Tokyo — Nissan Motor Co was preparing to hold a board meeting on Thursday, November 22, 2018, to remove Chairman Carlos Ghosn after his arrest in Japan, a move that could unsettle the company’s 19-year alliance with Renault.
The crisis has spread across the Franco-Japanese partnership, which was expanded in 2016 to include Mitsubishi Motors. Ghosn, 64, was accused of financial misconduct after being arrested in Japan on Monday, and the fallout has raised questions about the future of the group he helped shape.
Ghosn had been pushing for a deeper integration of the alliance, including the possibility of a full Renault-Nissan merger, according to the report, with backing from the French government but resistance inside Nissan.
Amid the uncertainty, Japan and France were due to discuss the situation in Paris on Thursday. Finance ministers from the two countries were expected to look for ways to steady the alliance.
Renault had not moved to dismiss Ghosn, even though he remained in detention alongside Representative Director Greg Kelly, who Nissan also accused of financial misconduct.
A senior Nissan official said the wider alliance was the bigger concern. “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 meeting was expected after 4:00 p.m. local time, or 0700 GMT, at Nissan’s headquarters in Yokohama. The company was likely to issue a statement afterward, and Renault executives were expected to join by video conference.
Nissan said on Monday that an internal investigation, triggered by a tip-off from an informant, had found wrongdoing that included personal use of company money and the under-reporting of earnings for years. Japanese prosecutors said Ghosn and Kelly conspired to understate Ghosn’s compensation at Nissan over five years from 2010, putting it at about half the actual 10 billion yen.
Ghosn and Kelly had not commented on the allegations, and Reuters said it had not been able to reach them.
On Thursday, the Asahi Shimbun reported, citing unnamed sources, that Ghosn had sent Kelly emails instructing him to make false statements about his remuneration. The paper said 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 for what was described as a non-existent “advisory role”.
Shares in Nissan were flat ahead of the board meeting, moving in line with the broader market.
Publication date: November 22, 2018.
