Nissan Juke / Nissan
Japanese automotive giants Honda and Nissan are in preliminary talks about a merger. Nissan is in a tough spot, and both companies want to compete effectively in the electric vehicle market.
Following the news on Wednesday, Nissan’s shares jumped by 24%, while Honda’s fell by 3%. Mitsubishi Motors, whose main shareholder is Nissan, surged almost 20%. The second and third largest Japanese automakers after Toyota, agreed back in March to explore a strategic partnership on electric vehicles.
“We are discussing possibilities for collaboration… across a wide range of industries and areas, and these possibilities include the recent reports, but nothing has been decided yet,” said a Honda representative to AFP.
Nissan commented more cautiously:
“The content of the report does not represent anything announced by either company… If there are any updates, we will inform the interested parties at the appropriate time”.
Last month, Nissan announced a cut of 9000 jobs, lowered its sales forecast, and declared a reduction in production capacities by 20%. Warning of a “tough situation”, CEO Makoto Uchida stated that he would give up half of his compensation.
Bloomberg reported that an attempt by Taiwan’s Foxconn to acquire a controlling stake in Nissan has accelerated talks with Honda. Foxconn did not comment on this information. Honda and Nissan are considering creating a holding company and will soon sign a memorandum of understanding, according to Nikkei. Their shares, as well as other details of the deal, will be discussed later. Also in the plans is to bring Mitsubishi Motors into the holding. Japanese TV channel TBS reported that the companies might announce their plans as early as Monday.
Sources: TechXplore with references to AFP, Bloomberg, Nikkei, TBS