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FCA Rescinds Their Merger Offer With Renault

By William Maley (edited)

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  • ...That was abrupt...

Fiat Chrysler Automobile has abruptly pulled back on their merger offer with Renault after the second day of negotiations came to a close. The Wall Street Journal reports that Renault's partner, Nissan declined to support the deal according to sources. During a vote today on the Renault board, the two Nissan representative abstained, raising concerns for both FCA and Renault that Nissan would back out of the alliance.

This, in turn, caused the French Government (major stakeholder in Renault), to not pledge its support of the deal. The government asked for a delay on the vote until Nissan would guarantee that it would continue with the alliance. The falling of these dominos prompted FCA to withdraw their offer.

The move is a heavy blow as FCA had reached a tentative agreement with the French Government on the merger according to two sources speaking to Reuters.

FCA, Renault, and the French Government declined to comment.

We'll update this story if any new details come to light.

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required), Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal (Subscription Required)

Edited by William Maley

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    Rising Star

    riviera74

    Members

    Wow.  What happens now?  Will Nissan simply acquire/merge with FCA to resolve this?  Or will Nissan simply allow an automotive recession to do the dirty work for them?

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    • Mentor

    smk4565

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    (edited)

    A recession or a 25% tariff on Mexican imports could run FCA deep into the red, and I wonder how much cash they have on hand to survive a down turn of a couple years.

    Actually I'll answer my own question.  FCA has 23 million euros cash on hand in 2014 and ended last year with 12 billion euros cash on hand.

    Edited by smk4565

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    • Grand Master

    Drew Dowdell

    Editor-in-Chief
    5 minutes ago, smk4565 said:

    A recession or a 25% tariff on Mexican imports could run FCA deep into the red, and I wonder how much cash they have on hand to survive a down turn of a couple years.

    It'll hit everyone though, not just FCA.  And they'll all have to raise prices.

    NPR was doing a story today about how all of the wiring harnesses for cars are built in Mexico... it doesn't matter what brand. 

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    • Mentor

    smk4565

    Members
    11 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

    Nissan is in no position to be acquiring anyone. They're in a worse position than FCA. FCA actually makes some profit. 

    Some is the key word, on 110 billion euro in revenue, they had 3.6 billion in profit.  That is barely more than a 3% margin, which isn't a lot of room for error and the past few years were banner years for the auto industry.  And that is all while these guys haven't spend a dime on new product for Dodge/Chrysler or electric cars or autonomous cars.

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    • Mentor

    smk4565

    Members
    39 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

    It'll hit everyone though, not just FCA.  And they'll all have to raise prices.

    NPR was doing a story today about how all of the wiring harnesses for cars are built in Mexico... it doesn't matter what brand. 

    It hurts them all for sure,  some just have higher margins or more cash on hand that can weather a storm. 

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    • Grand Master

    Drew Dowdell

    Editor-in-Chief
    12 hours ago, smk4565 said:

    Some is the key word, on 110 billion euro in revenue, they had 3.6 billion in profit.  That is barely more than a 3% margin, which isn't a lot of room for error and the past few years were banner years for the auto industry.  And that is all while these guys haven't spend a dime on new product for Dodge/Chrysler or electric cars or autonomous cars.

     

    11 hours ago, smk4565 said:

    It hurts them all for sure,  some just have higher margins or more cash on hand that can weather a storm. 

    Margins are slim for everyone in the industry.  $3.6b in profit is doing okay. 

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