Nissan Motor Co was preparing to hold a board meeting on Thursday to remove Chairman Carlos Ghosn after his arrest in Japan, a move that could deepen uncertainty around its 19-year alliance with Renault.
The Franco-Japanese partnership, which was widened in 2016 to bring in Mitsubishi Motors, has been shaken by allegations that Ghosn, a 64-year-old industry heavyweight, engaged in financial misconduct. His arrest on Monday triggered a crisis at the centre of one of the auto industry’s most important cross-border groups.
Ghosn had been a key architect of the alliance and had pushed for a closer integration, including the possibility of a full Renault-Nissan merger. That idea had backing from the French government, but it faced strong resistance inside Nissan.
As the fallout spread, finance ministers from Japan and France were due to meet in Paris on Thursday in an effort to steady the relationship. Renault, meanwhile, had not moved to dismiss Ghosn, even though he remained in detention alongside Representative Director Greg Kelly, who Nissan also accuses of financial misconduct.
A senior Nissan official said the bigger issue was the survival of the alliance itself. “For me, the future of the alliance is the bigger deal,” the official told reporters on Wednesday. “It’s obvious that in this age, we need to do things together. To part would be impossible.”
The board session was expected after 4:00 p.m. local time, or 0700 GMT, at Nissan’s headquarters in Yokohama. The company was also expected to issue a statement after the meeting, according to the official, who asked not to be named because the details were confidential. Renault executives were expected to join by video conference.
Nissan said on Monday that an internal investigation, prompted by a tip-off from an informant, had found wrongdoing by Ghosn, including personal use of company money and the under-reporting of his earnings over several years.
Japanese prosecutors said Ghosn and Kelly conspired to understate Ghosn’s compensation at Nissan over five years from 2010, putting the figure at about half the actual 10 billion yen.
Neither Ghosn nor Kelly has commented on the allegations, and Reuters said it had not been able to reach them.
Japanese media also reported further claims. The Asahi Shimbun said on Thursday, citing unnamed sources, that Ghosn had emailed Kelly instructions to make false statements about his remuneration, and that Tokyo prosecutors likely seized the emails and may use them as evidence.
The Yomiuri, Japan’s biggest-circulation daily, reported that Nissan’s internal probe found Ghosn had instructed, since 2002, that about $100,000 a year be paid to his elder sister as payment for a non-existent “advisory role”.
Shares in Nissan were flat ahead of the board meeting, moving in line with the wider market.
Nyakundi Report notes that the article’s publication date was 22 November 2018.
