It is a birth analyzed by many observers. This Wednesday, November 1, marked the debut of Ampere as a separate entity from its parent company, Renault, with an IPO planned for early 2024. But what can we expect from this subsidiary presented by the French group as a “pure player of the electric sector? and software”?
Complicated context
A new stock market to support the transition to electricity that is taking place in Europe, but which nevertheless faces many obstacles. We can thus cite a certain volatility in the financial markets, increasingly stronger competition in this “zero emissions” market, with prices pressured downwards by Tesla and Chinese manufacturers, and uncertainty about Ampere’s ability to raise funds. enough.
The very optimistic future that Renault had for this subsidiary just a year ago seems to be clouded. The IPO scheduled for this fall was postponed until spring 2024 and there is now talk of a possible cancellation of the operation if the investors were not there, with an expected valuation of at least between 6,000 and 7,000 million euros.
Luca de Meo, the head of the Renault group, had planned to raise 10 billion euros, but analysts expect half that.
Another bad sign: Renault’s partners in the Alliance, Nissan and Mitsubishi, delayed finally investing 800 million euros between them. Luca de Meo expected the double.
Ampere’s strategy presented on November 15
Next step: November 15, with a “Capital Market Day” organized in Paris to present the strategy of what the French group presents as a “pure player in electricity and software.”
In summary, Ampere will have to design new electric vehicle architectures to reduce costs and regain competitiveness against the competition. Objective: 1 million vehicles produced in 2031 with a range that will include 6 vehicles, including the future Scénic and R5.
It is difficult to predict whether this investor presentation day could change the situation regarding the pessimism currently floating around Ampere’s IPO. A step that continues to be decisive in the recovery trajectory of Luca de Meo, who arrived in 2020 at the head of a group on the brink of the abyss.
10,000 employees
The idea continues to be to reproduce the stock market success of Tesla, or more recently of Vinfast, with a certain agility in its operation to recover a start-up dynamic. An element that we found in the workforce: of the more than 105,000 people that make up the group, around 10,000 employees, including 3,500 engineers, were going to work in this entity, conceived “from the beginning as a technology company,” explained Luca De I peed at the end of last year.
Main difference with these two stock market models: Ampere will not be a commercial brand, but will bring together the skills of the Renault group in electricity and software.
An entity that must merge with the other four large “business units” of the French group. And in particular Power, which will bring together Renault’s historical activities around thermal and hybrid, and with a joint venture called Horse with the oil company Saudi Aramco and the Chinese car manufacturer Geely. Alpine, for its part, will focus on sports cars and motorsports, Mobilize on financial services and new mobility and “The Future is Neutral” on the circular economy.
Source: BFM TV
