After a week of rumors, the official news has arrived: the American car manufacturer General Motors enters the capital of the French group PSA Peugeot Citroen, with a 7% stake (which, according to the first statements, will not be increased).
GM thus becomes the second shareholder of the transalpine company after the Peugeot family, which through its holding company FFP will contribute 150 million euros to the total capital increase of around 1 billion envisaged. The family will therefore continue to be the reference shareholder, but with a diluted share to 25% (from the current 30,9%) and a consequent reduction in voting rights (now 48,3%). PSA for its part will not participate in GM, considering the current financial situation of the group: in 2011, the leading car manufacturer in France recorded indebtedness of 3,4 billion euros, up on the 1,2 billion of the previous year, and a drop in net profit by 48% to 588 million. At the origin of this crisis is the collapse of sales in Europe, which saw Peugeout and Citroen cars lose 1,5% in a year when the world market grew by 3%.
The situation made it necessary, last October, an 800 million euro recovery plan, for which over 4 jobs were put at risk. General Motors, for its part, took back the scepter of world leader in the sector in 2011 from the Japanese Toyota, despite the bad results of its (so far) only European partner, Opel, which in the last year announced losses for 747 million dollars, while the parent company was traveling with profits of almost 8 billion.
How will this new alliance develop? “Initially – PSA CEO Philippe Varin explained in a joint videoconference – the agreement will not have repercussions on our production. We will continue to work on small and medium-sized cars”. In fact, the two groups will continue to market their respective cars in an "independent and competitive" manner: the first vehicles from common platforms will arrive on the market from 2016. "It is an alliance, not a merger", also specified the GM CEO, Dan Akerson. The partnership also provides for the opening of a new Peugeot factory in India and an overall volume of synergies estimated at 2 billion per year for the next 5 years, which the two partners will share equally. The long-term project, starting in 2016, is to invest in high-end and ecological vehicles.
As far as the trade union aspect is concerned, the official press release did not provide any details. While reassuring the unions on production, However, Varin did not exclude the possibility of reducing the number of personnel: “We have a production overcapacity (estimated at 20%, ed), this is known to all”. For now, the French Minister of Industry, Eric Besson, has taken care of reassuring the workers: "The agreement will be favorable to the use and presence of PSA in France".
