AUBURN HILLS, Michigan, United States (Reuters) – Stellantis (NYSE:) will stick to its “asset light” strategy on China, mainly focused on exporting to the country rather than manufacturing there, CEO Carlos Tavares told investors on Thursday.
Stellantis’ investor day came a day after the European Union, one of the Franco-Italian carmaker’s largest markets, said it would impose extra duties of up to 38.1% on imported Chinese electric vehicles from July.
Beijing criticised the EU tariffs on Thursday as protectionist behaviour and said it hoped the European bloc would correct its “wrong practices” and handle trade frictions through dialogue.
Tavares has previously criticised EU tariffs on imported Chinese cars.
“What is clear is that we don’t want to be defensive,” he said on Thursday, referring to tariffs on Chinese cars. “Our strategy that remains an asset-light strategy is about making sure that we are ourselves offensive and surfing the wave of the Chinese offensive,” he said during a presentation at the investor day in Auburn Hills, Michigan.
“Our asset light strategy in China is much more robust than that of many of our competitors.”
Stellantis has bought a 21% stake in Chinese automaker Leapmotor (HK:) and has formed a venture with it allowing the European automaker to sell and manufacture Leapmotor’s vehicles outside China.
Stellantis leads the JV with a 51% stake.
Earlier on Thursday Stellantis, whose brands include Fiat, Peugeot (OTC:), Jeep and Ram, maintained its 2024 financial forecasts and said it aimed to improve its dividend payout next year.
For 2025 the automaker will target the upper range of its 25% to 30% dividend payout policy versus the 25% paid in recent years, it said in a statement.
“The company will continue to use share buybacks and ordinary dividends to return excess cash to shareholders,” Stellantis said.
The group confirmed its forecasts for the current year, including an adjusted operating income margin of 10% to 11% in the first half, with “industrial free cash flows visibly below the prior year period”.
It said it would reward shareholders with at least 7.7 billion euros ($8.32 billion) through dividends and buybacks in 2024.
The group also said it aimed to reach liquidity levels – comprising available cash and untapped credit lines – of around 25-30% of its revenue in the long term.
Stellantis’ revenue amounted to almost 190 million euros last year.
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