Carlos Ghosn torpedoes the Honda Nissan alliance

Carlos Ghosn seems to keep a very special place in his heart for Nissan. Good cat, good rat!

The speeches of Carlos Ghosn, former fallen master of Renault and Nissan, are rare. But the former Cost Killer has lost none of his splendor when settling a few scores with Nissan. As a reminder, what we can call the Ghosn-Nissan affair began in November 2018 with the surprise arrest in Japan of Carlos Ghosn, then president of Nissan and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance. Accused of financial embezzlement, in particular the concealment of income and misuse of company assets, he was quickly imprisoned. Ghosn immediately denounced a political plot hatched by Nissan to slow down a thorough merger with Renault, perceived as a threat to the autonomy of the Japanese manufacturer.

If the facts related to Ghosn are certainly exaggerated, the investigation will quickly uncover completely above-ground financial manipulations largely justifying sanction. On the other hand, the takeover of Nissan by Renault has never been digested in Japan and Ghosn has always suffered the resentment of part of the Japanese establishment. The pressure cooker just ended up exploding.

Under house arrest after several months of detention, Carlos Ghosn will finally flee spectacularly in December 2019, hidden in a box of musical equipment, and take refuge in Lebanon, his country of origin, which does not extradite his citizens.

Nissan's current situation, which has gone well beyond the simple “on the brink of the abyss” stage, could only delight its former boss. In an interview with Bloomberg's Manus Cranny about the Japanese automaker's potential deal with Honda, Carlos Ghosn calls merger talks between Nissan and Honda a “desperate measure” revealing Nissan's “state of panic.” It highlights the lack of complementarity between the two companies, sharing similar markets and products, which makes potential synergies limited. Ghosn suggests that Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry is pushing Honda to accept this deal to strengthen the national economy, despite the lack of industrial logic. As a good connoisseur, he anticipates major conflicts, particularly regarding the integration of the distinct technologies and cultures of the two manufacturers. He concludes, quite delicately it must be admitted, that this merger could ultimately only be a disguised takeover of Nissan by Honda in order to avoid a public bankruptcy which would make the great Chinese rival laugh.