Sources have told Reuters that PSA Peugeot Citroen‘s founding family could hand control of the troubled carmaker over to General Motors in return for a fresh capital injection.
After the seeking of finance from several potential investors (including Chinese partner Dongfeng) proved inconclusive, PSA Peugeot Citroen is trying to convince 7% shareholder GM to merge Peugeot with Opel, which is also over-capacitated.
However, in doing so, GM would need to cut both Peugeot and Opel’s production capacities, which could mean factory closures and job losses in France and Germany. The French government is unlikely to allow this to happen in Peugeot’s home market.
“The Peugeot family has now accepted that they’ll lose control, so this is no longer an issue,” an unnamed source told the news agency. The Peugeot family owns an overall 25.4% stake in the company that commands 38.1% of voting rights.
Domestic market-dependent Peugeot burned €3 billion (RM12.4 billion) in operating cash last year, with its shares falling 77% over the past two years. Jobs have been cut, a production plan at Aulnay has been shelved and there has been a bailout by the French government. The carmaker must lay the groundwork for a capital injection this year, sources have said.
Reuters also reports that PSA Peugeot Citroen CEO Philippe Varin is expected to present a new industrial plan within months, with some officials also suggesting that the government or a state-owned investment vehicle could take a stake in Peugeot if necessary.
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That’s the end of Citroen and Peugeot.
Korean force is too strong these days.
No way- they will survive as they are good cars once economy recovers,
What happened to Peugeot? Loosing so much of money, cars not profitable?
dung dung dung another one bites the dust…
peugeot,citroen,alfa romeo all with rich heritage, motorsport history, pioneer in this and that, still cant sustain. what business model they are using?
anyone with business/economic background care to explain?
One of the “syok sendiri” business model like Tengku Mahaleel did for Proton back in the 2000s?
They should build more reliable car instead.
And do proper left-hand to right-hand drive conversions would be another good point.
the glovebox in the 208 is a joke. at the same time, it does sort of show how PSA is in trouble.
i wish drbhicom or naza can take over this company.
why?
The unions in France are very strong compared to Asian economies. Their employees get good salaries and benefits compared to the cheaper Asians.
Once everything is inked into the law, it is really hard to reduce the benefits because everyone will go on strike.
I wonder how many manpower hours are required to build a car in Europe vs Asia … then multiple the cost per employee per hour .
How is it that VW can pull through in EU but PSA can’t? I would not be quick to blame it on the workers when it is the overpaid CEOs and board members who are in the driver’s seat.
there are a few reasons why PSA aren’t doing well, and worker union is definitely one of the reason for why PSA is going down hill. Comparing to VW is a no brainer from the start since VW is doing so well, therefore giving into demands from workers are not a problem for them. The moment you start entertaining sickly ideas like workers can’t be fired then it’s bound to go wrong. Treating workers ok is ok but a company is not a parent to a bunch of helpless babies. They are not entitled to be cared for no matter what.
The other would the perception that French cars are junk. It is hell of a job to build a reputation, but it’s hell a lot easier to ruin a reputation, the same can be said for Alfa Romeo, where its problematic Selespeed gearbox totally ruined its reputation. Once you have ruined your reputation, people just stop buying your cars. Of course, no other automaker in the world is as good as Toyota in building up it’s reputation to give the perception that it builds the most reliable cars on Earth.
One more reason that I think is important is redundancy between Peugeot and Citroen. There are too few differentiation between a Peugeot and a Citroen. This again you have to take your hats off for VW and Toyota. There is enough differentiation between say a Skoda VS a SEAT VS a VW VS an Audi or say between a Scion VS a Toyota VS a Lexus.
In fact the major problem is that the cars are unreliable. What are they doing to fix it? Another issue is that it is poorly designed. Why can’t they develop proper right-hand drive vehicles? In fact, read any european review on a Peugeot over the last few years and you will see this recurring theme. What has the board at Peugeot been doing to solve these problems all these years? Do you think that by laying off workers that assemble the cars, it will solve these major problems?
It is as silly as saying that Proton should lay off their factory workers to improve their profits, when it is the quality and specs of their cars that is screwing them in the market.
If VW continues to ignore their DSG issues, they will also be down the same path with Alfa and their Selespeed problems.
The other french automaker Renault is doing surprisingly well despite the struggling european economy. Perhaps a change of leaderships is really what PSA needed considering the current lineup is not really justifying their pay.
Perhaps you are right. Peugeot seems to be struggling to made the right decision for their company.
Their refuse to try to enter the US with even with their lovable 208 and heroic RCZ.
Their new product takes too long to introduce and they dont seem to be ambitious enough to actually be in the top 5 car makers.
PSA-C shud learn from proton how to sustain in a very competitive market nowadays.