The chairman of the private equity firm that is buying Chrysler said Wednesday it will fix and hold the troubled automaker and has no plans to sell it off.

Former U.S. Treasury secretary John Snow, who is chairman of Cerberus Capital Management LP, said the U.S. auto industry is poised for a turnaround.

"We want to be there to help the turn and benefit our investors from the turn," he told the Detroit Economic Club.

Snow said Cerberus likes Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda's recovery plan, and taking the company private will give LaSorda time to implement the plan. The plan calls for a return to profitability by 2009.

Cerberus has 150 corporate managers who advise the companies it acquires, including former Volkswagen AG and Chrysler executive Wolfgang Bernhard, who is assigned to Chrysler. But Snow insisted that Bernhard is not running the company.

"They're running the place. They're accountable," he said of Lasorda's team.

DaimlerChrysler AG — the maker of Mercedes luxury cars — agreed in May to transfer an 80.1 per cent stake in its U.S.-based Chrysler unit to New York-based Cerberus.

As part of the deal, Cerberus agreed to invest $6.1 billion US in Chrysler and its financing arm and to pay DaimlerChrysler $1.4 billion US.

DaimlerChrysler would remain liable for certain expenses that could result in it paying Cerberus up to $1.5 billion to complete the transaction.

Cerberus, however, has agreed to take on $19 billion of the auto company's long-term retiree health care costs.

Snow said he expected the deal for Chrysler would close in the current quarter. He said Cerberus has no plans to take Chrysler public again.

The Chrysler purchase would expand Cerberus' automotive holdings, which include a 51 per cent stake in GMAC Financial Services. It also owns Guilford Mills, the largest automotive seating supplier in the U.S., and Peguform Group, a German-based manufacturer of interior and exterior plastic parts used in autos.

On Wednesday, a federal bankruptcy judge approved the $1 billion sale of auto parts supplier Tower Automotive to Cerberus.