[1/2] Chairman of Stellantis and Ferrari John Elkann in Turin, Italy September 24, 2021. REUTERS/Massimo Pinca
MILAN, June 1 (Reuters) – Stellantis (STLAM.MI) doesn’t want the Italian state as a shareholder because the carmaker is in fine condition, its Chairman John Elkann mentioned on Thursday, responding to enterprise foyer requires Italy to speculate immediately within the group.
Paolo Scudieri, who heads the Italian automotive affiliation ANFIA, was quoted in Il Sole 24 Ore earlier on Thursday saying that it was “needed” and “proper” for Rome to immediately put money into Stellantis as a counterweight to the shareholding of the French state.
The French authorities, a former investor in Peugeot maker PSA which in 2021 merged with Fiat Chrysler to type Stellantis, is now a “related” shareholder within the Franco-Italian carmaker with round a 6% stake.
“I feel states put money into firms when firms are doing unhealthy. And Stellantis is doing excellent,” Elkann mentioned in Turin in feedback confirmed by a spokesman.
Elkann, the pinnacle of Italy’s Agnelli household and the CEO of its funding firm Exor (EXOR.AS), mentioned France’s position as a Stellantis shareholder was justified by difficulties PSA had up to now, which required French authorities intervention.
Exor is the only largest shareholder in Stellantis with a 14% stake.
Final yr, earlier than the September elections which introduced Giorgia Meloni’s centre-right authorities to energy, the present Trade Minister Adolfo Urso — who beforehand chaired the COPASIR parliamentary committee on safety — campaigned for state lender CDP to purchase a stake in Stellantis.
Urso is among the many promoters of a brand new strategic funding fund Rome is organising, doubtlessly permitting the federal government to purchase stakes in listed firms exterior of the monetary sector and take a extra activist industrial coverage, below a draft invoice seen by Reuters.
Nonetheless, a stipulation that the fund can goal firms headquartered in Italy appears to exclude an funding in Stellantis, which has its authorized base within the Netherlands.
Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari. Modifying by Jane Merriman
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