For Patrick Koller, since 2016 CEO of Faurecia, now Forvia, the past year has brought significant changes. The supplier was divested from Stellantis following the merger of controlling shareholder PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler to form the new company. And Koller outbid several competitors to win control of the German lighting and electronics supplier Hella. Finally, following the closing of the Hella deal, the supplier announced its name change to Forvia. Koller spoke with Automotive News Europe News Editor Peter Sigal about being a fully independent company at Forvia’s headquarters in Nanterre, France, west of Paris.
This is your first year being fully independent from PSA Group. What has been the effect of that?
I'm not sure we would have been able to do the Hella deal with Stellantis being our main shareholder. I do want to say that PSA was a very good shareholder, which supported Faurecia in difficult times, as well as in its growth and its independence. This independence was recognized in the industry, which allowed us to grow. It would have been very difficult to synchronize our agendas [after the creation of Stellantis], and I think our current independence is giving us an agility we would not have in the previous configuration.