AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/25 Report--

According to people familiar with the matter, French Peugeot Citroen (hereinafter referred to as PSA) Fiat Chrysler (hereinafter referred to as FCA) held talks on a merger of the two companies earlier this year, but was rejected by FCA. Executives of the two companies have now concluded negotiations.

It is understood that FCA chose to reject PSA because it would increase its exposure to mature European markets, and the Agnelli family, which has a controlling stake in FCA, also said that it was not interested in the stock financing transaction proposed by PSA, but because PSA went to buy GM's European business, in order to prevent debt expansion, it had to consider using equity to trade when acquiring FAC.

MikeManley, chief executive of FAC, said at the Geneva Motor Show this month that he was open to cooperation and would gladly accept it as long as he could strengthen the company while providing customers with better products and shareholder returns. The Peugeot family, one of the major shareholders of PSA, also said it would support PSA's new acquisition if the opportunity was right.

According to professional analysis, if the merger is successful, from the perspective of total production, the two companies will produce nearly 9 million cars a year, even in alliance with Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi. Volkswagen and Toyota also have the strength to compete with one of them, which cannot be done separately. The Peugeot brand, which plans to return to North America in 2026, will take advantage of FCA's US retail network.

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