Having brought Opel/Vauxhall to the PSA Group and taken it back to profit (thanks to the PACE plan!), Carlos Tavares seems to want to increase the group's estate and add more brands to the list made up of Peugeot, Citroën, DS and Opel/Vauxhall. For that, he counts on the support of one of the biggest shareholders of the French group, the Peugeot family.
The Peugeot family (through the FFP company) is one of the three main shareholders of the PSA Group along with Dongfeng Motor Corporation and the French State (through the French government investment bank, Bpifrance), each holding 12.23% of the group.
Now, Robert Peugeot, president of the FFP, in an interview with the French newspaper Les Echos, said that the Peugeot family supports Carlos Tavares if the possibility of a new acquisition arises and said: “We supported the Opel project from the beginning. If another opportunity arises, we will not stop the deal”.
Possible purchases
On the basis of this (almost) unconditional support for the purchase of new brands for the PSA Group are, in large part, the good results achieved by Opel, whose recovery Robert Peugeot said he was surprised, saying that: “The Opel operation is a success exceptional, we didn't think the recovery could be so fast”.
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Among the possible acquisitions, there is the possibility of a merger between PSA and FCA (which was on the table in 2015 but which would eventually fall apart in the face of the possibility of buying Opel) or the acquisition of Jaguar Land Rover to the Tata Group. Another of the possibilities mentioned is that of a merger with General Motors.
Behind all these merger and acquisition possibilities comes PSA's will to return to the North American market, something for which the merger with FCA would help a lot, since it owns brands such as Jeep or Dodge.
On the part of FCA, Mike Manley (CEO of the group) stated on the sidelines of the Geneva Motor Show that the FCA is looking for “any agreement that will make Fiat stronger”.