AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)10/30 Report--

FCA is in talks with Peugeot-Citroen over a merger, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

PSA is Europe's second-largest carmaker, with a market capitalization of $22.5 billion, compared with $22.3 billion for FCA. A merger of the two companies would create a nearly $50 billion car manufacturing company with a market capitalization comparable to that of Honda.

For the past few years, FCA has been trying to find a partner.

The U.S. government officially declared Chrysler bankrupt on April 30, 2009, when Chrysler was loaded with more than $10 billion. After bankruptcy, Chrysler will file for bankruptcy protection, which will be taken over by the US government and Fiat, which then acquires control of Chrysler.

In 2014, Fiat Group merged with Chrysler to form FCA, which owns eight sub-brands: Fiat, Dodge, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, Ferrari, Jeep and Chrysler.

In 2015, FCA tried to merge with GM, but GM rejected it. GM said there was no need to merge with another car company to maintain profitability. In the end, the negotiations failed. Subsequently, FCA and Volkswagen, PSA also carried out negotiations, but eventually shelved.

Earlier this year, PSA held talks with FCA about merging the company, but FCA rejected the proposal. Some industry insiders said that FCA does not exclude mergers or cooperation matters, but can not reach an agreement with PSA Group, perhaps because PSA profits do not meet FCA expectations.

The relationship between Renault, Nissan, PSA and FCA is also unclear. Renault and Nissan formed an alliance as early as 1999, but relations between Renault and Nissan became extremely tense because of the arrest of Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan, last year. Renault intended to ease relations with Nissan. After Nissan served as CEO of Nissan, Renault also ousted Bolore and appointed a temporary CEO.

FCA planned to merge with Renault earlier this year, but in June, FCA abruptly withdrew its proposal to merge with Renault because of government intervention that pushed Renault to resolve the progressive relationship between Nissan and failed.

The failure of the merger of FCA and Renault led to the freezing point of the relationship between Nissan and Renault, and the merger of Renault and Nissan was also rejected by Nissan. Relatively speaking, the negotiations between FCA and Renault are moving much faster.

Recently, there has been a lot of news about FCA. FCA faces a $79 million civil fine for failing to meet U. S. fuel economy requirements for 2017, and another $40 million in September for fraudulent sales. Although PSA's revenue grew in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, its sales are in a state of decline, especially in the Chinese market, where sales of DPCA, which it founded with Dongfeng Motor, have been depressed, even after the launch of the "yuan" plan.

FCA shares rose after the news of the merger of FCA and PSA, and the board of directors of PSA will meet in the afternoon of October 30, 2019. PSA has issued a statement confirming the report in its official account, but did not disclose the details.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat