NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Feb. 29, 2012--Peugeot S.A. (PSA; BB+/Negative/B) today announced with General Motors Co. (GM; BB+/Stable/--) a global cooperation agreement. As part of this project, PSA will also launch a €1 billion capital increase, as a result of which GM may end up owning a 7% equity stake into PSA (at a cash cost we estimate to be around US$400 million; GM's Dec. 31, 2011 cash balance was $31.6 billion). As a first step, the alliance will focus on creating a common joint-venture dedicated to purchasing and procurement and then joint agreements could be signed to share vehicles' platforms, extend usage of common components or modules, spread research and development (R&D) efforts between the two companies. Notably,
