Peugeot SA share price up, appoints Louis Gallois as new Chairman

According to people familiar with the matter, the Board of PSA Peugeot Citroën has reached a unanimous decision of appointing Louis Gallois, who is a former Chief Executive Officer of Airbus Group NV, to the position of Chairman and a successor of Thierry Peugeot, who is stepping down. The board is also said to be in a process of naming representatives of its two new major shareholders – Dongfeng Motor Corp. and France.

PSA Peugeot Citroën made a statement, revealing that its supervisory board supported Louis Gallois. The company also announced that the nomination of Mr. Gallois will need the approval of the companys shareholders at their annual meeting scheduled in late April.

If Mr. Gallois is to be named as the new Chairman of the company, this is going to be the first time when the position goes in the hands of an outsider to the car manufacturers founding family. Mr. Gallois is said to be leading over Gerard Hauser, who is an ex Chief Executive Officer of Nexans SA, with a great precedence.

One of the analysts, who work for Commerzbank AG – Sascha Gommel commented on Mr. Gallois for Bloomberg: “ His track record is quite good with regards to his performance at his former employers. He’s well aware of the needs of PSA in terms of investing not in France, not in Europe, but rather elsewhere. He might help to get the message across to the government.”

The board of the company is also going through changes. As a result, five of the boards members have decided to resign their positions in PSA Peugeot Citroën – Marie-Hélène Roncoroni, Jean-François Kondratiuk, Jean-Philippe Peugeot, Thierry Pilenko and Jean-Louis Silvant. The new board of the company is expected to include six independent board directors. Two of them will be from each of the major shareholder groups of Peugeot and the remaining two will represent the companys employees.

Another analyst working for CM-CIC Securities – Florent Couvreur commented on the choice of Peugeots board: “It’s a very good choice, as he’s always done a good job in all the positions he’s had in the past. Now, everybody wonders whether he’ll be independent or not, knowing that he’s been working for state-owned or state-controlled companies his whole life.”

Peugeot SA rose by 2.28% by 12:23 GMT in Paris to 13.43 euros, marking a one-year change of +107.57%. The French car manfuacturer is valued at 4.7 billion euros. According to the Financial Times, the 22 analysts offering 12-month price targets for Peugeot SA have a median target of 10.25 euros, with a high estimate of 18.00 euros and a low estimate of 5.50 euros. The median estimate represents a -21.93% decrease from the previous close of 13.13 euros.