Nissan offers Renault seats on board as it rebuffs merger talks
Japanese group in olive branch to French partner as it moves to close down tie-up
Nissan plans to unveil a new slate of directors as early as Friday that will include Renault’s chief executive Thierry Bolloré in an olive branch to its French alliance partner as it rebuffs merger talks.
The new board, which will be created to address a governance crisis that followed the ousting of its former chairman Carlos Ghosn, is expected to retain Nissan’s chief executive Hiroto Saikawa, according to people with knowledge of the plan.
Earlier this week, Nissan’s board, which already includes Renault’s new chairman Jean-Dominique Senard, approved the list of directors that were recommended by a provisional nomination committee, the people said.
The director candidates will then be put to a shareholder vote in June.
Nissan and Renault declined to comment.
Nissan had earlier opposed having both the chairman and chief executive of Renault join its board, but the concession was probably made as the Japanese company seeks to retain Mr Saikawa.
Mr Saikawa has been explicit about his opposition to a full merger and has refused to engage in talks with Renault for now. Instead, he has stressed the need to focus on rebuilding its US business after it warned this week that its operating profit will fall to the lowest level in more than a decade.
In Paris, there remain deep concerns about Mr Saikawa staying on as Nissan’s boss, according to people close to Renault.
Under his watch, the Japanese group’s financial performance has sharply deteriorated, and there are lingering questions among investors about how Mr Saikawa and other executives at the Japanese group could have overlooked Mr Ghosn’s alleged misconduct for nearly a decade.
The former Nissan and Renault chief has denied charges that he understated his pay at Nissan and made personal gains by diverting $5m from the Japanese carmaker. He has blamed his downfall on “conspiracy” and a “dirty game” by Nissan executives opposed to his plan to merge the Japanese group with Renault.
People close to Nissan’s board said some executives at the Japanese company favour continuity in the top management to fend off increasing pressure from Renault, which owns a 43 per cent stake in the Japanese group, to resume merger talks which were halted following Mr Ghosn’s arrest in November.
Analysts also say the composition of Nissan’s new board will be a test case of how committed the Japanese company is to reforming its flawed governance structure.
In line with proposals made by a special governance committee in March, Nissan has said it plans to set up separate board committees to oversee remuneration, audit and appointments.
The new board, which was first reported by the Nikkei newspaper, will have a majority of external directors.