Carlos Ghosn, during a Renault factory visit, Maubeuge, November 8, 2018. Photo Ludovic Marin. AFP
The automaker’s board of directors waives paying the former CEO all of his compensation.
Carlos Ghosn jumps without a golden parachute. As Libération announced, the board of directors of Renault, which met Wednesday, decided “unanimously” to “give up” to pay its former CEO all of its non-compete compensation. The group will also not give Ghosn the big package of shares he could claim for the years 2015 to 2018. In total, the fallen boss of the Renault-Nissan alliance will have to give up a jackpot estimated at nearly 30 million euros by Reuters.
Incarcerated in Japan since November 19 for tax evasion and misuse of corporate assets at Nissan, Carlos Ghosn was forced to resign from his position as CEO of Renault on January 24th. In view of his contract, he could theoretically claim a non-compete indemnity equivalent to two years of fixed and variable remuneration. About 4 million euros. But it is unclear how Ghosn could have played this clause when he faces several years in prison in Japan and is no longer able to offer his services to another manufacturer.
Personal wealth at 100 million euros
The deposed king of the automobile will also have to sit on the Renault shares that were to be attributed to him in respect of his variable part and his “performance”: a total of 460,000 shares representing the tidy sum of 21.6 million euros according to Proxinvest and 26 million according to Reuters. “Their final acquisition was subject to a condition of presence” at Renault. But Carlos Ghosn is not about to leave the tatami of his cell of 6 square meters, waiting for his trial in Tokyo. Given the facts alleged against him – the latest revelation date, his lavish wedding at the Palace of Versailles at the expense of the house – the State shareholder had in any case vetoed any parachute. Ghosn can still claim a pension of 765,000 euros per year. And his personal fortune remains estimated at more than 100 million euros by Bloomberg. Widely enough to pay his lawyers.