Stellantis Reorganizes Financing Agreements With Banks, Plans Leasing JV -- Update

By Cristina Roca

Stellantis NV has entered into exclusive talks with the consumer-finance units of BNP Paribas SA, Credit Agricole SA and Banco Santander SA to reorganize its financing partnerships and set up a leasing company.

The Netherlands-based car maker intends to set up a multi-brand operational leasing company with Credit Agricole, it said Friday. The 50-50 joint venture will aim to manage a fleet of more than one million vehicles by 2026, making it one of the top five European companies in long-term leasing.

Credit Agricole's consumer-finance unit would also establish a wholly owned multi-brand operator in automotive financing, leasing and mobility. CA Consumer Finance would buy Stellantis out of the 50% stakes in FCA Bank and Leasys Rent it currently owns. The deal would be overall neutral for the French bank's common equity Tier 1 ratio--a measure of its capital strength.

BNP Paribas's personal-finance unit would become Stellantis's exclusive financing partner in Germany, Austria and the U.K., building on an existing partnership. The French lender said the impact on its CET 1 ratio is expected to be around 5 basis points.

Spain's Santander would become the car maker's exclusive financing partner for all its brands in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands and Portugal, expanding a previous agreement.

Most of the partnerships will be conducted via joint ventures, Stellantis said. The only financing activity excluded from the exclusivity agreements with the banks would be business-to-business operational leasing.

The agreements could be signed in the first quarter of 2022, and should be completed during the first half of 2023, Stellantis said.

Write to Cristina Roca at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 17, 2021 04:19 ET (09:19 GMT)

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