A French-Italian Connection? Fiat And PSA Said To Be Dating

For days, Fiat’s CEO Sergio Marchionne had made noises that his company cannot survive alone and is in urgent need of a strong partner to live to tell the tale in the nasty car business. He may have found a suitor, the Italian business paper Milano Finanza (sub) reports: PSA, maker of Peugeot and Citroen. According to the paper, the marriage is being arranged at the highest levels: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are discussing to tie the knot between their countries’ automakers. There could even be a dowry: Berlusconi is currently thinking about aid to the auto sector. Except for Fiat, Italy hasn’t much of an auto sector. PSA and Fiat are no strangers. They have two joint ventures, one for trucks and one for the “Eurovan” MPVs. Combined output of the two companies was 6.2m units last year. A combined Fiat-PSA would have a good shot at the number 4 slot, with Toyota first, GM second, and VW third. Fiat-PSA would have to duke it out with Ford and Renault-Nissan. What’s the prospective couple saying to all this?

Marchionne had recently supposed that globally, there is only room for six global players in the automotive world : “By the time we finish with this in the next 24 months, as far as mass-producers are concerned, we’re going to end up with one American house, one German of size; one French-Japanese, maybe with an extension in the U.S.; one in Japan; one in China and one other potential European player.”

Apart from fast-talking Marchionne, the potential couple is keeping quiet. Fiat and PSA spokespeople had no immediate comment. John Elkann, chairman of holding company IFI, Fiat’s controlling shareholder, will meet Berlusconi on Wednesday, Milano Finanza said. And let’s not forget, the French Connection is known for its great car chases.