CEO’s abrupt exit jolts Fiat Chrysler

Fiat Chrysler shares were volatile Monday as investors expressed worry about the exit of ailing Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne, whose driven and creative management style has been the company’s fortune.

The Italian American carmaker’s stock closed down 1.5% in the first trading day since Marchionne’s grave health condition was disclosed over the weekend.

Trading was volatile, particularly after news that the head of the company’s big European operations was quitting. Ferrari, where Marchionne was also replaced at the helm, fell about 5%.

On Saturday, the Fiat Chrysler board named longtime Jeep executive Mike Manley as chief executive. The company said that Marchionne, 66, suffered complications from shoulder surgery in Zurich last month that worsened in recent days, and that he could not resume his duties. No other details were released.

Marchionne will be a hard act to follow. Analysts credit his industry vision and ability to strike deals and take risks for increasing the market value of Fiat tenfold since he took over in 2004. And although he was due to retire in 2019, most expected him to stay on in some role to guide the company.

Marchionne engineered the turnarounds of Italian carmaker Fiat and Chrysler, which Fiat acquired in 2009 in a deal with the U.S. government, creating the world’s seventh-largest carmaker. He created shareholder value for the Fiat-founding Agnelli family with successful spinoffs of Fiat’s heavy vehicle maker CNH Industrial and of the iconic Ferrari super sports car company. But his goal of another big merger failed to find any takers.

Manley, 54, has been key to transforming the quintessentially American Jeep brand into a global marquee since taking over in 2009, and he also has been the head of the Ram truck division since 2015.