Ghosn must step down at Renault, says France's finance minister
France’s finance minister has called for Carlos Ghosn to step aside at Renault, as the fallout from the chief executive’s arrest continued to send shock waves across the global car industry.
CAC 40
8,016.65
17:00 25/04/24
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation
n/a
n/a
Renault
€48.00
16:30 25/04/24
Ghosn is chairman of Nissan and Mitsubishi and chief executive of their French partner Renault. On Monday, he was arrested in Japan for “significant acts of misconduct”, including understating his income to investors, following an internal investigation at Nissan.
Nissan has already stated it will fire Ghosn, while the Mitsubishi board is due to meet later this week. Renault has given its full support to Ghosn, but in an interview on France Info radio on Tuesday, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said Ghosn was “no longer in a position where he is capable of leading Renault. Renault has been weakened, which makes it all the more necessary to act quickly.”
The French government has a 15% stake in Renault.
The board is due to meet on Tuesday evening, and Le Maire urged it to set up an interim management structure.
Le Maire also said that the French authorities had examined Ghosn’s tax affairs but had not found anything and he was not seeking Ghosn's formal resignation.
However, on Tuesday sources told Reuters that Nissan was widening its investigation into Ghosn to include Nissan-Renault's finances. Neither company would comment on the report.
French-Brazilian Ghosn, 64 and one of the car industry’s most powerful figures, forged the alliance between Renault and its Japanese partners to create the world’s second largest car manufacturer. The move saved Nissan from near bankruptcy.
But on Tuesday Mitsubishi chief executive Osamu Masuko said the alliance could be hard to manage without someone of Ghosn’s stature at the helm.
He told Reuters: “I don’t think there is anybody on earth like Ghosn who could run Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi. The immediate problem is that while we still have people at the top of two companies, there is no one at the third [Renault, where Ghosn is chief executive].”
According to the Financial Times, in a note sent to employees on Monday, Nissan chief operating officer Thierry Bolloré said the alliance was an “industrial gem that must be protected and nurtured”, adding: “On our behalf, we would like to state here our full support for our chairman and chief executive.”