Report: Ghosn Sought to Oust Nissan CEO Saikawa

Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn was arrested days before attempting a management shakeup that included removing CEO Hiroto Saikawa, sources tell The Wall Street Journal.

Ghosn was detained on Nov. 19 based on a Saikawa-led Nissan investigation into suspicion that the chairman had grossly underreported his compensation between 2000 and 2015. Ghosn is expected to be indicted on those charges and/or accused of additional crimes today.

The Journal’s sources say Ghosn intended to ask Nissan’s board to remove Saikawa (pictured) when the directors met on Nov. 22. Instead, the board ousted Ghosn as chairman. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. also removed Ghosn as its chairman. He continues chairman and CEO at Renault SA.

When Ghosn stepped down as Nissan’s CEO in last year, he designated Saikawa to replace him. But sources tell the newspaper the two men have clashed since then over Nissan’s sales and profitability goals. Saikawa denies that Ghosn’s dismissal was a coup d’état.

Ghosn told the Journal that he aimed to hike sales by the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance to 14 million units in 2022 from 10.6 million in 2017. But he has blamed Saikawa for Nissan’s slumping performance in North America, its largest market.

Saikawa told reporters last year that cash flow and profits are more important than volume and market share. He also has expressed Nissan’s displeasure with the structural arrangement of its alliance with Renault, a source of growing irritation at the Japanese company for that past two years. Media reports say Ghosn has been pushing to merge the two companies, a move Nissan opposes.