Renault's Senard denies he will be 'commander' in alliance with Nissan

Renault SA Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard has reportedly said he will not be "a commander" to manage the alliance with Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., and that he will instead respect each companies' culture and position.

Senard also said he is not planning so far to discuss the possible merger of the French and Japanese automakers. But he added that by setting up a new council to operate the alliance, the companies show their willingness to make the collaboration "irreversible." "It's not to become a commander but to ensure the mutual respect among the three companies and the directors," Senard said, according to the Nikkei, which recently interviewed with him along with Le Figaro in Paris. "If I'm told to act as a referee, I will do it. But that's not what motivates me."

Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi have agreed to create an Alliance Operating Board, in a series of developments that followed the arrest of their former boss Carlos Ghosn in Japan last year for alleged financial misconduct at Nissan. The board, consisting of Senard and the CEOs of the three firms, will help reinforce and simplify decision-making in the alliance, he said. While Ghosn had been seen as seeking to create a holding company to integrate the operations of the three automakers, Senard said he is "not dealing with it today," while adding, "There are fantasies and doubts which generate unfounded rumors and anxieties."

Asked whether the French government, the largest stakeholder in Renault, had asked him to make the alliance irreversible, Senard said, "I don't know if that's the word they used when I spoke to the government representatives, but that was the idea. In fact, I felt that it was obvious." The new council shows "our will to make it (the alliance) irreversible and that it is possible," he said.

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/business/renault's-senard-denies-he-is-commander-in-alliance-with-nissan