Key takeaways
- Stellantis N.V. is registered at Taurusavenue 1, Hoofddorp, the Netherlands, and lists Alfa Romeo among its premium brands alongside DS and Lancia in its Form 20-F filed 26 February 2026.
- As of 25 February 2026 the three anchor shareholders were Exor (15.48%), Établissements Peugeot Frères (7.72%) and Bpifrance Participations (6.64%): about 29.8% of the shares between them.
- Their voting power is far larger: 23.84%, 11.89% and 10.22% respectively, or roughly 46% of the vote on 30% of the equity, via Stellantis's loyalty voting structure.
- That structure grants special voting shares to holders who keep their shares for at least three years. The shares cannot be traded and are surrendered for nothing when the common shares leave the Loyalty Register.
- The amplification happens twice. Per Exor's own disclosure, Giovanni Agnelli B.V. held 54.94% of Exor's economic rights but 83.97% of its votes as of 31 December 2025. Giovanni Agnelli B.V. is owned by the descendants of Fiat's founder.
- Bpifrance is the French state. A French sovereign investor holds 10.22% of the votes of the company that owns Italy's most romantic car brand.
This article is based on primary sources: Stellantis N.V.'s Form 20-F for FY2025 filed with the SEC on 26 February 2026 (major shareholders as of 25 February 2026), and Exor N.V.'s published ownership structure as of 31 December 2025. Brand history older than fifteen years is sourced to Britannica and Hagerty. Full source list at the bottom.
Who owns Alfa Romeo right now?
Stellantis. But Stellantis is not a person, and the interesting question is who owns Stellantis.
Per the Form 20-F filed 26 February 2026, Stellantis's share capital as of 25 February 2026 consisted of 2,903,716,295 common shares and 866,522,224 Class A special voting shares. The holders above 3%:
| Shareholder | Common shares | % of common | % of votes | Who they are |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exor N.V. | 449,410,092 | 15.48% | 23.84% | Agnelli family holding company |
| Établissements Peugeot Frères | 224,228,121 | 7.72% | 11.89% | Peugeot family, via Peugeot Invest and Peugeot 1810 |
| Bpifrance Participations | 192,703,907 | 6.64% | 10.22% | French state investment bank |
| BlackRock, Inc. | 90,049,246 | 3.10% | n/a | Index manager |
| Three anchors combined | 866,342,120 | ~29.8% | ~46% |
Read the last row twice. Three shareholders own under 30% of Stellantis and cast about 46% of its votes. Alfa Romeo's ultimate ownership is not a story about a car company. It is a story about a voting mechanism.
The 20-F is unusually candid about it, listing the arrangement under risk factors: "Our loyalty voting structure may concentrate voting power in a small number of our shareholders."
Who controls Alfa Romeo?
Two amplifiers, stacked, and the Agnelli family sits at the top of both.
Amplifier one: Stellantis's loyalty voting shares. The 20-F explains that the structure "is intended to reward our shareholders for maintaining long-term share ownership by granting persons holding shares continuously for at least three years the option to elect to receive special voting shares." Those shares "cannot be traded," and when the underlying common shares leave the Loyalty Register the special voting shares are transferred back to the company "for no consideration." Hold for three years and your vote roughly doubles; sell and it evaporates. This is why Exor's 15.48% of the equity carries 23.84% of the vote.
Amplifier two: Exor's own dual-class structure. Per Exor's published ownership disclosure, as of 31 December 2025 Giovanni Agnelli B.V. held 114,163,063 ordinary shares and 114,161,912 special voting shares A, representing 54.94% of the economic rights and 83.97% of the voting rights of Exor. Giovanni Agnelli B.V. is a private Dutch company whose shares are held by descendants of Giovanni Agnelli, the founder of Fiat.
Chain the two together and the picture is clear:
| Layer | Entity | Economic | Voting |
|---|---|---|---|
| The brand | Alfa Romeo | n/a | n/a |
| The parent | Stellantis N.V. (NYSE: STLA) | n/a | n/a |
| Largest shareholder | Exor N.V. | 15.48% of Stellantis | 23.84% of Stellantis |
| Exor's controller | Giovanni Agnelli B.V. | 54.94% of Exor | 83.97% of Exor |
| Ultimate holders | Descendants of Giovanni Agnelli | n/a | n/a |
Nobody in that chain owns Alfa Romeo outright, and nobody needs to. This is the same structural trick Hermès uses, in a different jurisdiction: keep the economics modest, keep the votes decisive, and make the votes contingent on not selling.
It is worth being precise about the limit. Exor's 23.84% is not majority control of Stellantis, and Stellantis is not the Agnelli family's company in the way Hermès is the Hermès family's. It is the largest bloc, roughly double the next one, in a company where the next two blocs are a French industrial family and the French state. Alfa Romeo is governed by a coalition, and the Agnellis are its senior partner.
Founders: who started Alfa Romeo?
Alfa Romeo was founded on 24 June 1910 in Milan as A.L.F.A., for Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili. In August 1915 the Neapolitan engineer Nicola Romeo took the company over and eventually attached his name to it.
The company then spent most of the twentieth century as a ward of the Italian state, controlled through IRI, the state holding company, and losing money by the 1970s.
Which brings the irony into focus. In 1986, IRI sold Alfa Romeo, and the bidding came down to Ford and Fiat. Ford offered to buy 20% with an option to build to a majority over three years. Fiat offered to take the whole thing immediately, in October 1986, and its offer was accepted in November. Alfa Romeo ceased to exist as a separate corporate entity on 1 January 1987.
So the brand born in Milan in 1910, whose entire cultural identity was built in opposition to Turin, was bought by Turin. Forty years later, the family that founded Fiat still holds the largest voting bloc above it, now through a Dutch holding company that also owns the largest stakes in Ferrari, CNH Industrial and Philips.
Ownership history: the timeline
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 24 Jun. 1910 | A.L.F.A. founded in Milan | Britannica |
| Aug. 1915 | Nicola Romeo acquires the company; it becomes Alfa Romeo | Britannica |
| 1970s | Alfa Romeo, under Italian state control via IRI, is running at a loss | Britannica |
| Oct.-Nov. 1986 | IRI sells to Fiat after a bidding contest with Ford; Fiat's full-takeover offer is accepted in November | Hagerty; Britannica |
| 1 Jan. 1987 | Alfa Romeo ceases to exist as a separate corporate entity | Contemporaneous accounts |
| Jan. 2021 | FCA and Groupe PSA merge to form Stellantis N.V. | Stellantis 20-F |
| 25 Feb. 2026 | Exor holds 15.48% of Stellantis shares and 23.84% of votes; EPF 7.72%/11.89%; BPI 6.64%/10.22% | Stellantis 20-F, filed 26 Feb. 2026 |
| 31 Dec. 2025 | Giovanni Agnelli B.V. holds 54.94% of Exor's economics and 83.97% of its votes | Exor ownership disclosure |
What changed in the last 18 months
Not the ownership, and the filing says so with numbers rather than assurances.
The 20-F filed on 26 February 2026 reports Exor at 15.48% of the common shares and 23.84% of the votes, EPF at 7.72% and 11.89%, and BPI at 6.64% and 10.22%, as of 25 February 2026. The anchor structure is intact and the loyalty mechanism is unchanged. BlackRock's 3.10% is the only non-anchor holder above the 3% disclosure line, and index positions are not ownership decisions.
The stability is the point. Stellantis has had a turbulent few years commercially, and none of it touched the voting structure, because the voting structure is specifically designed not to be touched by turbulence. Special voting shares reward three years of not selling. Anyone who sold during the trouble surrendered their amplified vote for no consideration, which mechanically concentrates the vote further among the holders who stayed. Exor, EPF and BPI stayed.
So who really owns Alfa Romeo?
The trivia answer, "Stellantis," is correct as of January 2021 and tells you almost nothing.
The structure answer is a chain. Alfa Romeo is a brand inside Stellantis N.V., a Dutch company. Stellantis's largest shareholder is Exor N.V. with 15.48% of the shares and, because of a loyalty voting structure that rewards three years of holding, 23.84% of the votes. Exor is 54.94% owned and 83.97% voted by Giovanni Agnelli B.V., a private Dutch company owned by the descendants of Fiat's founder. Two voting amplifiers in series turn a family's fractional economic stake into the decisive bloc over an Italian car brand.
And the coalition around them is stranger than the top ten will tell you. The second-largest voting bloc belongs to the Peugeot family. The third belongs to the French state, which votes 10.22% of the company that owns Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati and Fiat. An Italian icon, owned by a Dutch company, steered by an Italian family and a French family with the French government in the room.
The honest one-line answer: nobody owns Alfa Romeo outright, and the people with the most say over it are the ones who beat Ford to buy it in 1986 and never sold.
FAQ
Who owns Alfa Romeo?
Stellantis N.V. (NYSE: STLA), the Dutch-domiciled group formed in 2021 from the merger of FCA and Groupe PSA. Alfa Romeo is one of its premium brands, alongside DS and Lancia.
Is Alfa Romeo still Italian?
The brand and its manufacturing heritage are Italian, but its parent is registered in Hoofddorp, the Netherlands. Its largest shareholder, Exor, is also a Dutch company, controlled by an Italian family.
Who is the largest shareholder of Stellantis?
Exor N.V., holding 15.48% of the common shares and 23.84% of the votes as of 25 February 2026. Exor is the Agnelli family's holding company and is also the largest shareholder of Ferrari, CNH Industrial and Philips.
Does Fiat own Alfa Romeo?
Not any more, though it did from 1986. Fiat and Alfa Romeo are now sibling brands inside Stellantis. The connection persists through ownership: the family that founded Fiat holds the largest voting bloc in their common parent.
Why does Exor have more votes than shares?
Stellantis's loyalty voting structure grants special voting shares to holders who keep their shares for at least three years. The shares are non-tradeable and are surrendered for no consideration if the common shares are sold, so long-term holders' votes are amplified.
Does the French government own part of Alfa Romeo?
Indirectly. Bpifrance Participations, the French state investment bank, held 6.64% of Stellantis's shares and 10.22% of its votes as of 25 February 2026.
What I'm watching next
The loyalty register. Every percentage in this article is a function of who has held Stellantis shares for three continuous years. It is the one number that moves without anyone buying or selling a controlling stake, and the next 20-F, due around February 2027, will show whether the anchors' voting share drifted up again.
Second, Bpifrance. A sovereign investor holding 10.22% of the votes is a political position as much as a financial one, and any French state decision to trim it would redistribute voting power toward Exor and the Peugeots without a single share changing hands at the top.
Third, Exor itself. Giovanni Agnelli B.V. votes 83.97% of Exor, so the succession and governance of that private Dutch company is, at two removes, the governance of Alfa Romeo. It publishes far less than Stellantis does, and it is where the real decisions about this brand's future ultimately sit.
Sources
1. Stellantis N.V., Form 20-F for FY2025, filed 26 February 2026. SEC EDGAR. Establishes Alfa Romeo as a Stellantis premium brand, the Hoofddorp domicile, the major shareholders and their voting percentages as of 25 February 2026, the share capital of 2,903,716,295 common and 866,522,224 special voting shares, and the terms of the loyalty voting structure.
2. Exor N.V., "Ownership structure". Exor. Establishes Giovanni Agnelli B.V.'s 54.94% economic and 83.97% voting position in Exor as of 31 December 2025, and that Giovanni Agnelli B.V. is held by descendants of Fiat's founder.
3. Britannica Money, "Alfa Romeo SpA". Britannica. Establishes the 24 June 1910 founding as A.L.F.A. in Milan, Nicola Romeo's 1915 takeover, and the IRI era.
4. Hagerty, "Ford's failed takeover of Alfa Romeo". Hagerty. Account of the 1986 contest between Ford and Fiat for Alfa Romeo.