GHOSN LIKELY TO LOSE OUT

THE Renault board is likely to scrap severance and deferred stock awards to former chairperson and chief executive Carlos Ghosn, two sources familiar with the matter said. Ghosn probably won’t benefit from a non-compete agreement he signed with Renault in 2015, worth about €5 million (R77.80m), said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. Renault is also expected to withhold shares awarded in 2014 and 2015 that were conditional on his staying at the company, they added. Until his November 19 arrest on allegations of financial misconduct, the jet-setting executive led an automotive empire that stretched around the globe. He not only ran Renault, but also held the chairperson post at Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, its alliance partners. He quit Renault last month, replaced as chairperson by Michelin chief Jean-Dominique Senard, and as chief executive by Thierry Bollore. A Renault spokesperson declined to comment. French daily Liberation first reported yesterday that the board, meeting yesterday ahead of the company’s annual results today, was unlikely to award the payouts. Renault’s CGT union estimated last month that he could leave with €25m. That was well above what the company intended to pay, a person familiar with the matter said at the time, adding that Renault wasn’t likely to award him any performance-related compensation. Questions over his pay at Nissan led to his downfall. After a monthslong internal investigation that was kept from Renault, the Japanese company alleged that he had understated his income for several years. The Japanese carmaker on Tuesday took the unusual step of booking a ¥9.2 billion (R1.15bn) charge to reflect payments due to Ghosn that he accumulated for the eight years ending in 2017. Ghosn has said that the payments weren’t certain, so didn’t need to be declared. In Tokyo yesterday, Ghosn changed his legal team, hiring Junichiro Hironaka to help him with the “trial phase” of his case. The previous lawyers said they had notified the court they would no longer represent him. I Bloomberg