Nissan will take a 15 per cent stake in Renault, while the French manufacturer has increased its stake in the Japanese company, bringing the two companies closer together.
Nissan will take a 15 per cent stake in Renault, while the French manufacturer has increased its stake in the Japanese company, bringing the two companies closer together.
The French government has also announced that it will reduce its 44 per cent stake in Renault as the two-year-old alliance between the two companies is overhauled.
Renault has raised its stake in Nissan from 36,8 per cent to 44,4 per cent. Renault will pay Nissan about R48,78 billion, which would be the balance after the R10,98 billion Nissan has invested in the French manufacturer.
The two companies will begin working closer together with cross-shareholding and a new operating structure that both will follow. Nissan is also expected to get representation on Renault’s board.
A new joint management company will also be announced shortly, just weeks after both companies had denied that this would happen.
The new organisation should eliminate a tendency for the two manufacturers to spend excessive time discussing strategy and help sort out plans to develop common components for their cars. This new group would have the power to make decisions.
"It’s a matter of doing it sooner than later," chief executive Carlos Ghosn said of the plan. "This has always been included in the alliance and there’s no surprise. There’s a view inside and outside Nissan that the relation isn’t balanced unless there’s a cross-shareholding with Renault,” he said.
Renault will also continue its cost-cutting under Ghosn. "The cost-cutting plan will be intensified and non-priority investments significantly reduced," Renault said in a statement. This will also affect operations outside Japan, with production cuts in France and Spain, and a restructuring in Argentina.
