On Thursday, November 22, 2018, Nissan Motor Co was due to convene a board meeting at its Yokohama headquarters to push out Chairman Carlos Ghosn, a move that followed his shock arrest in Japan and deepened uncertainty around the 19-year alliance with Renault.
The dispute has unsettled the Franco-Japanese partnership, which was expanded in 2016 to include Mitsubishi Motors. Ghosn, 64, was arrested on Monday and accused of financial misconduct, allegations that have placed one of the auto industry’s most powerful executives at the center of a widening scandal.
Ghosn had been a key architect of the alliance and had also backed a closer integration of the companies, including the possibility of a full Renault-Nissan merger. That idea had support from the French government but faced strong resistance inside Nissan.
As the fallout spread, Japan and France were preparing to discuss the crisis in Paris on Thursday, with finance ministers from both countries expected to look for ways to steady the alliance. Renault, meanwhile, had not moved to remove Ghosn from its side of the arrangement, even though he remained in detention together with Representative Director Greg Kelly, who Nissan also accuses of financial misconduct.
A senior Nissan official said the company’s concern went beyond Ghosn’s arrest. “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 to begin after 4:00 p.m. local time, or 0700 GMT, and Nissan was likely to issue a statement afterward. Renault executives were expected to join the meeting by video conference, according to the official, who asked not to be named because the details were confidential.
Nissan said on Monday that an internal probe, triggered by a tip-off from an informant, had found wrongdoing that included personal use of company money and the under-reporting of Ghosn’s earnings over several years. Japanese prosecutors later 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.
Ghosn and Kelly have not commented on the accusations, and Reuters said it had not been able to reach them.
Japanese media reports added more detail to the allegations. The Asahi Shimbun reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources, that Ghosn had instructed Kelly by email to make false statements about his remuneration, and that prosecutors may use the emails as evidence. The Yomiuri, Japan’s biggest-circulation daily, also cited unnamed sources as saying Nissan’s internal investigation found that Ghosn had, since 2002, directed that about $100,000 a year be paid to his elder sister for what was described as a non-existent “advisory role”.
Nissan shares were flat ahead of the meeting, moving in line with the broader market.
Source date: November 22, 2018.
