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Fiat Chrysler open to mergers, and PSA is looking for one

GENEVA — Fiat Chrysler (FCA) is open to pursuing alliances and merger opportunities if they make sense, but a sale of its luxury brand Maserati is not an option, Chief Executive Mike Manley said on Tuesday. "We have a strong independent future, but if there is a partnership, a relationship or a merger which strengthens that future, I will look at that," Manley told reporters at the Geneva Motor Show. Asked whether he would consider selling Maserati to China's Geely Automobile Holdings, as suggested by recent media reports, Manley said: "Maserati is one of our really beautiful brands and it has an incredibly bright future. ... No." FCA is often cited as a possible merger candidate. Bloomberg said this week that the Italian-American carmaker was attractive to France's PSA Group given its exposure to the U.S. market and its popular Jeep brand. The Detroit News' headline on the situation Friday read, "Fiat Chrysler CEO open to a deal as PSA circles" and stated that Manley's open-to-just-about-anything comments were aimed directly at PSA. Bloomberg said talks between the two were preliminary and said PSA chief Carlos Tavares has also contemplated mergers with General Motors or Jaguar Land Rover, which is losing money for Indian owner Tata. PSA has enjoyed a decade of turnaround and has $10.2 billion in net cash available. The maker of Peugeot, Citroen and DS, acquired Opel and Vauxhall in 2017 and made them almost instantly profitable. Manley, who took over after the death of Sergio Marchionne, said he currently had no news on possible deals. Manley also said the world's seventh-largest carmaker, which is lagging rivals in developing hybrid and electric vehicles, would take the least costly approach to comply with increasingly more stringent European emissions regulations. "There are three options. You can sell enough electrified vehicles to balance your fleet. Two: You can be part of a pooling scheme. Three is to pay the fines," he said. "I don't see a scenario when (carmakers) continue to subsidize technologies ... indefinitely." The carmaker had said last June it would invest 9 billion euros ($10.19 billion) over the next five years to introduce hybrid and electric cars across all regions to be fully compliant with emissions regulations. Asked about a 5-billion-euro investment plan for Italy FCA announced in November but then put under review, Manley said the plan had been confirmed as originally presented.

Maserati likely delays Alfieri, new GranTurismo coming first

The Maserati Alfieri won't be the next vehicle from the Trident-badged brand to hit the market after the Levante crossover. Instead, replacements for the GranTurismo and GranCabrio will arrive first. For now, Maserati CEO Harald Wester won't even speculate about when the production Alfieri will debut. At the Geneva Motor Show, Motoring tried to pin Wester down about the Alfieri's future, but he wasn't in the mood to talk about the 2+2 sports car. The boss said he didn't know if the model was still on schedule and gave a terse "no comment" response about a possible launch next year. He did confirm Maserati's upcoming product slate, though. "The next one will be substitution of GranTursimo, GranCabrio by successors. We already had discussion about Alfieri and I don't want to go into details," Wester told Motoring. A report late last year claimed Maserati had delayed the Alfieri due to the weakening market in China. As opposed to launching the niche sports car there, FCA, parent company of both Maserati and Alfa Romeo, allegedly refocused its plans on updating the Alfa Romeo Mito and Giulietta, which are more popular in Europe. Maserati debuted the Alfieri as a concept at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, and FCA's five-year plan that year slated a production version for 2016 and a convertible variant for 2017. A selection of V6 engines with 410-, 450-, and 520-horsepower outputs would hook up to the rear or all four wheels, depending on the model. The Italian company also scheduled a new GranTurismo with at least 560 hp to launch in 2018. Maserati's desire to reach an annual volume of 75,000 vehicles by 2018 also looks in doubt. The company's original figure assumes launching the Levante on time, Wester told Motoring. Because of the luxury crossover's delay, the company now expects to reach 50,000 units a year by 2017. Related Video:

Marchionne says no offers are on the table for Fiat Chrysler

MONZA, Italy (Reuters) - Fiat Chrysler (FCA) has not received any offer for the company nor is the world's seventh-largest carmaker working on any "big deal", Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said on Saturday. Speaking on the sidelines of the Italian Formula One Grand Prix, Marchionne said the focus remained on executing the company's business plan to 2018. Asked whether FCA had been approached by someone or whether there was an offer on the table, he simply said: "No." The company's share price jumped to record highs last month after reports of interest for the group or some of its brands from China. China's Great Wall Motor Co Ltd openly said it was interested in FCA, but had not held talks or signed a deal with executives at the Italian-American automaker. The stock move was also helped by expectations that the company might separate from some of its units. Marchionne reiterated on Saturday that FCA was working on a plan to "purify" its portfolio and that units, such as the components businesses, would be separated from the group. He hopes to complete that process by the end of 2018. "There are activities within the group that do not belong to a car manufacturer, for example the components businesses. The group needs to be cleared of those things," he told journalists. Asked whether an announcement could come this year, Marchionne said it was up to the board to decide and that it would next meet at the end of September. He said the time was not right for a spin-off of luxury brand Maserati and premium Alfa Romeo and the two brands needed to become self-sustainable entities first and "have the muscle to stand on their feet, make sufficient cash". "The way we see it now, it's almost impossible, if not impossible, to see a spin-off of Alfa Romeo/Maserati, these are two entities that are immature and in a development phase," he said. "It's the wrong moment, we are not in a condition to do it." He said the concept of separating the two brands from FCA's mass market business made sense and did not rule out this happening in future, but not under his tenure, which lasts until April 2019. "If there is an opportunity in future, it would certainly happen after I'm gone. It won't happen while Marchionne is around," he said.