Shares in France’s Peugeot shaded lower on Tuesday afternoon as final details of the planned partnership with China’s Dongfeng and the French government leaked out. The cash injections that each will make – €800m apiece for similar 14 per cent stakes – look smaller than some rumours had suggested. Still, add in the proceeds of the rights issue and a deal with Santander over the finance arm, and the carmaker should have well over €3bn of new capital to see it through a potentially slow recovery in Europe’s mass car markets, now at least ticking upwards. In order to assess the adequacy of these funds, investors will need to focus closely on the extent of the cash burn in the industrial operations when Peugeot announces its 2013 results on Wednesday. The carmaker has talked of reducing this at least by a half from 2012’s €3bn, but consensus estimates are still for well over €1bn.

The financial aspects of the deal, though, may be child’s play compared with the future task of managing an ownership structure that is likely to see Dongfeng’s equity interest matched by those of the French government and the about-to-be-diluted Peugeot family. Using the new Chinese partnership to expand non-European sales will be key to Peugeot’s long-term success. But having three strong shareholders with potentially different agendas will not make this easy. Investors may be relieved that a deal has finally been done. But they should temper their enthusiasm as they consider the task ahead.