Nissan together with the Japanese government has recently rejected Renault’s efforts to engage in merger talks followings weeks of tension due to the arrest of former alliance boss Carlos Ghosn.
According to the Financial Times, the relationship between the two brands took a major hit earlier this month when Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa told Renault CEO Thierry Bollore and Jean-Dominique Senard, the French carmaker’s chairman, that Nissan wasn’t interested in a full merger at this point in time.
Renault’s proposal had both companies own about 50% stakes in the alliance and have equal board representation, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News last week, while also asking to remain anonymous. They also revealed that the new holding company wouldn’t be headquartered in neither France nor Japan, but possibly in Singapore.
“What we always said, and we still say the exact same thing, is that what we want is the alliance to be irreversible,” said Renault CFO Clotilde Delbos during a conference call last week. “This is what we are pursuing collectively with Nissan.”
It seems as though things aren’t exactly progressing in Renault’s favor right now and that both Nissan and the Japanese government are either in doubt on whether or not they should agree to merge with the French automaker, or are simply waiting to receive more favorable terms with regards to a 50/50 partnership.
