Nissan completes Mitsubishi stake buy
US$2.3B DEAL: Carlos Ghosn, who will take over as chairman, set to revive ailing group
NISSAN Motor Co completed its acquisition of a US$2.3 billion (RM9.6 billion) stake in Mitsubishi Motors Corp, clearing the way for Carlos Ghosn to take over as chairman and embark on a bid to turn around a third major carmaker.
Mitsubishi Motors said Nissan paid 468.52 yen per share for about 34 per cent of its outstanding stock, in a company statement.
Ghosn will become chairman effective December 14, putting him at the helm of Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan and its partner Renault SA.
Nissan is coming to Mitsubishi Motors’s rescue following its admissions to improperly measuring fuel economy and manipulating test data.
A Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance creates the world’s fourthlargest auto group, after Toyota Motor Corp, Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co.
An industry-wide push towards electrification and autonomousdriving technology is leading smaller carmakers to align with bigger rivals to share resources and save costs, exemplified by Suzuki Motor Corp’s talks to form an alliance with Toyota.
Mitsubishi Motors chairman and president Osamu Masuko will stay on as president of the company. An alliance with Nissan will create 25 billion yen (RM1 billion) in synergies Nissan Motor Co chairman and CEO Motors Corp chairman, president and CEO conference in Tokyo yesterday. EPA pic
for the 2017 fiscal year, he said.
Nissan expects common platforms and joint purchasing will yield savings equal to about 20 per cent of its investment. The two companies have highlighted financial services, pickup trucks, and plug-in hybrid and electric cars among areas they can complement each other.
“One of the keys to making this (left) with Mitsubishi
at the news succeed is how quickly can we see the transference of the Mitsubishi future programmes onto RenaultNissan alliance platforms,” said Mark Fulthorpe, an auto analyst at IHS Markit.
“There’s a great deal of flexibility there which will support most vehicle types, including the pick-ups.” Bloomberg