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By Giulio Piovaccari
MILAN (Reuters) -Stellantis named its North American chief Antonio Filosa as CEO on Wednesday, as the world’s fourth-biggest automaker by sales seeks to turn around its performance, boost its flagging share price and recover lost U.S. market share.
The group, whose brands include Chrysler, Peugeot (OTC:PUGOY) and Jeep, said the appointment, effective from June 23, was agreed unanimously by the board.
It followed a six-month quest to replace Carlos Tavares who stepped down in December after overseeing a fall in profits and sales.
The global car sector has struggled with aggressive competition from China, especially in electric vehicles, and the impact of U.S. President Donald Trump’s import tariffs. Stellantis (NYSE:STLA) has particularly struggled with declining market shares in the U.S. market.
In the contest to replace Tavares, another internal candidate, France’s Maxime Picat, current head of procurement, and three external candidates were also in the running, sources have said.
The appointment, partly expected by investors, that Filosa had been chosen did not help on Wednesday to support Stellantis shares, which have lost more than two-thirds of their value since early last year.
After rising by up to 1% in early trade, the share closed down 2.2%, the biggest losers among Italy’s blue chips.
Filosa, an Italian national who will turn 52 next month, will announce a new leadership team as soon as his tenure officially begins.
Some investors questioned the choice of an internal candidate, after a search process which lasted several months.
"It strikes me as almost a fallback solution ... I think that explains the tepid share price reaction," Angelo Meda, head of equities and portfolio manager at Banor SIM, said.
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Others however said he was fitting and that his experience of the U.S. market, where Stellantis has a particular need to revive profits, was an advantage.
Filosa, along with Stellantis Chairman John Elkann, met Trump at his inauguration, and industry sources have said he has helped to repair relationships with North American dealers and coordinated Stellantis’ response to the upheaval caused by Trump’s tariffs.
His other challenges include the need to rationalise Stellantis’ portfolio of 14 brands, which analysts say could mean axing some of them, raising the prospect of difficult negotiations with staff and unions.
Plinio Vanini, the owner of Italy’s largest dealership group Autotorino, who has met Filosa, said he was a very prepared and pragmatic executive, aware of the pulse of the market.
"I think he’s the right person in the right place," he said.
CFE-CGC, the largest union at Stellantis in France, called on Filosa to swiftly update the group’s business plan.
"We also ask the new CEO for a clear break from the authoritarian management centered on costs cuts from the Tavares era and that he relaunches the industrial momentum of the company," it said in a statement on Wednesday.
Following Tavares’ abrupt departure in December, the automaker has been steered by Elkann, a scion of the Agnelli family which founded Fiat (BIT:STLAM), now part of Stellantis.
The Agnellis are Stellantis’ single largest investors through their family holding company Exor (AS:EXOR).
Elkann and the Peugeot family, the group’s second-largest shareholder, endorsed Filosa.
"Antonio is a proven leader who brings a hands-on approach to his work, and he believes strongly in the power of collaboration and teamwork," Elkann said in a letter to Stellantis employees.
Elkann has a track record of long CEO appointment processes. He took around six months in 2021 to pick the new CEO of Ferrari, the luxury sports carmaker he controls through Exor.
In that case Elkann surprised the market as Ferrari chose tech executive Benedetto Vigna from chipmaker STMicroelectronics.
Filosa joined the company as a trainee in 1999, holding several positions mainly in South America. He has been in charge of the North American business since October and was given the additional role of global chief for quality earlier this year.