“We are working hard and relations with Peugeot have always been very good. I believe that by the end of the year we will reach the memorandum, even if it remains to be studied how the two families will find themselves in the new society, but it is beyond doubt the willingness on the part of both to do the maximum to give stability “. It could not be the imminent merger between FCA and PSA the main argument of the meeting that John Elkann organized, for the ten years of Exor, before turning to investors. “We have been present in the auto sector for 120 years, I don’t see what should change in the next ten”, he adds with a smile to those who ask him how he sees the Exor universe in the future.
He adds: “On the car we have strengthened our commitment, just look at what Fiat was and what it became after the merger with Chrysler and now with Psa. We are with companies that have done great things and that have great strength. It is not true that we will not be a reference shareholder and I do not see any change in my role, it will continue “.
But some thorns also come from the car world, like the lawsuit brought by General Motors exploded in the last hours. “On the GM case we consider it devoid of any foundation and will be treated in the right places. I only regret an attack like that on a person like Sergio Marchionne who is not here with us and cannot defend himself”.
And again on PSA. “With Renault it didn’t go wrong, it simply didn’t end. While with PSA there is also the component in the Asian continent, right where we expect to expand more in the coming years. This is an operation in which both partners are strengthened “.
But Exor doesn’t just mean cars. And ten years of activity are in an impressive goal of which to pull together. “It is an important day for us – says Elkann – to think about these ten years since Exor was born, following the merger of the various companies linked to my family into a single holding company”. “It has been a decade in which those who trusted us have had results, including appreciation and dividends, in which investing one euro earned ten. We are very happy, even to have shareholders and institutional investors who have supported us and believed in us . By 2022 we expect to generate up to 2 billion euros for possible acquisitions, to which we add the 1.6 billion resulting from the merger with PSA “.
But from 2009 to today, the Exor universe has changed quite a bit. “During this decade we have had a big rotation, with sales, but also important acquisitions. We have gone from almost half of our capital invested in companies of which we had no control to companies in which today we have almost total control, as reference shareholders: all with a stable and constant dividend policy “.
“Our companies – he adds – have not only changed, but changed, as happened with FCA, which has become three different companies from one company and soon CNH will become two distinct companies, the spin off should be completed by 2020”.
Being Exor, however, according to President Elkann is not just a question of numbers. “We wanted to reflect on the most important aspect, reaching the goal of ten years: the importance of culture, which is a meeting between entrepreneurial spirit and financial discipline. We wanted to try to be clear with what we do: our aim is to build with Exor large companies and with a code of conduct towards those who deal with us “. “We don’t want so much to celebrate results that we are all proud of, but to think about what we want to do, having spent time defining who we are and what we want to be.”
Inevitably thinking of the future too: “The next ten years will see us as in the last hundred committed to building big companies – John Elkann guarantees -. We will buy new ones and continue to develop our investment capacity, even in the start-up or business sector family-run or where the founder is still present, therefore of first generation “. “We have a single goal: the growth of our Nav compared to the global stock market index, carefully measuring our debt that we would like to continue and reduce over the next decade. And we will pay great attention to an emerging theme such as the impact on the environment and on society. It is an element that will increasingly play a part in how one interprets the role of being a great company “.
Finally, a memory for those who no longer exist. “In these years we have had great men like Sergio Marchionne and in our league, looking at those who are our competitors, we can be at the top of the rankings”. Recent past, but also more ancient, if you go back to the founder: “There is a phrase by Senator Agnelli that inspires and inspires us: trust in the future and being able to build innovations that improve society. He succeeded despite two world wars and difficult political situations such as fascism and communism “.
Then there is a soul of Exor that leaves room for considerations that go beyond the numbers and budgets, going to make even more human strings vibrate, like those of typhus. “We believe that Juventus is a leader in world football and we want to support it because it continues to be so in the future. And if one also sees growth in value, this is also shared as investors”, says Elkann, who also has a thought for Formula One, at Ferrari: “On Sunday I was very angry (the reference is to the incident between Vettel and Leclerq that put both the Rossa drivers off the game.) It was a very important season, with a pole position number that didn’t occur from the Seventies. What happened on Sunday not only made us angry, but it made us realize how important Ferrari is, even in the presence of very good riders. What matters is that Ferrari wins and Binotto has been very clear about this ” .