fiat Auto to GM from next year but top managers from the two groups have been locked in talks for weeks, reportedly on scrapping or delaying the put in return for an immediate cash injection.
Umberto Agnelli, whose older brother and Fiat patriarch Gianni died last month, is due to be named Fiat chairman on Friday after Paolo Fresco said on Tuesday he would retire early to help smooth Fiat's rescue plan.