EXCLUSIVE - Chrysler focused on lender deal - CEO

By Poornima Gupta

DETROIT (Reuters) - Chrysler LLC Chief Executive Bob Nardelli said on Thursday that the automaker remained focused on reaching an agreement with its lenders to cut the its debt in a bid to complete government-mandated restructuring targets and qualify for aid.

"With the guidance of the U.S. Treasury, we also continue to work with our lenders to establish a level of debt that would be serviceable under the proposed Fiat alliance," Nardelli said in a memo to staff that was obtained by Reuters.

"The agreement of all lenders continues to be a critical factor in our ability to meet government requirements and as such, remains our focus in the successful completion of our restructuring efforts," he added.

Chrysler was rushing to clinch deals with Italian automaker Fiat SpA and a fractious group of lenders in a last-ditch effort to avoid bankruptcy.

About 45 financial institutions hold Chrysler's secured debt of $6.9 billion, which the U.S. government is aiming to extinguish by exchanging it for $2.25 billion in cash.

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that concessions by Chrysler's unions and its major bank lenders had made him more hopeful than he had been just a month ago that the struggling automaker could be made viable.

But he added that it was still not clear if Chrysler would need to seek bankruptcy protection to cement concessions from its lenders and move ahead with a planned alliance with Fiat.

The White House had given Chrysler until midnight Thursday to clinch concessionary deals with its unions, lenders and forge an alliance with Italy's Fiat.