AUTOMOTIVE
Fiat looking to merge with Peugeot Citroën / Fourth largest car manufacturer in the world would be created
 Plans for a merger are underway (Image: FCA/PSA) |
What failed to happen with one French car producer following intervention by the government (see Plasteurope.com of 07.06.2019) now evidently seems to be going ahead with the other – as a lifeline, the car manufacturing group Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA, Turin / Italy; www.fcagroup.com) is set to merge with PSA Peugeot Citroën (Paris / France; www.psa-peugeot-citroen.com). The two supervisory boards have already agreed to a continuation of the talks.
The plans provide for a merger to create a new group in which PSA and FCA will each hold half the shares. The top man would be PSA boss Carlos Tavares. With sales of 8.7m vehicles and total turnover of EUR 170 bn, the combination would become the world’s fourth largest carmaker behind VW, Toyota and Renault-Nissan. The synergies are put at EUR 3.7 bn annually – apparently without the intention to close any plants – which will also put additional pressure on the purchasing prices from suppliers. Apart from that, the intended investment in autonomous driving and electrically powered vehicles would be shared.
If the transaction goes through and is also approved by the cartel authorities, there could also be some movement in the supplier industry. For example, the rumours that are fetched out of the drawer every few years about a sale of the 46% stake in the PSA subsidiary Faurecia (Nanterre / France; www.faurecia.com) could receive fresh impetus. After all, Fiat recently parted from its own supplier, Marelli (Corbetta / Italy; www.marelli-corporation.com – see Plasteurope.com of 09.05.2019).
Over and above that, PSA is likely to sooner or later strive for dominance in the new structure. After all, Fiat is contributing only the very successful US business as an asset, because in Europe, the group very narrowly missed making an operating loss in Q2 2019. In the US, however, it is big fuel guzzlers such as Jeep and Ram on which the good figures are based. Electric drives and autonomous driving simply do not feature there. The successful “Fiat 500” in Europe is gradually getting on in years, and the luxury brand Maserati was recently very much in the red.
The plans provide for a merger to create a new group in which PSA and FCA will each hold half the shares. The top man would be PSA boss Carlos Tavares. With sales of 8.7m vehicles and total turnover of EUR 170 bn, the combination would become the world’s fourth largest carmaker behind VW, Toyota and Renault-Nissan. The synergies are put at EUR 3.7 bn annually – apparently without the intention to close any plants – which will also put additional pressure on the purchasing prices from suppliers. Apart from that, the intended investment in autonomous driving and electrically powered vehicles would be shared.
If the transaction goes through and is also approved by the cartel authorities, there could also be some movement in the supplier industry. For example, the rumours that are fetched out of the drawer every few years about a sale of the 46% stake in the PSA subsidiary Faurecia (Nanterre / France; www.faurecia.com) could receive fresh impetus. After all, Fiat recently parted from its own supplier, Marelli (Corbetta / Italy; www.marelli-corporation.com – see Plasteurope.com of 09.05.2019).
Over and above that, PSA is likely to sooner or later strive for dominance in the new structure. After all, Fiat is contributing only the very successful US business as an asset, because in Europe, the group very narrowly missed making an operating loss in Q2 2019. In the US, however, it is big fuel guzzlers such as Jeep and Ram on which the good figures are based. Electric drives and autonomous driving simply do not feature there. The successful “Fiat 500” in Europe is gradually getting on in years, and the luxury brand Maserati was recently very much in the red.
01.11.2019 Plasteurope.com [243815-0]
Published on 01.11.2019
German version of this article...