Manley on merger : "No delays, negotiations are going well"

[Bili]

Translated by Google:

From 12 to 14 months to close . "The talks are progressing really well," Manley underlined, expressing confidence that the agreement could be finalized within the timescales announced at the beginning of December when the preliminary agreement was signed. "It will take 12 to 14 months because there are many areas in which we operate. There is no delay but it still takes time," explained the FCA CEO, who also ruled out the possible emergence of obstacles that could delay the whole integration process. Therefore, barring surprises, the merger should be completed between the end of the year and the beginning of 2021.

Synergies from platforms and volumes. Manley also reiterated the guarantees on safeguarding employment, in particular between France and Italy, and therefore excluded plans to reduce staff or close plants once the merger was completed. "Both houses have the reputation of being very lean companies", therefore an intervention on the factories "is not a key objective" in the search for synergies, which for the most part "will be generated by sharing platforms, by increasing volumes products from a single platform and shared purchases. This is the real focus for us. " The issue of platforms will however be one of the main topics of discussion, at least until an industrial plan is outlined. And indeed, Manley has not indicated which architectures will be privileged and which brands will be destined for: their use, the manager's words, "will be intuitive". The new president of ACEA added: "We have been talking about the concept of the global car for years, but the reality is that every area, be it China or Europe or the United States, is developing very differently. The global platform, in fact, is an elusive concept. What we really need to focus on are platforms that can be applied in every area with the certainty of being able to do two things: serve your customers and respect the laws in force with the right technology ".


Fusione FCA-PSA - Manley: "Nessun ritardo, le trattative procedono bene"

 

[Deckard Cain]

So the discussion about the platforms that will be used is still up in the year. I believe that the current plans will be maintained for the next year.
Otherwise, this period of uncertainty might lead to even more delays.

 

[Bili]

Guys... Sometimes listen what I'm trying to say.

As I've said platforms talk is not definitive one. Besides some platforms will live.

In any case Renault merger talk was much more mature than this one. This merger was born out of need. It's especially valid for PSA which is almost non existent outside of Europe.

 

[Deckard Cain]

Yes. PSA has money in the bank and some interesting small platforms for Europe that FCA can use.
FCA has everything else.

 

[Bili]

I would say interesting platform. It's single.

 

[TripleT]

They have a common architecture that they stretch on different build points. So again platform is not really a updated term. It is more of a VW or Ford model. Given the variety of vehicles they produce is limited in scope of size and limited mission, Not having a NA footprint I suppose that is ok. Given the diversity in roles FCA vehicles are asked to perform I would not expect that to be the case moving forward. They will need to optimize vehicles for the Use. Off Road, People moving, Performance.... all are very different. The Module model results in compromised vehicles.

 

[Bili]

@TripleT

I believe that FCA currently has somewhat broader view on what is a car arhitecture. And we'll see it in the very near future with some Giorgio derived products. From the all new Grand Cherokee to the all new Maserati GranTurismo. I'm not sure they are starting all these projects from the scratch.

 

[TripleT]

@TripleT

I believe that FCA currently has somewhat broader view on what is a car arhitecture. And we'll see it in the very near future with some Giorgio derived products. From the all new Grand Cherokee to the all new Maserati GranTurismo. I'm not sure they are starting all these projects from the scratch.

Especially NA, PSA has nothing that fits. And they sure has heck aren't changing carriers to something new in their high volume plants. It more likely that there will be a common architecture for small to small mid in Europe ….. form a PSA starting point then a plain adoption to PSA. Especially on the global Jeep products that have a entirely different mission.

 

[cgseller]

One thing to note, I expect this to impact delivery of any existing roadmap plans that were not already near manufacturing ready. I had an inside source that suggested the Chrysler purchase of AMC caused the delay of the "Cab Forward" cars by a year or so. They did obtain Jeep, but they could have had the (90s) Concord and Intrepid at the start of the decade ('91?)

 

[AlexB]

One thing to note, I expect this to impact delivery of any existing roadmap plans that were not already near manufacturing ready. I had an inside source that suggested the Chrysler purchase of AMC caused the delay of the "Cab Forward" cars by a year or so. They did obtain Jeep, but they could have had the (90s) Concord and Intrepid at the start of the decade ('91?)

That was a very different case than this FCA-PSA Merger. Chrysler takeout of AMC was North America deal with Chrysler selling Chrysler Europe to PSA over a decade prior to taking over AMC, and this FCA-PSA merger is about Europe.
Second point that goes with North America vs Europe is the strong c02 & (to a lesser extant) safety regulations by the European Union (E.U.) that will require FCA to overhaul the European line up to meet those E.U. regulations or pay massive fines and therefore FCA can't afford to delay new European models.

Hoever, without the E.U. regs threat, FCA would likely canceled a bunch of FWD plans in favor of waiting on Merger closing. So this is case of the Law driving new product out of FCA.