Peugeot family ready to back further acquisitions

The PSA Group, which currently owns the Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Opel and Vauxhall brands, is open to acquiring a few more marques for its portfolio, and it has the backing of one of its biggest shareholders.

At the recent Geneva motor show, Carlos Tavares, CEO of the PSA Group, said he would "love to [have discussions] with people who are looking for deals".

Jaguar Land Rover and Fiat Chrysler are seen as PSA's most likely partners.

The former is battling heavy losses after suffering the triple whammy of Brexit, a drop in demand for diesels, and a dramatic slow down in the Chinese market.

Fiat Chrysler, on the other hand, has long been in favour of further consolidation within the automotive sphere. Under former CEO Sergio Marchionne, it even tried to court GM both directly and through the media.

In an interview with Les Echos (via Automotive News), Robert Peugeot said, "If another opportunity comes up, we will not be braking, Carlos knows that".

On a tie-up with Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot replied, "With them, as with others, the planets could be aligned".

The three main shareholders in the PSA Group are the French government, Chinese car company Dongfeng, and the Peugeot family, each of whom own a 12.23 per cent stake in the automaker.

The PSA Group was formed in 1976 when Peugeot bought a majority stake in Citroen. Later in the decade it took over Chrysler Europe, which was then selling cars under the Chrysler and Simca brands.

More recently, in 2017, PSA bought Opel/Vauxhall which, under GM's stewardship, had bled red ink since the start of the millennium. Last year, well ahead of schedule, Opel/Vauxhall made a profit of €859 million ($1.4 billion).

Robert Peugeot called the Opel turnaround an "exceptional success", noting the family "didn't think that the recovery could be as fast".

In the past few years automakers have been busy finding partnerships to help build scale and spread out development costs, especially for new technologies and small volume, high profile vehicles.

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