PSA Will Pay Iran Partner $446 Million Compensation for Quitting Market, Report Says

8 years, 10 months ago - 9 February 2016, Automotive News

PSA/Peugeot-Citroen will pay Iran Khodro, its Iranian partner, over 400 million euros ($446 million) in compensation for losses incurred after it quit the country due to sanctions, Iran Khodro's managing director was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying.

PSA, the biggest-selling European carmaker in pre-sanctions Iran, suspended sales in 2012 when an international boycott against Iran due to its nuclear program was extended to the automobile sector. Most sanctions were lifted in January.

"Based on the deductions...427.6 million euros of compensation will be paid by Peugeot to Iran Khodro because of the losses," Hashem Yekke-Zare, managing director of Iran-Khodro Company, was quoted as saying by the news agency.

Yekke-Zare said the compensation would be mostly in services and discounts, including auto parts for current models being produced in Iran and devices for Peugeot 207 models.

PSA has also written off 11 million euros of Iran Khodro debts plus 65 million euros in royalties owed between 2012 and 2016, he said, adding 317 million euros would be in the form of future co-operation, including training.

PSA declined to comment on details of the deal on Saturday but its spokesman told Reuters that "the deal signed with Iran is a good and balanced one."

Last month, PSA and IKCO signed a joint-venture deal to produce latest-generation vehicles in Iran.

For PSA, the factory tie-up is important. When it suspended sales in Iran in 2012 it lost nearly 10 percent of global deliveries and interrupted a relationship dating back more than 50 years.

Four million Peugeot cars are currently on the roads in Iran.