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NEWS
Volkswagen and Fiat deny merger rumours
German magazine's report slammed separately by VW and FiatVolkswagen and Fiat are not engaged in talks ahead of a merger or acquisition, contrary to a report out of Germany this week.
According to US publications Automotive News and Bloomberg, neither of the two car-making giants admit any factual basis to the article published by German website Manager Magazin. Unnamed sources in that story advised that VW chairman Ferdinand Piech had been in the early throes of negotiation with the Agnelli family – the long-standing owners of the Fiat Group.
While the web story mentioned merging the two companies, Volkswagen's rebuttal specifically indicated there were no acquisitions on the horizon for the company, according to the Automotive News report.
In the report by the American publication Fiat also refuted any plans to merge the two companies. A shareholder in Fiat – Exor, with a 30 per cent stake in the company – also denied that any talks with Volkswagen had taken place.
The anonymous sources in the Manager Magazin report had told the web publication that Fiat's Agnellis were planning to leave the mainstream automotive world, concentrating their attention on Ferrari alone. And Chrysler would be delegated the role of supporting Volkswagen in the USA.
Automotive News quoted a Milanese industry analyst, Gabriele Gambarova, calling the original report "realistic."
Another analyst, working for Bankhaus Metzler in Frankfurt, suggested that a merger of Volkswagen and Fiat would bring to fruition that much sooner the German company's long-range plans to be the world's most popular automotive brand.
"Volkswagen has an urge to become the No. 1 global automaker, and an acquisition of that size would bring them to their target immediately," Juergen Pieper was quoted saying in the Automotive News article.
"But real interest in Fiat as a whole is rather unrealistic and would entail many problems," including Fiat's struggles in Europe and potential antitrust issues in South America."
Automotive News also drew on the news-gathering resource of the Wall Street Journal, which reported two insiders denying any talks were taking place. One of those sources told the WSJ that the Agnelli family was planning to incorporate the Fiat Chrysler merger in the Netherlands, in order to take advantage of Dutch law that would facilitate easier control of FCA for the family.
That in itself seems to put paid to the rumours of a merger between VW and Fiat, if one of the central tenets of such a plan were to be the Agnellis' exit strategy from the automotive world.
Another reason why the merger speculation doesn't hold water is the known antagonism between VW's Piech and Fiat CEO, Sergio Marchionne. Piech has been rumoured in the past to have his eye on the Alfa Romeo brand, but Marchionne is on record as saying he would never relinquish the iconic Italian company.
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Written byCarsales Staff
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