After many years of losses, Opel seems to be developing into a profitable car manufacturer under the umbrella of the renamed parent company Stallantis. In any case, Stellantis gives an overview of the operating profit of its subsidiary Opel-Vauxhall, which previously belonged to PSA, for the Corona year 2020 527 million euros, in the first half of the year there was an increase of 110 million euros. The annual profit of the daughter has shrunk by half compared to 2019. However, Opel also had to cope with a sales slump of 35 percent in the Corona year.
The brand with the lightning bolt has developed into a sustainably profitable company, said Opel boss Michael Lohscheller (52) in a letter to the workforce. The employees should share in the success with a bonus of 500 euros each.
A good one and a half months ago, Stellantis rose from the merger of PSA with Opel and Fiat-Chrysler to become the fourth largest car manufacturer in the world. The group with 14 brands and 400,000 employees worldwide also includes brands such as Citroën, Jeep, Maserati and Alfa Romeo. The newly formed auto giant, which sold almost six million cars last year, has “got off to a flying start”, according to CEO Carlos Tavares (62). Now it is important to achieve the announced synergies of five billion euros annually.
Tavares is sticking to synergies of five billion euros
Tavares wants to do without plant closings. However, analysts doubt that this will be possible without job cuts. “Stellantis has overcapacity of two million vehicles,” said Frank Schwope from NordLB. The auto analyst expects plants to be closed, especially in Italy, in the next few years. “Cost reductions and the reduction of massive overcapacities are likely to shape the next few years of the merged group so that Stellantis does not become an Atlantis.”
For the current year, Tavares specified an operating return in the range of 5.5 to 7.5 percent. For comparison: At Fiat Chrysler, the adjusted margin was 4.3 percent last year, at PSA it was 7.1 percent without the stake in the group-owned supplier Faurecia. Aggregated across all, the margin was 5.3 percent.
Fiat Chrysler is still behind the PSA group
Tavares is committed to bringing Fiat Chrysler’s returns to PSA’s as soon as possible. It is still unclear how the global shortage of computer chips, which affects almost all major car manufacturers, will affect business. Stellantis said the electrification offensive could weigh on results this year as well.
The native Portuguese Tavares said, looking at the business figures of the two merger partners, Stellantis was financially healthy. The Peugeot manufacturer PSA achieved a net profit attributable to the group of 2.2 billion euros last year – in the previous year it was 3.2 billion euros. Due to the Corona crisis, sales fell by around 19 percent to 60.7 billion euros.
At Fiat Chrysler (FCA), on the other hand, net profit in the continued business fell from 2.7 billion euros to just 24 million euros last year. Excluding special effects, the result slumped from 4.3 billion to just under 1.9 billion euros. Sales amounted to 86.7 billion euros – a fifth less than in the previous year.