William Maley
Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com
June 28, 2013
Here's a story that we're filling under the 'wait and see' file. Reuters is reporting that the Peugeot family, which currently owns a 25.4-percent stake in PSA Peugeot-Citroën automaker and 38.1 percent of voting rights is willing to give up its stake and try to revive a tie-up with General Motors.
"GM faces the same overcapacity situation with Opel, and that's why PSA is trying to convince them to merge the two. The Peugeot family has now accepted that they'll lose control, so this is no longer an issue," said a person familiar with the matter.
How dire is PSA Peugeot-Citroën at the moment? Well the two brands were the hardest hit in European sales slump and it looks like that trend will continue. Plus, the company could burn through all its assets by the end of this year if they don't get another injection of money and a groundwork plan.
GM CEO Dan Akerson told reporters last week that the company has no plans to put in more cash into PSA.
"We don't have any intention of investing additional funds into PSA at this time. If we see something changes, we'll evaluate that," said Akerson.
A source says that GM is playing hardball to get "...assurances that it would be able to cut plants and jobs at reasonable cost."
If General Motors did get control PSA Peugeot-Citroën, what would happen? The answer is a bit murky. But expect a number of plant shutdowns and laid-off workers to help save money. There is also talk about shared platforms between the two.
However, there lies a huge problem with this scenario. The French Government, which made a very controversial 7 billion euro investment into PSA Peugeot-Citroën's financial arm, would not approve of large-scale workforce reductions and plant closures in the country.
Source: Reuters
William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.
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