Japanese automaker Nissan is considering selling its 34 percent stake in its peer Mitsubishi. Sources reported this to Bloomberg news agency. This means that the alliance to which Renault also belongs is showing its first cracks, two years after the arrest of CEO Carlos Ghosn. After his arrest, he escaped spectacularly from Japan.
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According to reports, this involves the sale of either all or part of the stake in Mitsubishi. Since Ghosn’s resignation, Nissan has been thinking about its future and that of the alliance. This would be a first step in the unbundling of the collaboration.
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The then financially troubled Mitsubishi was added to the alliance by Ghosn in 2016. This was accompanied by an investment of 2.3 billion euros. Ghosn wanted to transfer the automakers to a new holding company in order to dethrone market leaders Toyota and Volkswagen. Two decades ago, Renault saved Nissan with a much-needed capital injection.
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Departure from Ghosn
However, in November 2018 Ghosn was arrested on suspicion of fraud and mismanagement. The car magnate awaited his trial for a while under house arrest, but fled the Asian country and turned up in Lebanon. Since his departure from the alliance, things have been rumbling among the automakers. At Renault, they were angry, among other things, that they were kept out of the Ghosn process. Nissan has long been dissatisfied with the annual dividend payments to Renault.
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According to experts, splitting up the alliance would be the best option. In addition, the alliance could also survive without shareholdership, it sounds.
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A sale of the stake in Mitsubishi would generate a relatively modest amount for Nissan. The automaker is currently worth less than half compared to 2016. In addition, Mitsubishi expects an operating loss of 1.3 billion dollars (about 1.1 billion euros) for the fiscal year that runs to March. The brand was forced to close a number of production lines for larger loss-making cars due to disappointing sales.
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