New rumors surrounding the Renault-Nissan Alliance have sparked the share price of Renault on Thursday morning: the agency “Bloomberg” says that the two manufacturers have initiated discussions for a merger, under the auspices the president of the alliance, Carlos Ghosn himself.
The idea would be to create a new company, which would be based in London or the Netherlands, and which would be headed by Carlos Ghosn, the agency says. Renault’s price jumped almost 8% to 100.4 euros before falling back to 97 euros in mid-morning (+4.2%).
Make the alliance irreversible
Several sources strongly deny this rumor. “These claims have no substance,” says a spokesman for the Renault-Nissan alliance. At the renewal of Carlos Ghosn at the head of Renault last February, the state had asked the CEO Renault to make “irreversible” the original coupling between the two manufacturers: Renault holds 43.3% of Nissan, which owns him, 15% of Renault, but the two groups remained independent entities, linked by operational partnerships, in purchasing, engineering, or even industrial organization.
Carlos Ghosn recognized then that it would be necessary sooner or later to take the next step. “We need to find the legal and organizational structures that allow the Alliance to survive beyond the actors. It’s a building site that’s open, “he said in mid-February. Asked about the possibility of a merger by BFM Business, he also answered “Why not,” while stating that such a scenario “was not an objective as such but something that should happen in a natural way “.
Thoughts started
The question is all the more sensitive as the State, which holds 15% of Renault’s capital , will have a say. The Bloomberg sources themselves admit that reaching an agreement on a merger is likely to be very difficult, given the weight of the French state. “It will be necessary that both states, French and Japanese, agree,” said Carlos Ghosn in February. At the beginning of March, Reuters had mentioned Nissan’s acquisition of Renault shares held by the State , a hypothesis immediately belied by the stakeholders.
While it is clear that reflections on the future organization of the alliance have begun, several sources say today that an agreement on the subject “is absolutely not relevant”.