[volkman10]

Nissan And Renault Discussing Merger Into A Single New Company.

Ghosn is considered to be in charge of running the negotiations between the two brands, a transaction in which shareholders from both Renault and Nissan will receive stock in the newly-formed company. It is believed the new automaker may maintain two headquarters, one in Japan and one in France, but there’s also a possibility for a single HQ in London or somewhere in the Netherlands.

But a merger could prove to be very difficult, as both the French and Japanese governments would have to approve it. Also, the French government still owns 15 percent of Renault and may be unhappy to reduce its impact.

Link

[nikipedia87]

Nissan and Renault are in talks about merging to create one new company, according to reports by Bloomberg. The Japanese and French carmakers have been in an alliance since 1999, with Mitsubishi joining in 2016, helping the trio to overtake the Volkswagen Group to become the largest car company in the world.

But reports suggest the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance is seeking to further boost synergies and create a new, single company that would trade as one stock. Carlos Ghosn, the chairman of the alliance, is said to be pushing for this move.

Both Renault and Nissan declined to comment when contacted by our sister publication, Autocar UK, stating that they do not react to “speculative rumours”.

Nevertheless, the brands of the alliance have become increasingly integrated in recent months, as evident from a joint £8.9bn investment in electrification and autonomous driving technology.

Announced late last year by Ghosn, each of the brands will produce their future models using shared platforms and technology, as part of the Alliance 2022 plan, which will see cost savings from synergies double to €10bn (£8.7bn).

“To achieve this target, on one side Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi will accelerate collaboration on common platforms, powertrains and next-generation electric, autonomous and connected technologies,” said Ghosn last year.

“From the other side, synergies will be enhanced by our growing scale. Our total annual sales are forecast to exceed 14m units, generating revenues expected at $240bn (£170bn) by the end of the plan.”

Professor of Strategic Management at Warwick Business School, Christian Stadler, said a merger may help with business reporting, but that it isn't essential for the brands' success. "The two firms have a long established and successful alliance. The integration should be much more straightforward than in mergers such as Daimler and Chrysler," he said.

At present, Renault owns 43 percent of Nissan and Nissan owns 15 percent of Renault.

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Mods, kindly merge with existing thread if this is a repetition.

[Sheel]

Better for them and better for end consumers like us, just that, they don't reduce the already scant service centers.

Renault has been a one car wonder and Nissan is yet to sell any model in good numbers, I was casually checking their International websites and few models would instantly click & bring in volumes, but I don't know what the management is thinking. Moreover, both the ASC's have been milking consumers, plus, the Duster has been plagued with injector issues as well rusting issue [it was all over WWW some 5 years ago]

Don't see many cases being reported of Terrano injector issues, Japanese reliability [different injectors?]

[GTO]

A case of where the 'hunted' became the 'hunter'. Renault stepped in to save beleaguered Nissan in the 90s; today however, Nissan is bigger than Renault - thanks in part to the former's presence in the USA & aggression in China.

Just the fact that the new HQ isn't going to be in France says a lot. Won't be easy to convince the French government though.

[asitkde]

Originally Posted by GTO

A case of where the 'hunted' became the 'hunter'. Renault stepped in to save beleaguered Nissan in the 90s; today however, Nissan is bigger than Renault - thanks in part to the former's presence in the USA & aggression in China.

Just the fact that the new HQ isn't going to be in France says a lot. Won't be easy to convince the French government though.

The root of Nissan/Datsun was planted more than 100 years ago in Japan. They are among the oldest car manufacturers of the world, as far as I know. Unfortunately, in India their brand value is very low for whatever reasons. But they have a tradition of building reliable cars for a long time. During my tenure in the USA (1981-88, and 1992-94), I have seen a strong presence of Nissan there. In fact, my first driving test in the USA was taken in a brand new Nissan Stanza owned by a Pakistani neighbour. There were plenty of Maxima, Stanza and Sentra on the roads, definitely no less in presence than Toyota and Honda. The general perception was that they build cars as good as Toyota and Honda, but they are priced just a bit lower. In fact, that is the reason, when I moved back to the USA in 1992, I bought a new Sentra GXE (the only automatic transmission car I owned before my GT TSI) while a Honda Civic and a Toyota Corolla were also in contention. Ownership of that car gave me one of my best ownership experiences.

Nissan presently stands among the top manufacturers, if not the top, in North America and China.

Renault, on the other hand, does not have a presence in the USA. During my tenure in Germany (1988-92), I became aware of the brand, but the Germans, at least the ones I knew in my academic circle, were not very kind to the brand. Of course Renault cars were visible on the road, but the brand did not have a huge presence in Germany. Even in France, I think, I saw many more Citroen than there were Renault.

Since I came back to India, I did not keep track of the developments of these brands - when Renault became so big and Nissan became so small so that Renault became the saviour for Nissan. But, I know now, much to my surprise, it happened. But overall, it is not a surprise to me that Nissan, given the pedigree of the brand, in the long run, can dictate terms in their alliance with Renault.

For the future, the merger led by Nissan has an important role to play in India, among the largest car markets in the world, especially after the understanding between Suzuki and Toyota (may be, soon to be joined by Mazda who currently have some fine cars too). Nissan, previously, made huge mistakes in India in terms of dealerships and after sales service. It almost brought down the brand value to zero. They need to understand: (i) how customers can be made happy with the people they are directly interacting with, and, (ii) the Indian market is fast maturing, and ill-treating it by inappropriate products will have a serious negative effect.

I wonder, where all this puts Honda in India.

[gururajrv]

If this at all happens, what fate will the following suffer?

1) Outdated lineup.
2) Customer service support? As in, Renault owners can get their vehicles serviced in Nissan outlet and vice versa?
3) Sister cars such as duster to terrano, sunny to scala and micra to pulse? It would be weird for us to witness both the respective products in the same floor
Or
4) Will they refresh the entire product lineup from both the companies and just sell one model from each cluster which is best selling like the Duster over Terrano.
5) Finally, the spares!

Recent reports published by GTO shows the dealers aren’t really happy the way things are going for Nissan India!

Link

[sgiitk]

Makes, economic sense, but then there are risks as well. Markets are different so are the customer needs. Also, tastes vary with regards to 'other' things.

[motorworks]

In the near term, I think both brands will exist independently, at least for the consumer. What they are discussing is a merger, which is different from an alliance that they have now. So that affects ownership and shareholding patterns etc, but brands should continue to exist independently. May be in markets like India where neither of the brands have a significant market share, they could chose to retain one brand and exit one.

[GTO]

Holy cow, the Nissan CEO himself says he doesn't agree with it!

CEO Hiroto Saikawa, in an interview, told Nikkei he saw "no merit" in combining the whole companies, which he said would have "side effects" that he did not explain.

Source

[vish_wagon]

I read on some sites that it is the French Government that is pushing for a restructure in the share holdings and Renault, Nissan and the partners. Would be interesting to see how they would do the re-org, if they can pull it off!

On a lighter note, what would they call it ? RENAISSANCE ?