PSA open to a Jaguar Land Rover takeover – report

Peugeot Citroen has confirmed it's considering a merger with (or acquisition of) struggling Jaguar Land Rover, provided the British marques wouldn't prove too much of a distraction.

Speaking with Autocar India, PSA Group boss Carlos Tavares said the company is "considering all opportunities" when it comes to takeovers and mergers.

He confirmed it would be good for PSA to have a luxury brand under its umbrella, too, arguing "if there are opportunities, of course, we will consider it".

"Why not? Why shouldn’t we discuss it?" he said, asked about a luxury brand to sit above DS. "It depends on what kind of value creation we could generate."

Carlos Tavares has proven willing to take on battling automakers, backing PSA to weather poor performance and turn things around. It took Opel and Vauxhall under its wing in August 2017, and last year managed to deliver a profit of €859 million ($1.376 billion) after years of red ink under General Motors control.

Behind the turnaround? Tavares swung the axe when he came on board, slashing almost 4000 jobs and shuffling a big chunk of the workforce from Germany to France.

The company has been bold with some of its product decisions, scrapping a near-complete Corsa development to instead build the next-generation car on the PSA Compact Modular Platform (CMP) to avoid paying licensing fees to General Motors.

“With Opel, we have demonstrated that we can turn around a company that was in the red for 20 years, in 12 months," Tavares told Autocar. 

"So this is something we know how to do.”

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