Sold to Seoul? Hyundai Reportedly in Talks to Buy Fiat Chrysler

From Car and Driver

Hyundai is reportedly seeking to buy all of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in a potential deal that could see the Italian-American automaker sold before CEO Sergio Marchionne retires next year.

According to unnamed sources speaking to the Asia Times, Hyundai is waiting for FCA shares to drop before “launching a takeover bid” starting this summer. The Asia Times also reports that activist hedge fund Elliott Management, which has more than $1 billion invested in Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors, and Hyundai’s parts division Mobis, is spurring the deal. In April, Elliott president Paul Singer pressured Hyundai to merge with Mobis and demanded it pay investors more than $10 billion in “excess cash.” Bloomberg reported in December 2017 that FCA and Hyundai began talks to co-develop hydrogen fuel-cell powertrains and transmissions. However, while Marchionne then said he saw the “potential of a technical partnership with Hyundai,” he dismissed talk of a merger of the two automakers.

Marchionne, who has said he will step down in April 2019, at FCA’s next annual investor meeting, has been trying to court buyers since immediately after FCA’s lackluster initial public offering in October 2014. He spun off Ferrari as an independent but FCA-steered entity in 2015. He pursued General Motors by emailing CEO Mary Barra in March 2015 and claiming the two automakers combined could make $5 billion more a year. He denied pursuing the Volkswagen Group in both 2014 and 2017 despite publishing an investor proposal in April 2015 calling for the world’s automakers to merge and share costs. As of last August, Chinese automaker Great Wall also considered purchasing Jeep.

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Hyundai was flush enough with cash to start the Genesis luxury brand, and it could conceivably buy out FCA. However, the company is in the midst of its own reorganization and eager to see its family-run company’s CEO, 80-year-old Chung Mong-koo, step down. Hyundai and FCA declined to comment on any potential deal.

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