Stellantis confident on 2025 dividend, will discuss buybacks, CFO says

11:39 am Wednesday, December 04th, 2024

MILAN (Reuters) -Stellantis is confident that an expected improvement in performance could allow the automaker to pay a dividend in 2025, finance chief Doug Ostermann said on Wednesday, as it looks beyond the Carlos Tavares era.

In the first public remarks by a Stellantis top executive since former CEO Tavares abruptly resigned on Sunday, Ostermann said the automaker, which in September issued a shock profit warning on its 2024 results, had the ability to generate cash and perform well in 2025.

“I feel strongly that we will have a dividend. We’ll have a good discussion, I think, also around buybacks,” Ostermann said at a Goldman Sachs conference.

“Given where our stock is at right now, I think (a buyback) is pretty attractive for us,” he said, but added that a decision would be taken only once final numbers for this year are approved.

Bloated U.S. inventories and falling U.S. and European market shares were the main reasons for the profit warning, but Ostermann said he saw good progress in fixing such issues.

“That should give us a lot of confidence to be able to launch into 2025 in a much more healthy way,” said Ostermann, who replaced Natalie Knight as CFO in October, as part of a post-profit warning top management reshuffle.

He said divergences between Carlos Tavares and Stellantis’ board, which eventually led the CEO to quit, included priorities for the 15 months left before Tavares’ term was set to expire.

“Those related to kind of tactical issues on how to run the business over that short-term time period, and what actions should be taken in regard to short-term metrics versus longer-term benefit of the company,” he said.

Disagreements also emerged on relations Stellantis was having with dealers, suppliers, unions and governments, the CFO said.

“Clearly we need to build back trust.”

Ostermann, however, saw no major changes to Stellantis’ long-term strategy, including its choice to develop multi-energy platforms, that can support vehicles with different kind of propulsion.

Ostermann, who previously headed Stellantis’ operations in China, is now seen as a potential candidate to succeed Tavares as CEO.

An American national, he has served in different positions in Stellantis and formerly at Fiat Chrysler, where he joined in 2016 as group treasurer.

He has played a key role in striking Stellantis’ current partnership with Chinese automaker Leapmotor.

(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari in Milan, Gilles Guillaume in Paris, Nora Eckert in Detroit; editing by Cristina Carlevaro and Jason Neely)