PSA

This November, we receive the financial results of Japanese automakers for the first half of their fiscal year, which ends at the end of March. Awaiting of Nissan, which will only be made public this week, we can look at those of Toyota and Honda, which already reveal the unequal exposure of Japanese carmakers to the decline in global demand that is now taking shape.

 

From this point of view, Toyota impresses by posting increasing volumes, sales and results.
Toyota sold 4.64 million vehicles from April to September, 220,000 more than last year. Its turnover increased by 600 billion yen (almost 5 billion euros), i.e. by 4%, and its operating income by 140 billion yen (1.16 billion euros, +11%). Its operating margin was 8.6% of turnover for the first half of the previous year, compared to 9.2% for the first six months of 2020.

 

A mesure que se précisent les termes exacts du deal en cours de négociation et les réactions des marchés, les contours de ce 50-50 paraissent un peu moins "paritaires". En effet, les financiers calculent sur la base des valorisations respectives des deux groupes avant l’annonce du projet et des opérations qui vont être conduites avant le deal que l’on serait plutôt à 60-40 au profit de PSA et que PSA consent donc pour que le deal se fasse à un important sacrifice.

En effet, à la clôture de mercredi soir, la capitalisation de PSA s'élevait à 23,19 milliards d'euros quand celle de FCA s'établissait à 18,22 milliards d'euros. On a appris que, avant la réalisation de l’opération, FCA distribuerait à ses actionnaires un dividende exceptionnel de 5,5 milliards d’euros, ainsi que sa participation dans Comau estimée à 250 millions d'euros.

As we are informed in late October of the financial results for the third quarter of 2019 of the automotive groups, a rather difficult year 2019 is looming for most manufacturers and everything suggests that things will not improve in 2020: a large majority of markets are on a downward trend and it is imperative to continue investing.

 

Investing for a carmaker means both feeding the "business as usual" by regularly renewing the products. It also means, of course, launching or developing in new fields by setting up in countries where it was not present, or not enough, by creating new brands or by developing R&D skills that were not its own until then.
In all these cases, there is a need to spend now and, in most cases, several years in a row, expecting future revenues that may or may not become a reality.

As if to mark his difference and/or to highlight what might have opposed her to Thierry Bolloré (Renault's former CEO, recently laid off), Clotilde Delbos (appointed to replace him) began her interim period at the head office of the Renault group with a "profit warning": no, the return to positive cash flow in the second half of the year will not offset the €700 million negative cash flow of the first half; no, revenue will not be constant but will fall by 3 to 4% and the operating margin will be 5% rather than 6% as announced in July; no, the 2022 plan will not be implemented and it is urgent to redefine it so that everyone knows where he is going.

 

She did not just talk to the analysts. She also spoke on Tuesday in a video for employees to tell them that the "Drive the Future" plan had to be taken up again because the market has changed over the past two years and that "unfortunately, the situation did not improve during the summer" and requires that the strategy be adjusted to "get Renault back on track".

The show goes on and the last episode was the brutal eviction of Thierry Bolloré (Renault's CEO) on Friday.

 

This is willingly commented on as the counterpart to Saikawa's which would have been desired by the Nissans and - as some presume - agreed by Jean-Dominique Senard (Renault's Chairman) that the trio of leadership candidates should be put in the order he wanted to see prevail.
The government and the agency of state shareholdings ("APE3: Agence des Participations de l'Etat) which, after having wished for the Renault-Nissan merger and having favourably considered the Renault-FCA operation, seem to have finally understood since the beginning of June that the relaunch of the Alliance should be the priority given to J.-D. Senard would have validated the option. The undertaking would therefore mainly be a process of "de-ghosnisation" of the top management of the two companies necessary for a new start.

 

If this interpretation contains some truth, it is probably a little short, however.

Toyota a annoncé le 28 août qu’elle allait recruter 500 personnes sur son site d’Onnaing. Ces nouvelles recrues viendront porter les effectifs à 4 500 employés et correspondent à l’investissement de 300 millions d’euros annoncé début 2018 pour porter les capacités de production du site à 300 000 véhicules par an. La direction indique que les effectifs sont passés de 2 938 CDI en janvier 2018 à 3 150 aujourd’hui, avec un objectif à 3 600 d’ici fin 2020.

L’interview que Carlos Tavares a donné au Figaro visait en apparence à alerter les politiques et les citoyens sur les dangers encourus par nos économies et nos industries en laissant les autorités européennes fixer à l’industrie automobile pour la période 2021-2030 un cap de réduction des émissions de CO2 de -37,5%.

 

Prenant les politiques de haut et fort de la réussite du groupe qu’il conduit, il n’hésite pas à taxer leurs votes et discussions "d’amateurisme". Feignant de ne penser qu’au collectif, il met en garde les députés et les gouvernements sur les conséquences qu’auront selon lui pour l’emploi et le commerce extérieur européen la décision désormais arrêtée d’obliger les constructeurs à électrifier massivement leurs immatriculations contre la volonté des consommateurs dont il se veut le porte-parole. 

February in corporate France is both the month of the presentation of financial results and the month in which management and trade union organisations must close the so-called Négociations Annuelles Obligatoires ("mandatory annual negotiations").

 

Led in the midst of the "yellow vests" social movement in a context where PSA is doing very well and Renault is doing well, one might have expected that after having imposed years of hardship, manufacturers would have given up a little in France and granted the wage increases requested by the unions for 2019.

Indeed, while management is quite happy to grant bonuses that have the great merit of being able to be awarded or not from one year to the next depending on the company's results, and are also exempt from social security contributions, they are reluctant to accept general salary increases.

Conversely, trade unions would like to obtain wage increases that are irreversible and involve an increase in contributions and, therefore, in unemployment or pension rights later.

 

As L'Humanité (French communist daily newspaper) pointed out on Wednesday:

No one had wanted to believe in Brexit and it came. No one wanted to believe in a "no deal" and this is the scenario that is now emerging.

 

It was clear that it was politically important for Brussels to flex muscles and to indicate that opting out would have a cost. 

It was clear that Brexit supporters, on the other hand, were keen on showing that they did not intend to let themselves be reimposed on Brussels standards as part of a deal.

However, it was thought on both sides that reason would eventually prevail and that well-understood interests on both sides of the Channel would lead to a Norwegian-style free-trade agreement. 

The anti-Theresa May vote on 15 January shattered these hopes, which were a reason not to be very actively preparing for a "no-deal". In the automotive industry, as elsewhere, we must take up our calculatoragain and try to understand very quickly what is likely to happen.

 

To this end, a number of statistical realities should be recalled with respect to British motor vehicle foreign trade. 

Scott Pruitt, patron de l’E.P.A. et ancien Procureur Général de l’Oklahoma nommé par Trump en 2016 à la tête de l’Agence dont il avait combattu comme Procureur bien des décisions, a annoncé le lundi 2 avril que les normes d’émission – le fameux CAFE pour Corporate Average Fuel Economy c’est à dire moyenne des économies de carburant réalisées par entreprise - qui avaient été fixées à l’industrie automobile opérant sur le marché américain en 2011 pour 2025 seraient réexaminées. Plus précisément, il a fait valoir que l’accord initial incluait une procédure d’évaluation de la pertinence des normes appliquées à mi-parcours et argué que l’évaluation conduite par l’administration Obama avait été conduite trop tôt et trop hâtivement (1). Son administration a donc refait, en 2018, ce travail et conclut que l’administration Obama “avait fait des hypothèses pour définir les normes qui ne cadrent pas avec la réalité et qui l’ont amenée à choisir des normes excessivement exigeantes ” (2).

 

Les historiens du marché commun nous ont appris que les deux grands américains ont joué un rôle clé dans la construction d’une Europe de l’automobile qu’ils ont perçue très tôt comme une condition d’efficacité de leurs dispositifs industriels dans la région.

Ils ont utilisé l’adhésion du Royaume-Uni pour réduire la voilure de leurs sites anglais qu’ils considéraient comme peu performants et socialement ingérables en cessant d’en faire des sites exportateurs pour réserver leurs productions au marché britannique et importer au Royaume Uni depuis le continent une part importante des véhicules qu’ils y vendaient (1). Ils ont, lorsque le second choc pétrolier et la chute de Franco ont coïncidé, utilisé l’opportunité de l’ouverture du marché commun à la péninsule ibérique pour y implanter l’assemblage des petits modèles qu’ils ont lancés alors (Fiesta pour Ford, Corsa pour Opel) (2).