Stellantis: International automobile manufacturing company that is a merge between Fiat Chrysler and French PSA.

Additionally, the new company’s first CEO, who is vested with the full authority to individually represent Stellantis, is Carlos Tavares, the former president of the PSA managing board, as well as former CEO of PSA Group. He will also have a five-year term as Stellantis CEO. PSA shareholders have also paid a premerger premium to FCA shareholders. However, Exor, the Agnelli family company that was the largest shareholder of FCA, will hold the largest stake in Stellantis with 14.4%. The merger agreements allow the Peugeot family to further increase its current 7.2% stake in Stellantis by up to an additional 1.5% by acquiring shares from France’s state lender Bpifrance, from Dongfeng, or on the market.

The automaker is seeking to merge with PSA in a deal that will form a new company, Stellantis. The Chrysler brand is part of Fiat Chrysler, which merged with the parent company of the Peugeot brand in 2021 to create a new company called Stellantis. The auto company that some Americans may still refer to as Chrysler is now part of a conglomerate called Stellantis NV based in the Netherlands. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (“FCA”) officially merged with PSA Group, owner of the Peugeot automobile brand, on Jan. 16, 2021. That could put into the crosshairs any of the 14 car brands that Stellantis will house, five from PSA and nine from Fiat Chrysler. The companies also have significant overlaps in manufacturing and engineering operations in Europe. Manley said about 40 percent of the savings will come from combining platforms, the underpinnings of vehicles, and engines and transmissions.

• Another 35 percent of the savings will come from joint purchasing, especially with electric and high tech components, he said, while 7 percent will come from sales, general and administrative cost savings.
• With the completion of this merger, Stellantis is now one of the biggest automobile conglomerates in the world, with as many as 15 different brands under its umbrella.
• It has been over three months since PSA decided to halt almost all of its services to deal with a massive backlog.
• They are also doing brisk business in vans, fuelled by the massive uptick in online sales in Europe.

Annual worldwide sales fell from 94m units in 2017 to 90m in 2019. Covid-19 depressed sales by 15% in 2020, to 76.5m, according to IHS Markit, a data firm. Before the merger is finalised, shares in the new company, to be called Stellantis, must be launched. PSA, the leader in card grading, dramatically changed its prices on Monday as the uptick in the industry left the company with a backlog of an untold millions of cards. The GAC FCA was set up in 2010 as an equal-share partnership between Fiat Chrysler and state-owned Chinese automaker GAC Group. Stellantis’ portfolio will “embrace electrification, connectivity, autonomous driving, and shared ownership,” the company said. But the pandemic has made the business of forecasting, whether unit sales, revenues, or earnings, exceedingly difficult.

It’s Official: Fiat Chrysler And Psa Group Are Now Stellantis

John Elkann, who will transition from chairman of the FCA board to chairman of Stellantis, and Tavares, who has a similar transition from PSA Group to the new company as CEO, are scheduled to ring the opening bells at all three stock exchanges. That’s when Carlos Tavares, CEO of Peugeot-maker PSA Group, contacted Mike Manley, CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, to suggest they meet at the upcoming Geneva auto show in Switzerland to discuss a possible business combination.

• Carlos Tavares, chief executive of PSA, will become chief executive of the new company, while the Fiat chair, John Elkann, will become its chair.
• General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler were the original “Big Three” U.S. automakers.
• In Europe, former PSA CEO Carlos Tavares becomes Stellantis’ CEO, overseeing the massive new automaker’s international presence.
• The merger, according to Tavares, will save the two companies $6.1 billion in the coming years; 80 percent of those savings will be realized before 2025, Tavares said.

But there will remain plenty of challenges, starting with a double-digit decline in global car sales last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. As Stellantis, meanwhile, there could be significant pressure to dump some of the new company’s weaker brands, including FCA’s namesake Fiat and Chrysler. The damage wrought by the pandemic prompted the companies to adjust the terms of the merger in September. A special dividend to Fiat Chrysler shareholders, to be paid when the deal closes later in January, was cut to 2.9 billion euros, or $3.6 billion, from €5.5 billion.

Chrysler sells two minivans and a single sedan, while Dodge handles performance and muscle cars. Time will tell if each brand shines, or one faces the growing automotive brand graveyard in the months and years to come. The newly formed carmaker promised its North American and European production workforces the merger wouldn’t amount to plant closures.

Chrysler’s Long Road

The name is rooted in the Latin verb “stello” meaning “to brighten with stars,” according to a combined release from the companies. Tavares, who will run the new company, told reporters that “affordability, sustainability and safety,” will be the top three priorities, with an emphasis on clean energy technology. Analysts and investors are turning their focus to how Tavares plans to address the huge challenges facing the group – from excess production capacity to a woeful performance in China. The STELLANTIS name will be used exclusively at the Group level, as a Corporate brand. The next step in the process will be the unveiling of a logo that with the name will become the corporate brand identity. The names and the logos of the STELLANTIS Group’s constituent brands will remain unchanged.

While the tie-up is billed as a merger, the advantage goes to PSA, which will control 6 of the 11 board seats with Tavares the tie-breaker. Analysts say the Chrysler brand could be in jeopardy in the U.S., where it has only two models, the aging 300 sedan and the Pacifica minivan.

Pickups and larger SUVs “accounted for approximately 71 percent of FCA’s total U.S. retail vehicle shipments in 2019,” according to pre-merger paperwork. The new company will continue to rely heavily on the appetite for Jeep SUVs and Ram pickups in the United States. The pressures for automotive industry consolidation are likely now to increase on Ford Motor Co.and General Motors. Experts have believed for years that FCA needed a larger footprint to survive long term and a merger should help both manage the expensive task of developing new technologies in a globally competitive and rapidly evolving industry.

The Goal Is To Expand The Joint Electrified Car Portfolio To 39 Models By The End Of 2021

The combination will optimize “our investments in R&D, and improving manufacturing processes and tooling efficiencies,” he said. Before the merger is finalized, shares in the new company, to be called Stellantis, must the launched.