Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne is reportedly whittling down the list of potential automotive merger partners and it’s now down to three.
A Reuters report suggests that he now views the short list of potential FCA suitors as down to Toyota, Volkswagen and Ford. Marchionne made the remarks to journalists on the sidelines of a shareholder meeting in Amsterdam.
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Reuters said that Marchionne also noted the Koreans were a possibility in terms of synergies to make a merger worthwhile, but said the “the Koreans don’t get married”.
“The door (on M&A) never closed, the need to consolidate does not go away,” he told Reuters.
He said he would be the one doing the merger if it happens during his tenure, which runs until the end of 2018, but if it is later than that, it would be “other people’s problem”, the report added.
Marchionne is keen to reduce the number of players in the auto industry and share the high costs of building greener and more intelligent cars, exploiting scale economies. He has made no secret of his preference for FCA to be part of a larger group and has made overtures to a number of OEMs. Last year he was rebuffed by General Motors.
See also: FCA talking to ‘non-core’ auto players – Marchionne
