brand identity and to embrace it, and that he would leverage Opel's pedigree of German engineering and Motorsport and use the company's heritage to reach markets and customers that may not consider a French car due to perceived reliability issues. He also announced that the Opel and Vauxhall brands would be elevated to new heights within Groupe PSA, including the sale of Opel and Vauxhall-branded vehicles outside Europe for the first time in many decades. Bid for Proton On 17 February 2017, PSA announced its bid to acquire PROTON Holdings, which owns the Proton and Lotus brands, but lost out to Geely a few months later. Merger with FCA In May 2019 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) announced its intention to seek a merger with Groupe Renault. However, in early June merger talks were suspended, and never resumed. On 31 October 2019, Groupe PSA announced intent to merge with FCA. The merger would be on a 50-50 all stock basis. On 18 December 2019, FCA and PSA announced that they had agreed to the terms of a binding $50 billion merger, expected to be implemented in the next 12 months. The new group is incorporated in the Netherlands and has John Elkann as Chairman of the Board and Carlos Tavares as CEO. On 15 July 2020, the two companies announced that the merged entity will be named Stellantis, from the "Latin verb 'stello' meaning 'to brighten with stars.'" On 4 January 2021, both shareholders of PSA and FCA approved the merger and the deal was closed on 16 January 2021. Operations The Peugeot, Citroën and DS Automobiles brands retain separate sales and marketing structures, but share common technology, development and assembling assets. Jean-Martin Folz was PSA's CEO between 1996 and early 2007, when he was replaced by former Airbus head Christian Streiff. Streiff was sacked on 29 March 2009, a day after the company posted a full year loss for 2008. Streiff was replaced by Corus Group chief executive Philippe Varin. Carlos Tavares became CEO in 2014. Developing markets PSA was actively committed to developing its market presence and sales in many fast growing developing countries and regions of the world. This led to huge investments and partnerships in South America, Iran (Iran Khodro) and China (Dongfeng Peugeot-Citroën Automobile). It announced plans to invest €650 million in a manufacturing plant in Sanand, India. With a capacity of 170,000 vehicles, the Sanand