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Stellantis NV announced it has broken off its joint venture with China’s Guangzhou Automobile Group Co. Ltd. (GAC). The Hoofddorp, Netherlands-headquartered automobile company, also said it would file for bankruptcy of its money-losing JV, and the decision was approved by the company’s shareholders.
Stellantis and GAC Group’s joint venture, which has been named GAC-FCA, has been building the former’s Jeep brand vehicles in China. However, as they proved that the business was not profitable and only resulted in losses, the Chinese automaker also agreed to the bankruptcy filing.
Moreover, Stellantis said in a statement it had already reduced the amount of its investment in the JV with the GAC Group in its first half of 2022 financial results report. But despite the decision, the company said it will not end its service but will keep offering them to all its customers and owners of Jeep in China.
According to Reuters, the automaker actually discontinued its joint venture with GAC in July, and this was just months after saying it would invest more in the business. The company mentioned at that time that it would raise its stake from 50% to 75%, but in the end, the business folded with the closing of the JV instead of putting more money into it.
In any case, when the financial results were reported three months ago, Carlos Tavares, the chief executive officer of Stellantis, said the last five years of "the political influence" in doing business with its collaborators in China has been increasing by the day, and this could be one reason for dissolving the JV. Then again, the CEO said he does not see any major long-term effect from the termination of the joint venture.
“The shareholders of the GAC-FCA Joint Venture, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. and Stellantis N.V., have approved a resolution authorizing the Joint Venture to file for bankruptcy, in a loss-making context,” the company said in a press release. “Stellantis fully impaired the value of its investment in the GAC-FCA JV and other related assets in its first half 2022 financial results.”
The company added that “Stellantis will continue providing quality services to existing and future Jeep brand customers in China.”
