DETROIT, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Chrysler Group LLC filed paperwork on Monday for an initial public offering of up to $100 million, an action that could slow majority owner Fiat SpA's plans to take full ownership of the U.S. automaker.
The offering will be underwritten by J.P. Morgan, the company said in a securities filing posted more than four years after the third-largest U.S. automaker emerged from a government-sponsored bankruptcy under Fiat management.
The size of the offering was not mentioned in the filing papers, and Chrysler officials did not comment on the figure.
Chrysler's minority shareholder, the United Auto Workers retiree healthcare trust fund, decided in January to sell part of its 41.5 percent stake in the company in an IPO.
Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of both Chrysler and Fiat, said in mid-September that the IPO is likely to take place in the first quarter of 2014.
Marchionne and the UAW trust, a voluntary employee beneficiary association, or VEBA, have been at odds over the value of Chrysler. Their inability to agree on a price for the VEBA stake led to Monday's IPO filing.