Former Renault boss Carlos Tavares will take over from current PSA Peugeot Citroën president Philippe Varin from the end of March.
It was wideley believed that Tavares would assume the role this month, but a delay is thought to have been made to allow Varin to continue negotiations over a part-sale of Peugeot to Chinese manufacturer Dongfeng. Tavares will, however, take over the general running of the group from later this month.
The announcement coincides with PSA releasing its financial results for 2013. Group revenues dropped by 2.4 per cent on 2012, to €54.1 billion, while revenue from the automotive divison fell by 4.8 per cent, to €36.5 billion. The company had net debt of €4.1 billion at the end of last year.
The ownership structure of Peugeot is likely to give Tavares problems initially: should the deal with Dongfeng go through, since he will have answer to three parties: the Chinese firm and the French state, each with an equal stake, and the Peugeot family. Up until recently that would have included GM too, but the company sold its remaining stake in PSA at the back end of last year for around £153 million.
Additional reporting by Darren Moss, 19 February 2014
