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Nissan Motor Co Ltd is pushing French partner Renault SA to reduce its stake in the Japanese carmaker as much as possible, ideally to 15 percent, and may consider raising funds to buy the shares, a source familiar with the matter said. ‘subject.
The demands were made in exchange for Nissan agreeing to invest in creating Renault’s new unit to house its electric vehicle (EV) assets, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the talks are not public. .
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Renault owns about 43 percent of Nissan, which wants its French ally to reduce the stake to 15 percent, the same as Nissan’s stake in the alliance partner, the source said.
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The stake sale would not affect their business alliance and Nissan may need to raise funds to buy back Renault shares, the source added.
A Nissan spokesman declined to comment. Renault did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
The stake sale talks were first reported by the Wall Street Journal and the Bloomberg news agency said Renault was open to reducing its stake in Nissan, citing people familiar with the talks.
Renault is pushing ahead with plans to split its combustion engine and electric vehicle businesses in a bid to catch up with rivals like Tesla and Volkswagen in the race for cleaner driving.
He hopes to present a detailed blueprint for the new electric vehicle entity at a capital market day this fall.
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As negotiations intensify, Renault chief executive Luca de Meo will attend the Formula 1 race at Suzuka on Sunday, giving him the chance to speak with his Nissan counterpart Makoto Uchida, he said another source
Talks this weekend are unlikely to yield concrete results, the first source said, but negotiations could reach an agreement before Nov. 8, when De Meo plans to present an update on his strategy.
Alliance partners Nissan and Mitsubishi have yet to say whether they will participate in Renault’s future electric vehicle unit.
The source said Mitsubishi was also considering taking a single-digit percentage stake in Renault’s EV unit. (Reporting by Maki Shiraki and Satoshi Sugiyama in Tokyo, Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Gilles Guillaume in Paris; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
