Faurecia says it is “up to PSA Peugeot Citroen” what it will do with its stake in the French supplier as rumours continue to swirl the automaker could dispose of its 57% share of the component producer.
Speculation has centred on a possible disposable of PSA’s stake in Faurecia as the manufacturer potentially looks to become closer to Chinese partner, Dongfeng, a move some indicate could raise around EUR3bn (US$4bn) in partnership with the French government.
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“As the main shareholder of Faurecia stock, it is up to PSA Peugeot Citroen to decide what it intends to do with its majority stake,” noted a statement sent to just-auto from the supplier’s Paris headquarters.
“Faurecia does not comment on rumours or speculation.”
Faurecia insisted “on a day-to-day basis” it continued to be managed fully independently from PSA on three points, namely operations, financing and governance.
The component maker pointed out from a customer standpoint, PSA was third behind Ford and Volkswagen, while its financing was “fully secured and with no link to PSA.”
It also added out of the 13 members on the Faurecia board of directors, seven are independent “and thus constitute a majority.”
PSA recently unveiled third-quarter revenue from new vehicle sales of EUR5.5bn, down 9.9% from EUR6.1bn in the previous year, due to what it said was the “sharp” 7.3% drop in assembled vehicle sales outside China.
The automaker said this reflected an unfavourable market mix, Group pricing policy and growing pressure on market shares from premium and low cost brands in Europe.
“Faurecia is not for sale – this is what we say at the beginning of 2013 and we did not change our position,” a PSA spokeswoman told just-auto from Paris.
PSA also inked a social contract deal recently with the majority of its unions.
