Nissan Motor this week announced it was selling its 1.54% stake in Daimler through a placement to institutional investors, raising around EUR1.15bn.
This followed a similar move by its largest shareholder, Renault, which sold a similar-sized stake in the German luxury carmaker earlier this year for EUR1.14bn.
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The three companies had originally agreed to a capital and business tie-up back in 2010 with Nissan and Renault each acquiring a stake of around 1.5% in Daimler, while German company acquired 3.1% of the shares in its two partners.
Nissan is looking to strengthen its balance sheet after incurring heavily losses in the last two years, made worse by the COVID-19 crisis and the reputational damage following the dismissal of its former chairman Carlos Ghosn in late 2019.
The Japanese automaker said it would use the proceeds of the sale to “further strengthen and enhance its business competitiveness, including investments to promote electrification”.
Like Renault, Nissan confirmed its industrial partnerships with Daimler would not be impacted by the sale with the two automakers set to continue their collaboration in a number of product and technology areas.
