Stefan Nicola
| Bloomberg
Stellantis NV has shifted focus back to improving products after a period of painful cost cuts and it’s putting the manufacturer on stronger footing, according to Chairman John Elkann.
The automaker is enhancing quality, offering more hybrid models and repairing ties with dealers to turn around its business — changes that are already having an effect, Elkann said. Stellantis is chasing a recovery after recording €22.2 billion (about $26 billion) in charges last month mainly linked to unwinding excessively ambitious bets on electric vehicles.
“I am confident that Stellantis will turn the corner,” Elkann said in a letter to shareholders of Exor NV, the Fiat-founding Agnelli family’s investment company that controls the multi-national automaker.
A swing to a net loss last year meant that it “became a year of reckoning,” during which every part of Stellantis was scrutinized “to identify areas of improvement and begin fixing them decisively,” he added.
Exor, which also owns carmaker Ferrari NV and Juventus Football Club SpA, reported earnings late Monday that missed analyst projections. The shares fell as much as 7.7%, their steepest intraday drop since October. Stellantis shares traded in Italy are down about 40% this year.
In his letter, Elkann pledged strategic changes, saying that the investment firm will simplify its portfolio and focus on a smaller number of large companies so it can have better oversight.
Exor sold its media business Gedi Gruppo Editoriale SpA to Antenna Group this month having previously agreed the disposal of its Iveco Group NV stake to Tata Motors, alongside the sale of Iveco’s defense unit to Leonardo SpA, as it accelerated portfolio reshaping.
Even so, Exor increased its cash pool for acquisitions to more than €3.5 billion, allowing it to pursue a deal similar in scope to its investment in Royal Philips NV, Elkann said. The company in 2023 purchased 15% of the medical-equipment maker for some €2.6 billion and recently raised its stake to about 19%.
Elkann was chosen by his grandfather, Gianni Agnelli, in the 1990s to lead the family’s industrial interests. He temporarily headed Stellantis before current Chief Executive Officer Antonio Filosa took over in June.
Stellantis is looking to bolster competitiveness and is exploring deals with Chinese peers through which they would invest in its struggling European operations.
Elkann said 2026 will “continue to be a demanding year” for Exor. It has begun “with global geopolitical and market uncertainties, so we must remain prudent,” he told shareholders.
With assistance from Alberto Brambilla, Tommaso Ebhardt, Albertina Torsoli and Daniele Lepido