Renault and Nissan reported a new “division of assets” in their equity alliance and announced new joint projects, including the production of four new pick-ups in Argentina.
After years of conflict in a 24-year partnership, both automakers have agreed that Renault will stop holding its current 43.4% stake in Nissan and move to a more “balanced” situation in which each will have 15% of the other.
Companies must maintain this quota and cannot increase it. The two producers will have equal voting rights on their respective boards of directors.
Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, which joined the alliance in 2016, have been negotiating the details of this deal for months, which was approved by Renault’s board on Sunday and by Nissan on Monday morning.
New pick-up for Córdoba
With this new agreement, new industrial projects were also announced, especially in Latin America. In Argentina, the alliance will produce four pickups at the Santa Isabel plant in Córdoba.
- There will be a new pickup developed by Renault and shared with Nissan. In this segment of compact vans, the companies will produce the successor of the in Córdoba Renault Oroch.
- Collaboration on the existing Nissan Frontier/Renault Alaskan mid-size pickup family will continue. The agreement provides for production two other models in this segment that will continue the current ones.
In Mexico, Nissan will produce a new model for Groupe Renault. It will be the first time in 20 years that a Renault vehicle has been produced in Mexico. In addition, they will market two common A-segment electric vehicles in that country.
Scandal and negotiations
The agreement between the automakers was born in 1999 and was complicated by the surprise entry of the French state into the capital of Renault in 2015 and by the sensational fall of Carlos Ghosn, who presided over the alliance, and who ended up detained in Japan at the end 2018. accused of economic crimes.
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida stressed on Monday that this initiative is necessary to build a “culture of transparency and respectbetween the two producers. “We will be consistentwe will focus on results and be generous and fair, as we have been during the negotiations,” said the manager.
For his part, the CEO of Renault, Luca de Meo, declared that “they are based on this agreement a reactivation of commercial and industrial initiatives initiated by this alliance”.
In any case, the French group does not intend to immediately sell the rest of its shares in Nissan (28.4%) because its market value is much lower than that currently recorded in its accounts.
Renault will continue to receive dividends on these shares until they are sold, for which no specific deadline has been set.
When the context is “commercially reasonable”, these shares can be resold for the benefit of Renault, the Alliance specified. Nissan will be able to make the first offer.
With information from AFP and EFE
Source: Clarin
