Volvo seems to be doing fine under Chinese ownership, even though most were understandably skeptical, immediately after hearing about that controversial deal going down.
We’re bringing this up now, because another traditional European manufacturer, PSA Peugeot-Citroen, is having serious financial trouble and according to a recent report, China-based automaker Dongfeng is looking to grab a third of the company’s shares.
Now going through its worst period of the last two decades, PSA “is examining new industrial and commercial development projects with different partners, including the financial implications that would accompany them,” said a spokesman, but concluding that “None of these projects has reached maturity at this stage.”
The Bloomberg source article reads that the Chinese would be willing to offer $1.63- (€1.2-) billion for 30 percent of the company, and while we can’t say for sure that it’s the exact amount they would end up paying, the link between the two companies is there, with official statements of interest from both sides.
PSA’s CEO, Philippe Varin did speak about this last month, saying that they did carry out preliminary talks, and their partnership would first be an industrial one, and only after that stage is complete would they talk about finances.
Dongfeng has been making Peugeot-branded cars with old PSA bits in China since 2004, so we could assume that that was part of the mentioned industrial partnership - the two companies are linked, so this report seems to be of the more plausible kind. We will follow it up when new information arises.
Note: The model pictured is the 2006 Citroen C2 built by the Dongfeng-PSA joint venture in China – and yes, it is clearly a Peugeot 2006 underneath.
By Andrei Nedelea
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