Senior executives at Nissan Motor have intensified secret contingency planning in preparation for a possible split from its main shareholder Renault, according to a report by the Nikkei-owned Financial Times.
As legal action against former chairman Carlos Ghosn has been stepped up following his dramatic and no doubt embarrassing escape from Japan’s legal system at the end of last month, reports have emerged that Nissan’s senior management has increased planning for a potential total split from Renault, including at boardroom level as well as their joint engineering and manufacturing operations.
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Reports citing several unnamed sources with knowledge of the company suggest, since Ghosn’s escape from Japan, Nissan executives have ramped up ‘war gaming’ a total collapse of the 20 year old partnership with Renault.
If confirmed, these practices will do little to improve already strained relations between the two companies.
After his arrival in Lebanon, Ghosn claimed he was the subject of a boardroom coup as part of a conspiracy between Nissan senior executives and local prosecutors to prevent a full merger between Renault and Nissan.
Separate sources have suggested, even at engineering and manufacturing level, many managers have not been happy with Ghosn’s efforts to combine the operations of the two companies.
Renault chairman Jean-Dominique Senard is expected to announce several combined projects for the alliance in the next few months.
