EXOR SpA, the Agnelli family holding company which controls Fiat SpA, sold a stake in SGS SA for 2 billion euros (US$2.6 billion), freeing up resources ahead of the Italian automaker's planned combination with Chrysler Group LLC.

Exor, which will post a capital gain of 1.53 billion euros from the sale of its 15 percent holding in the Swiss product-inspection provider to Groupe Bruxelles Lambert SA, will use the money to pursue "new investment opportunities," the company said in a statement yesterday.

Chairman John Elkann said last week that Exor has enough funds to invest in Fiat and Chrysler when they combine. One option being explored is to create a company in the US, merge Fiat and Chrysler into it and issue shares in the new entity, a person familiar with the matter said last week.

"We clearly see a connection between the sale of the SGS stake and the hypothesized capital increase of Fiat-Chrysler," Gabriele Gambarova, an analyst at Banca Akros in Milan wrote in a note to clients yesterday.

The sale "suggests the Fiat-Chrysler capital increase might be bigger than the 3 billion euros to 4 billion euros previously estimated."

Elkann disclosed last week that Exor has "firepower" of about 1.6 billion euros to be used for new investments, including cash and additional borrowing capacity.