Nissan Motor Company has announced plans to sell 149,028,300 shares in its affiliated automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC), as part of a broad-based restructuring designed to cut costs and increase cashflow.
MMC is part of Nissan’s Alliance partnership which also includes Renault SA of France. The share sale, equivalent to approximately a 10.02% stake, was expected to go through at Thursday’s (7th November) closing price of 460.6 yen through the Tokyo Stock Exchange's off-floor trading platform. The transaction would reduce Nissan’s shareholding in MMC to around 34.07% - or 506,620,577 shares.
Nissan to cut 9,000 jobs globally
Nissan said in a statement the share sale “will support MMC’s management strategy as well as enhance Nissan's financial flexibility, paving the way for future growth opportunities.”
Nissan confirmed the two companies “will continue their collaborative efforts to drive innovation and deliver exceptional value to their stakeholders. Together, the Alliance companies are actively engaged in high-value creation projects that respond to evolving industry trends.”
This week Nissan reported a 79.1 billion yen fall in consolidated net revenue to 5.98 trillion yen in the first half of the year, with operating profits plunging by 303.8 billion yen to 32.9 billion yen - representing an operating profit margin of just 0.5%. The company also announced it was reducing its global production capacity by 20% and making 9,000 redundancies worldwide to cut costs.
