Nissan Floats Possible Sale of Renault Stake

Nissan Motor Co. has revised its corporate governance code to signal that it could sell its 15% stake in Renault SA, which owns 43% of the Japanese carmaker.

The new phrasing notes that, in the case of cross-shareholdings, Nissan will review the Renault-Nissan equity positions and “exercise our voting rights properly.” depending on whether the holdings improve mid- to long-term value.

The new code also says Nissan “will investigate, including the option of sale of the shares” if continuing to hold cross shares “is judge to be inappropriate.” Renault’s stake in Nissan includes voting rights, but Nissan’s holding in the French carmaker does not.

Nissan announced its new governance code on Christmas Day, when Renault’s offices were closed.

The update comes a month after Chairman Carlos Ghosn was arrested in Japan, stripped of the Nissan chairmanship and indicted for failing to report deferred compensation worth $43 million.

Ghosn continues as the official chairman of Renault and the Renault-Nissan alliance, although those duties have been reassigned to other executives because Ghosn has been “temporarily incapacitated.”The partnership added Mitsubishi Motors Corp., which is controlled by Nissan, two years ago.

It isn’t clear whether Nissan intends to sell its Renault stake, thereby ending the 19-year-old alliance between the carmakers. But the company has for many months been signaling its displeasure with the inequity in the Renault-Nissan alliance. Nissan also opposes plan that Ghosn reportedly was working on to merge the two companies.