Rebalance financials to rebalance relationships within the Alliance? This is what seems to be expected from the negotiations confirmed this Monday between Renault and Nissan to review their cross-shareholdings.
If the details are not yet known -will Renault agree to Nissan’s alleged request to reduce its stake to 15%, how much will Nissan invest in Ampère, Renault’s electric spin-off-, the two partners seem determined to transfer the lines of their alliance. . A restructuring expected to believe the reaction of the markets.
“A Reabsorption of Imbalance”
“It is not surprising that the markets reacted positively because it was the result of the alliance between Renault and Nissan, a reabsorption of the imbalance that exists between the two manufacturers,” Arnaud Aymé, an analyst at Sia Partners, told BFM Business.
As AFP recalls, when the Alliance was created in 1999, Renault acquired 36.8% of Nissan’s capital, on the verge of bankruptcy. But the balances have changed since then. The Frenchman is now in fragile health, with massive investments to electrify his offering, an upward move accompanied by falling sales volumes and a balance sheet weighed down by his withdrawal from Russia.
Free up cash for electricity
In this operation, Renault will release cash -several billion euros- to finance its expensive electric acceleration. “Renault needs money to finance its development in electric mobility, that is, the electric car but also the network of charging stations. It is today that Renault announces the development of its own “charging station network”, summarizes Arnaud Aymé. requires a lot of money and that money will have to be collected somewhere”.
On the other hand, due to their different geographical positioning -Nissan is very present in Asia and America, Renault especially in Europe- the path of the two allies diverges on the future of thermal energy (another part of the discussions between Renault and Nissan). .
An alliance of cooperations?
What industrial perimeter will then overlap the Alliance after this financial rebalancing? What governance will adopt and what place will the third member of this Alliance, Mitsubishi, have in particular?
At the beginning of 2022, the Alliance had announced a joint investment of 23,000 million euros in electrification, to be able to launch 35 new electric models by 2030. New projects should also emerge, related to specific geographic areas and market segments. This leads some observers to ask: from an Alliance that is certainly at times stagnant, are we not going to move on to simple cooperation?
Source: BFM TV
