(Bloomberg) -- Stellantis NV is working to rebuild trust with dealers, suppliers, unions and governments after a period of tension under former Chief Executive Officer Carlos Tavares.
There were “increasing diversions” between the ousted CEO and the board over what decisions should be taken for the longer-term benefit of the company, Chief Financial Officer Doug Ostermann said Wednesday.
“We need to build back trust,” the CFO said at a Goldman Sachs conference in London, adding that he’s confident Stellantis can show “significant improvement” on margins next year and pay a dividend.
“I feel strongly that we will have a dividend,” Ostermann said. “We’ll have a good discussion, I think, also around buybacks. Given where our stock’s at right now, it’s pretty attractive for us.”
Stellantis shares rose 2% at 12:03 p.m. in New York on Wednesday. The stock has declined about 45% this year compared to a roughly 27% advance by the S&P 500 Index.
Ostermann is part of a committee led by Chairman John Elkann that’s shaping decisions until a new CEO is found. The maker of Jeep SUVs and Peugeot cars is under pressure to halt a sales slide in the US and tackle excess capacity in Europe, where demand for electric cars is waning just as Chinese manufacturers expand in the region.
There were no disagreements with Tavares on long-term strategy, Ostermann said, including on tapping fast-growing markets such as Latin America and the company’s asset-light approach in China.
There are “very strong reasons to believe” Stellantis will see profitability improve year, in part because the company is ahead of schedule in a plan to bring down bloated inventories in the US, the CFO said. The automaker is betting on new Ram and Jeep products including a mid-sized SUV to replace the Jeep Cherokee.
Stellantis would be able to shift production if President-elect Trump imposes tariffs on cars made abroad, Ostermann said. Still, any tariffs are “not ideal.”
Meanwhile, Elkann flew from the company’s US headquarters outside Detroit to Modena, Italy, where Stellantis has a Maserati plant. Maserati output plunged this year, stoking worry in Italy over the future of the brand.
All current and future Maserati models will be 100% designed, developed and produced in the country, as the group seeks to steer the brand to a higher positioning in the luxury segment, Stellantis said Wednesday in a separate statement about Elkann’s visit.
(Updates shares, adds CFO dividend comment and detail on chairman’s Maserati trip from the third paragraph.)
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