With this new balance the domination of the French group in the association ends, which began in 1999 when Renault acquired part of the capital of Nissan.
This business was complicated by the surprise entry of the French State into the capital of Renault in 2015 and by the spectacular fall of Carlos Ghosn, who chaired the alliance, and who ended up arrested in Japan at the end of 2018 accused of economic crimes.
Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida stressed on Monday that this initiative is necessary to build a “culture of transparency and respect” between the two manufacturers.
“We are going to be consistent, we are going to be focused on results and we will be generous and equitable, as we were during the negotiations,” said the manager.
The French group is not going to immediately sell the rest of its shares in Nissan (28.4%) because its market value is much lower than the value currently registered in its accounts.
When the context is “commercially reasonable”, these shares may be resold for the benefit of Renault, the Alliance specified. Nissan will be able to make the first offer.
The two manufacturers will have equal voting rights on their respective boards of directors.
Renault will continue to receive dividends on those shares until they are sold, for which no specific deadline has been set.
For his part, the CEO of Renault, Luca de Meo, stated that “based on this agreement, there is a reactivation of the commercial and industrial initiatives initiated by this alliance.”
New projects in Latin America
Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi collaborate on numerous vehicles and together, they have a workforce of 375,000 employees.
Renault and Nissan cars have the same engines and there are Renault cars sold under the Mitsubishi badge.
With this new agreement, they also announced new industrial initiatives, especially in India and Latin America.
In Argentina, Nissan is going to launch a pickup designed by Renault and in Mexico the Japanese automaker will produce a new model for the Renault Group, which will be the first Renault vehicle made there in 20 years.
Nissan and Renault also have a plan to launch in this market, where their growth margin is large, two common small electric vehicles.
In total, the three partners plan to invest 23,000 million euros in the electricity market in the next five years.
With information from AFP