Following an article in Automotive News Europe, we read that the merger between equals between PSA and FCA was in fact an acquisition of the latter by the former. On closer inspection, this theory is very fragile and, although the review of the deal negotiated in August was a way of making PSA's point of view prevail, the fiction of a merger between equals is for the moment safe.
Automotive News Europe's correspondent in Italy, Andrea Malan, has had some success in tracking down in the documents published on the PSA and FCA websites - and, in particular, in the "prospectus" announcing how Stellantis is to be formed - the paragraph which states that, for accounting reasons, it is, even in the case of a merger between equals, necessary to designate a buyer and an acquirer. The article suggests that the fact that, in order to meet this requirement, the choice was made to consider that it was PSA that acquired FCA and not the other way round is not accidental.
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