Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot sign deal for 50-50 merger

The boards of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Peugeot on Wednesday signed a binding merger creating the world’s fourth-largest automaker with the scale to confront the challenges of stricter emissions regulations and the transition to new driving technologies.

The companies said in a joint statement the new group will be led by PSA’s cost-cutting CEO Carlos Tavares, with Fiat Chrysler’s Chairman John Elkann as head of the board of the merged group. Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley will stay on, though it was unclear in what capacity.

No name for the new company has been decided, executives said, but both Tavares and Manley insisted it was not a “touchy subject”.

The merger is expected to yield €3.7 billion in savings a year, which will be invested in “the new era of sustainable mobility″ and to meet strict new emissions regulations, particularly in Europe.

″’The merged entity will manoeuvre with speed and efficiency in an automotive industry undergoing rapid and fundamental changes,″ the companies said in their statement.

The new technologies include electrified engines, autonomous driving and connectivity, part of what Tavares described as ’’the transition to a world of clean, safe and sustainable mobility”. Both companies have lagged in developing electric cars in particular.

The deal, which was first unveiled in October, was billed as a 50-50 merger, but PSA has one extra seat on the board and Tavares at the helm, giving the French carmaker the upper hand in daily management.

The executives said they expect the deal to take 12-15 months to close. It will create a company with revenues of nearly €170 billion (nearly US$190 billion) and producing 8.7 million cars a year – just behind Volkswagen, the Renault-Nissan alliance and Toyota.

No plants will be closed under the deal, the companies said. Savings will be achieved by sharing investments in vehicle platforms, engines and technology, while leveraging scale on purchasing.

But the executives also said there would be cuts. Decisions on where those will come will be made after the deal closes.

“There is room for sharing (a) significant amount of existing platforms and avoiding excess investments for the future,” Tavares said.

Fiat Chrysler shares rose nearly one per cent in Milan, while Peugeot gained almost two per cent in Paris trading.

Both the Peugeot and Fiat brands are strong on small car technology, with significant overlap in Europe. Manley said that the convergence of platforms would be “an early target″ that will likely take two years to achieve.

Nick Oliver, a management professor at the University of Edinburgh Business School, said that most of the savings are likely to come from cost cuts as ’’it is not clear how the merger will boost joint revenues.″

‘’Neither partner has products that can easily be sold under the others’ brands in new or existing markets. Both are weak in China, the world’s largest car market, while their centre of gravity is in the mature European market,″ Oliver said.

Meanwhile, the deal will give Peugeot the opportunity to try to sell more in the US, where it does not have much of a presence. With 2,640 dealers across the US, Fiat Chrysler would be a ready distribution network.

PSA specialises in small and medium-sized cars, which have fallen out of favour with US and even some international buyers who prefer SUVs and trucks. PSA could build its own vehicles off the underpinnings of Fiat Chrysler’s hot selling Jeep SUVs and Ram trucks.

The new company will be legally based in the Netherlands, and traded in Paris, Milan and New York.

The executives played down the significance of the new entity’s name and headquarters location, but both are symbolic choices that will signal who is in the driver’s seat.

The French and Italian governments as well as unions will be looking for such details, given the national significance of car-making to both economies. The French government helped rescue PSA Peugeot in 2014 and owns a 12 per cent stake through the state investment bank.

While the merger of Fiat and Chrysler has been a success, thriving on the strength of the US market and the executive prowess of long-time CEO Sergio Marchionne, the history of car mergers is littered with failed tie-ups. Most famous among those is the short-lived Daimler-Chrysler merger, which foundered on cultural differences between the German and US executives.

AP