Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot shareholders vote for merger with Peugeot

The shareholders of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot have voted in favor of the carmakers’ merger with overwhelming majority.

Reuters reported:

The shareholders of Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot have voted in favor of the carmakers’ merger with overwhelming majority.

Shareholders in Italian American carmaker Fiat Chrysler (FCA) on Monday approved a $52 billion plan to merge with Peugeot maker PSA to create Stellantis, the world’s fourth largest automotive group.

Chairman John Elkann said 99.15% of FCA’s shareholders attending a virtual meeting had voted in favour of the merger. That includes top investor EXOR, the holding company of Italy’s Agnelli family, which controls 44.4% of FCA’s voting rights thanks to a loyalty share scheme.

The New York TImes’ Jack Ewing wrote:

Together, the two companies believe they stand a better chance of surviving a transition to electric vehicles, which is happening faster than most analysts predicted.

“We are living through a profound era of change in our industry,” John Elkann, the chairman of Fiat Chrysler, told shareholders by video, drawing comparisons to Fiat’s founding at the dawn of the automobile age. “We believe the coming decade will redefine mobility as we know it.”

Paul A. Eisenstein from NBC News noted:

The deal wraps up FCA’s decadelong search for a partner, after the automaker was previously rejected by rivals including General Motors and Volkswagen. Officials have suggested the merger will yield billions of dollars in annual savings while helping Stellantis accelerate development of the electric and autonomous vehicles expected to transform the auto industry over the coming decade.

But there will remain plenty of challenges, starting with a double-digit decline in global car sales last year due to the coronavirus pandemic. As Stellantis, meanwhile, there could be significant pressure to dump some of the new company’s weaker brands, including FCA’s namesake Fiat and Chrysler.