FCA and Renault could get married and give life to the world's largest car manufacturer. The indiscretion was given on Saturday by the Financial Times and not denied by Lingotto, which indeed has always declared that it is "open to evaluating all the favorable proposals that will arise". The operation with the French giant, with which FCA already collaborates in the commercial vehicle sector, in the construction of the Talento van, would bring 5 historic brands under the same roof: Fiat, Chrysler, Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, and would have epicenters in three different continents and in four cities (Turin, Paris, Tokyo and Detroit). Together, FCA and Renault would come to 15,6 million sales a year, significantly above German rival Volkswagen and its 10,8 million registered cars.
"If there is a partnership, a merger or an agreement that makes us stronger, then I am absolutely open to evaluating it," FCA CEO Mike Manley recently said in an interview with the Financial Times. . However, the dialogue between FCA and PSA would be less advanced than that between FCA and Renault. For the French, FCA would be a strategic ally: most of Fiat Chrysler's activities are concentrated in North America, an area from which Renault is absent. Added to this is that FCA has the Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands in its portfolio, which occupy a particularly profitable market segment and in which Renault does not compete.
In the event that FCA were to one day enter the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, the "balance of power within the partnership it would move further from Japan to Europe, bringing John Elkann to the table” adds the British financial newspaper. Renault and Nissan teamed up in 1999. Mitsubishi joined in 2015 when Nissan bought 36%. However, the current structure of the agreement remains "asymmetrical", with Renault having 43% of Nissan's shares and all the voting rights, and Nissan having 15% of Renault's shares.
The trade unions immediately intervened in the case, starting with the federation of metalworkers of the CISL: "We have always supported - said the general secretary Marco Bentivogli – to continue the action towards strategic alliances, on the one hand to remain in the maelstrom of the consolidation operation that has been underway for some time at a global level, on the other to have resources and skills to face the technological transition towards the new electric mobility and self-driving and to strengthen in Asia. These are the weak points on which to build alliances to give FCA more strength. At the moment we have no information on whether these could represent opportunities for real mergers. It is clear that we need to open a discussion as soon as possible because it is appropriate to clarify and exclude any overlaps with the factories and employment in our country. These are decisive matches for the future of Italian industry and which take place with a government engaged in a perennial electoral campaign, leaving workers and businesses alone. If a politician doesn't know how much the automotive industry weighs on GDP, he'd better change jobs”.
