‘Ghosn had planned to add 4th partner’

TOKYO: Last September, two months before his arrest, here, then Nissan Motor Co chairman Carlos Ghosn and the carmaker’s chief executive officer (CEO) considered bringing in a new partner for the alliance with Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp, according to an email.

At the time, Ghosn was under pressure to make the three-way automobile alliance “irreversible”. In a message to Ghosn seen by Bloomberg, Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa wrote that he had been working over the summer “quietly by myself,” to find a structure that would be “acceptable for both sides”. He offered to discuss possibilities with Ghosn.

Saikawa raised the possibility of bringing in another manufacturer as a fourth partner for the alliance. He didn’t identify any potential candidate. He wrote that expansion opportunities also included “acquisition of Chinese companies” for electric vehicles or connected services.

The shares of Nissan rose 1.8 per cent yesterday. The stock was up five per cent this year, after a 22 per cent fall last year.

The email casts light on the private discussions between the two men on the way forward for the Franco-Japanese alliance, one of the biggest carmakers in the world.

Internally, Saikawa had argued against a full merger and that Nissan should remain independent, or be the dominant force in any deeper union. He told Nikkei newspaper that Nissan wanted to maintain the three-way alliance.