Nissan is considering selling its 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi. Sources report this to the news agency Bloomberg. This means that the alliance to which Renault also belongs is showing its first cracks, two years after the arrest of CEO Carlos Ghosn.
According to reports, this involves the sale of either the entire stake in Mitsubishi or part. Since Ghosn’s resignation, Nissan has been thinking about its future and that of the alliance. This could be a first step in the unbundling of the collaboration.
The then financially troubled Mitsubishi was added to the alliance by Ghosn in 2016. This was accompanied by an investment of € 2.3 billion. 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.
However, at the end of 2018, Ghosn was arrested on suspicion of fraud and mismanagement. The auto magnate awaited his trial under house arrest for a while, but fled Japan and turned up in Lebanon. Since his departure from the alliance, things have been rumbling between automakers. At Renault, they were angry that they were kept out of the Ghosn process. Nissan has long been dissatisfied with the annual dividend payments to Renault.
According to experts, splitting up the alliance would be the best option. In addition, the alliance could also survive without shareholdership, it sounds. A sale of the stake in Mitsubishi would generate a relatively modest amount for Nissan. The Japanese manufacturer of models such as the Space Star and the Outlander is currently worth less than half compared to 2016. Mitsubishi also expects an operating loss of $ 1.3 billion for the fiscal year ending March. The brand was forced to close a number of production lines for larger loss-making cars due to disappointing sales.