Nissan, Renault not splitting

Shares in Renault recovered some lost ground on Tuesday after the French carmaker and its Japanese partner Nissan Motor rejected media reports that their alliance was in danger of being dissolved. Nissan is dismissing reports that it is engineering a corporate divorce from Renault.

“Nissan is in no way considering dissolving the Alliance,” the Japanese carmaker said in a statement Tuesday, referring to the global car alliance between Nissan (NSANF), Renault (RNLSY) and Mitsubishi Motors.

The statement came in response to the growing number of reports in recent days that Nissan was concerned about the strained relationship with Renault following the downfall of former chief Carlos Ghosn, and was looking into contingency plans to break away from the French carmaker.

Growing concerns about the state of the 20-year old French-Japanese alliance, forged by former boss turned fugitive Carlos Ghosn, had sent Renault and Nissan shares skidding to multi-year lows on Monday.

At the opening of trading in Paris on Tuesday, Renault shares rose 1.3 per cent, before falling back slightly to trade up 0.49 per cent by 08:23 GMT.

The alliance, which also includes Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp, is “solid, robust, everything but dead,” the chairman of Renault, Jean-Philippe Senard, told Belgian newspaper L’Echo.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire also weighed in, saying reports some executives wanted to break up the alliance were “malicious.”

Speaking to France’s CNews TV, he also said he expected Renault to name a new chief executive within days to replace Thierry Bollore, a Ghosn-era appointee who was ousted in October.

Reuters