Back in 2015 a set of slides appeared on the FCA investor website, titled Confessions of a Capital Junkie. Officially unattributed, it was widely known that they were the words and thoughts of Sergio Marchionne who had, if nothing else, been tireless in his pursuit of a potential mega-merger involving FCA.

Merging Fiat with Chrysler was not enough; it did not give the scale and capital saving potential of a mega merger, the core message the capital junkie wanted to convey. Behind the scenes he tried and tried to find a partner for FCA but to no avail.

His idea lived on in the company and, after an attempt to merge FCA with Renault foundered on the rocks of French politics and fallout from the Carlos Ghosn “affair”, it seems that FCA will soon consummate Marchionne’s desired mega-merger, this time with PSA. On this occasion, French politics are not going to get in the way. John Elkann, the youthful chairman of FCA and head of the Agnelli family’s automotive interests, will become chairman of the enlarged company; Carlos Tavares, CEO of PSA, will be CEO of the group and will lead the integration of the two companies…