PSA Asia Pacific R&D Center or Restructuring Asia with Independent East Wind


With the continuous promotion of equity cooperation between Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Ltd. (00489, HK, hereinafter referred to as Dongfeng Group) and the French Peugeot Citroen Group (hereinafter referred to as PSA), there are more and more signs that Dongfeng Group will be re-established in the Asian market. New business framework.

Recently, an PSA Asia Operations Department official said to reporters that the PSA Asia Pacific Research and Development Center is planning to “independence” from PSA Asia Pacific. Based on this center, Dongfeng Group will form a new joint venture technology research center with PSA. In the future, the technology will still be dominated by PSA, mainly serving Dongfeng Group and PSA's joint venture in China, Shenlong Automobile Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shenlong).

According to the cooperation plan announced by Dongfeng Group and PSA on February 19th, after Dongfeng Group's 14% shareholding in PSA, the two parties will jointly build overseas sales companies and set up a joint venture technology research and development center. At the same time, the PSA import car business will also be assigned to Shenlong. the company.

According to the reporter’s understanding, after Dongfeng Group’s shareholding in PSA, the Asian Business Development Committee will be set up. The Dongfeng Group will assume the chairmanship of the Asian Business Development Committee and will lead the future development of Asian business. This may mean that the functional role of PSA Asia Operations will gradually fade, and Dongfeng will also take the opportunity to rebuild the new Asian market business.

PSA Asia Pacific encounters "hollowing out"

“At present, we are still waiting for news, but it is only a matter of time before the PSA Asia Pacific R&D center is independent,” a person from PSA Asia Pacific told reporters.

According to the Dongfeng Group’s February 19 announcement, it will hold PSA 14% shares with the French government and the Peugeot family, respectively, and ranks as the largest shareholder. In the future, PSA's imported car business in China will be consolidated into the Dragon. In addition, Dongfeng and PSA will also strengthen the full value chain cooperation in technology, R&D, and manufacturing.

The first step in achieving a full value chain is to integrate resources. After Dongfeng shares PSA, it will integrate existing PSA's Asia-Pacific R&D center in Shanghai, and form a synergy with Dongfeng Motor's R&D center and Shenlong's R&D center to provide research and development services for Dongfeng Motor and Shenlong Automobile.

According to the reporter’s understanding, in terms of management, led by the Chinese side, the PSA Asia-Pacific R&D center is still responsible for the design work. The Shenlong Technology Center is responsible for the production process, engineering equipment, etc. The Dongfeng Technology Center is responsible for the product planning and market. jobs.

“In the process, integrating the PSA Asia Pacific Center is a key step. Although the center is only responsible for upstream design, it is a window directly connecting Asia and France headquarters and is an important part of the PSA Asia business unit.” A person was introduced to the reporter.

In fact, since the “independence” news of PSA Asia Pacific R&D Center was announced, many speculations of PSA Asia Pacific employees have been triggered. The reason is that the PSA Asia Operations Department, which has lost its imported vehicle business and R&D center, will face a “hollow” function. "".

According to the statistics, PSA Group's Asia Operations Department was established on September 1, 2010 and is headquartered in Shanghai. It is responsible for the development, partnerships and partnerships of PSA Group in China and other Asian countries and regions, marketing strategies, product plans, and local R&D capability development and procurement.

"Actually, the focus of PSA Asia Operations is still in the Chinese market, where the entity business is mainly imported cars and R&D centers." People close to PSA Asia Operations told reporters. At present, in several countries in Asia, except that the Chinese market has accounted for about 20% of PSA's global sales, sales in Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea are minimal, and the potential of the Southeast Asian market remains to be tapped.

According to the above-mentioned sources, after the two major business segments were stripped, the PSA Asia Operations Division had almost only supporting departments such as the Legal Department, Finance Department, and Human Resources.

Dongfeng’s dominance in the Asian market “gets the management rights of the Asia-Pacific R&D center and imported car business. The benefits to Shenlong are obvious.” Some market analysts have told reporters that on the one hand, Shenlong will have more in terms of new car imports in the future. Right of speech; On the other hand, at the technical R&D center, Dongfeng can also dispatch three major technical centers and play a dominant role.

The adjustment of this function also confirmed Dongfeng’s division of tasks in the cooperation between the two sides. According to the memorandum of understanding signed between Dongfeng Group and PSA, Dongfeng Group, apart from acquiring two seats among the other eight members of the PSA Board of Supervisors non-independent committee members, the composition of the PSA Board of Supervisors' committees will also be revised. The representatives of the Dongfeng Group will be chaired. Asian Business Development Committee. This means that the future development of PSA in Asia will be led by Dongfeng Group.

It is understood that PSA will increase the investment in R&D to production of the joint venture company Shenlong Co., Ltd., which will double its production and sales volume in 2020 compared with 2013 and reach an annual production and sales volume of 1.5 million vehicles. The Peugeot brand, the Citroen brand and the Dongfeng brand model will each bear the production and sales target of 500,000 vehicles. “According to the plan, after reaching a full-value chain cooperation agreement, Shenlong hopes to gain the full set of development capabilities and localized product development like Shanghai Volkswagen,” a person close to the Dongfeng Group told reporters.

In order to achieve this goal, the Peugeot and Citroen brands under the Shenlong Motor Group will each guarantee the introduction of new models of 1 or 2 models per year. The future of Dongfeng's own brand models will also be led by the Chinese side to develop models.

In addition, in overseas markets, especially in Asia, both parties will also establish a joint venture sales company to promote the sales and service of Peugeot, Citroen and Dongfeng brand products in the Asia Pacific region, and expand the overseas sales of the two companies.

“Currently, the direct benefit of PSA is that Dongfeng has obtained the development and dominance of the Asian market.” industry analysts said.

The integration of R&D resources faces challenges
“Dongfeng Inc., including Dongfeng Brand's subsidiary, will share technology with PSA in the future, not limited to platforms and powertrains, and the two parties will jointly develop new products and technologies applicable to emerging market countries, using PSA in Asia and The channels of South America and Russia are exported," a person close to the Dongfeng Group told reporters. This also means that Dongfeng Group hopes to develop localized products in its new joint venture R&D center.

As we all know, Dongfeng Group has been hoping to acquire the core technology of PSA during its eight-month negotiations with PSA. As early as January of this year, Dongfeng Group had already proposed to purchase PSA Asia Pacific R&D Center.

The above-mentioned person close to the Dongfeng Group told reporters that before Dongfeng Group’s shareholding in PSA, although PSA Asia Pacific Center did not participate in the research and development of technologies such as powertrains, the center enjoyed the “right to visualize” of core technical documents, and in part Technical drawings will also be processed in Shanghai and then transferred to the Shenlong Technology Center to enter the final production process. After Dongfeng and PSA form a new R&D center, these technical documents will be open to shareholders.

Despite having "near-water towers" in contact with core technologies, there are also industry insiders who are concerned about whether Dongfeng Group can participate in research and development and acquire core technologies.

According to sources, the joint venture R&D center of Dongfeng and PSA will be built on the basis of PSA Asia Pacific R&D Center, and the work site will still be located in Shanghai. In terms of staffing, the current PSA's approximately 600 employees in Shanghai will be included in the new Joint venture R & D center. This also means that Dongfeng will deploy technicians and management teams to settle in. However, Dongfeng’s technical team's role in the R&D center and the integration of the two teams will be difficult.

“From such an organizational framework, Dongfeng may face challenges in its management in the future. Apart from the issues of management between the two places, whether the core technologies that have been long-lasting for the east wind can really achieve their desired results remains to be seen.” Said, "After all, I want to learn how to research and develop a complete set of technologies that require both parties to truly integrate R&D and exchange. One party is willing to teach and one party is serious about learning."



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