Peugeot-Fiat Chrysler merger gets Competition Comm nod

The Competition Commission has approved the proposed merger between auto majors Peugeot S.A and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. PSA is the holding company of a France-based group which is mainly an original equipment manufacturer and dealer of motor vehicles, passenger cars as well as light commercial vehicles under the brands Peugeot, Citroen, Opel, Vauxhall, and DS.

Headquartered in London, FCA is a global automotive group engaged in designing, engineering, manufacturing, distributing, and selling vehicles, components, and production systems. An official release issued on Thursday said that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the proposed merger.

Both companies have presence in India. In its notice seeking nod for the merger, the companies provided an assessment of competition with respect to markets for passenger vehicles and for sale of powertrains in India.

While announcing their merger in December 2019, both companies had said the merged entity would be the fourth largest original equipment manufacturer by volume and the third-largest by revenue. "The proposed combination will be an industry leader with the management, capabilities, resources, and scale to successfully capitalize on the opportunities presented by the new era in sustainable mobility," the two companies had said in a release in December last year.

Mergers and acquisitions beyond a certain threshold require approval of the CCI, which keeps a tab on anti-competitive practices in the market place.