PSA and Renault intend to repay the State 2010 .

The owner of Peugeot and Citroen intends to pay one billion euros this year.
The two French manufacturers seek to reduce their financial dependency vis-à-vis the state. "PSA Peugeot Citroen, which has restated its cash intends to prepay a portion of the loan from the state amounting to one billion euros, assuming this year," said Philippe Varin Wednesday, the boss group during the day of the automotive industry.
Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault, for its part, reaffirmed its intention to "pay back as quickly as possible" the government loan, "in consultation" with PSA, without giving further details. "The sums involved could be reallocated by the government to provide financial support for equipment needed in their changing," he suggested.
In theory, prepayments can not start until 2011, said Christian Estrosi, the Minister of Industry. "We will calmly discuss their intentions with manufacturers" on the subject, "he added. "It would be logical that the two groups at the same time repay," says an inside source at Renault.
There is a little over a year, in April 2009, at the height of the storm that hit the automotive industry, both groups had each received a public loan of 3 billion euros over five years. It was then a matter of survival: running out of cash, PSA and Renault were no longer able to finance on the markets.

Back to normal:
Since then, financial markets have reopened, and through the car scrapping, car sales have so far recovered. "The state has helped us in a unique context, it is important to show that we take a classical mode," says one at Renault.
First motivation, manufacturers can now obtain finance on more favorable terms. "The loan of state became the most expensive part of our debt," says one at Renault. Carlos Ghosn indicated last week that his group had borrowed 500 million euros over seven years at a rate of 5.62%. But the rate of the loan granted by the State party has a fixed 6% and another indexed by the operating margin (with a ceiling of 9%). Binding, especially as PSA and Renault provide a significant improvement in results this year.
Another argument, "spread the repayment of our debt, we will not make any in 2014, knowing that we pay also about 1 billion euros per year," says the brand diamond.
Renault also looks likely to reduce its dependence vis-a-vis the government. However, this should not influence the will of the state's largest shareholder group, to strengthen its control over strategic decisions. This is all that his support for the launch of future electric vehicles will be crucial for the manufacturer.