PSA, an existential outlook. UG or not UG

Will PSA be here as a company in 5 years.  Sure it will, as a brand, company and equity.  But in what way shape or form seems to shift each day.  Six months ago the market was pretty hedged on that question, a couple of weeks ago they seemed to have a plan.  After Philippe Varin’s comments this week on “alliances” fear is creeping back.  So, is there an existential threat to PSA at least as an invest-able vehicle?

Worries over the partnership with GM dying out are overblown.  The real cost savings have always been closer to 2017-2018.  At the same time, Opel and PSA do have a number of areas where they can cooperate. Mr. Varin made it clear that while the B platform is “under review” the B- and C-MPV projects are

Social media and the market, is it really that hard?

So the SEC has spoken.  And it was no big surprise, you can use social media to fairly share material — and I assume non-material — information.  I’m not talking about what  your CFO is having for lunch, or which P90X workout he did today.  It’s those pesky little comments, like  “The quarter looks great!….we’ve got a big announcement coming!” or even more subtle comments like, “today sucked at work” or “I’m heading to Palo Alto today,” that could spook or inspire investors.  

I’ve spent time working with CFO’s who were still trying to figure out email, and CEO’s who refused to carry a smart phone, but I’ve also had to deal with colleagues who were so passionate about their latest triumphs that they wanted to tweet and Facebook them to the world.

As a head of financial communications compliance and or IRO, you need to make sure you work with your HR and IT teams to have a clear policy in place.  It’s not the policy, it’s the cascading.  Everyone (except evidently some KPMG or McKinsey partners) knows they can’t share inside info, and by now, your policies should be clear on what is and isn’t material.  Now you need to work together to cascade perpetually.Take the chance of the next employee event to reinforce the message.  And the one after that, and the one after that.  You get it.

Finally, get your IR site together.  Why is it that IR web sites are mired in the 1990’s.  It looks like everyone is letting their legal teams design the darn things.  Are you trying to tell you investors they’re boring.  Get a blog designer in and stop worrying about paying for that “real-time stock feed” anyone can get off CNBCrt, and integrate in your social media; Facebook, key twitter feeds and look into company news aggregation.

Then you need to monitor.  Make sure you or one of your staff are searching daily your Twitter trends, checking Facebook mentions, Pintrist, so on and so forth.  Just checking your mentioned on Seeking Alpha or the Motley Fool won’t cut it anymore.

Most importantly is to encourage employees to participate in the cyber discussion, but within the bounds of age-old rule, don’t break fair disclosure.  Find a nice way to highlight positive input on your internal portal or intranet sites, and also find a soft touch to remind people who are skirting the edge.  Companies that implement militant fascist enforcement only drive associates into anonymous screen-names, and too often make them their biggest critics.

The key is that financial communications needs to be able to take all these disparate channels and put them in one place for the investor.  Don’t stifle speech and don’t stick your head in the sand.  If you’ve been in the business for more than 10 years (remember fax alerts) take this chance to empower the next generation of IROs.  Let them scan the obtuse forums task them to teach you how to get up to speed.

In depth and breadth

CNH+Fiat Industrial: 1+1= 2 at best

Finally, Sergio Marchionne has pulled the trigger on fully merging CNH and Fiat Industrial, and pretty much in line with expectations. The proposal made to the BOD at CNH (which Marchionne is Chairman of) from FI (which Marchionne is chairman of) is for a merger of the two companies at “undisturbed” pricing” answer the only real question for investors: Is there any downside for CNH shareholders?  It turns out not really.

The inverse question was more important: Is there any upside?  Not really here either, and that may be a disappointment for some investors who speculated

Come on VW and Suzuki, make nice! no value creation here

What in the heck are VW and Suzuki doing?  Have they been taking management seminars from Greek and US politicians?  Nothing comes of public bickering in what is a DOOMED relationship.  A lot of press reports seem to put VW in the driver’s seat, not surprising since they’ve been on a roll with success lately.

I see it a bit differently, I remember first meeting Osamu Suzuki

Where’s the real info?

I was re-reading the below post on GM truck inventory and some great Edmunds.com data and I thought I’d share some history.  20 years ago when I first started working with the auto sector, we had the good ole’ 10-day sales report.  Yep, sales every 10 days, data crunchers’ dream.  After a few years on the inside, I quickly learned that retail sales numbers are totally

Changes? at the top? @Renault.

Tomorrow, Renault will announce a “new” management structure featuring a new and improved CEO position. According to reports in the French Press, Carlos Ghosn will take more control of corporate functions including legal, HR, public affairs and real estate.  I really don’t get the real estate function oh well —  as for the others functions, he was already ostensibly in control prior to the recent spy scandal that cost the prior COO his position but the French government has insisted on something concrete to tout.  Two names have surfaced so far regarding changes within Ghosn’s inner circle,