Behind the apparent unity of the alliance, Nissan's frustrations

The arrest of Carlos Ghosn has brought to light the resentment buried in the Japanese manufacturer Nissan, which would be tired of being the second wheel of a team dominated by an omnipotent boss and under the influence of the French state. Representatives of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors alliance are expected to meet today at the headquarters of the structure in Amsterdam, according to sources familiar with the matter.

An omnipotent boss

For Nissan executive boss Hiroto Saikawa, who is scheduled to attend the meeting by videoconference, the sidelining of Carlos Ghosn should be an opportunity to review the system that allowed a single individual to concentrate all powers. Arriving from Renault to straighten Nissan in 1999, the leader also took the cap of general manager of Renault in 2005, an accumulation that has immediately worried within the Japanese group.

"At that time, the governance has disappeared," says AFP, under cover of anonymity, a former employee who spent 10 years in the company in Japan. "It's been a long time since this problem worried internally," he says. Whatever topic we wanted to discuss with Renault, we always had to go through Mr. Ghosn, "said Saikawa Monday in a speech to Japanese employees, according to one of the participants. An "unequal" situation that must be ended, he pleaded.

Previously "hated by Japanese staff for showing up at Mr. Ghosn's boot," according to the former employee, Hiroto Saikawa began to distance himself by taking Nissan's executive orders in April 2017. He would not have appreciated that his former mentor leaves him "to fend for himself", says the same source, in the face of the falsification scandal in the inspection of vehicles, revealed in the autumn of 2017. "The discontent towards Carlos Ghosn has been amplified since that beginning. year, because of fears that advance a Renault-Nissan merger project and due to changes in staff, "said also an industry analyst, Takaki Nakanishi.

(Read also: Case Carlos Ghosn: what future for Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi?)

A French State that worries

Complicating the deal, the influence of the French state, present in 15% in Renault, annoys in Japan, where it is feared that Nissan is a prey. "France who wants Nissan", headlined in July the daily business Nikkei. And this fear is not new. In 2015, the state acquisition of Renault shares triggered months of crisis between Nissan and the French government, before a compromise to prevent a possible interference from Paris.

Since the arrest of Carlos Ghosn, it is not the words of the French Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, who will appease the Japanese. He openly opposed any change in the balance of power and the rules of governance that provide for the CEO of Renault to be the chairman of the alliance. "The French government is a shareholder of Renault, so he speaks, but in general, it is not a problem between states, but between companies," said Mr. Nakanishi, head of a research institute of the same name. Despite these recriminations, the boss of Nissan has not officially expressed a desire to touch the capital structure of the alliance, formed at the time when Renault was the strongest link: Nissan holds only 15% of Renault without voting rights, while the French group owns 43% of its partner. But he recalled that Ghosn had not saved Nissan alone, insisting on the staff's contribution.

(Read also: Official reason for the arrest, rumors … We take stock of the case Carlos Ghosn)

A structural imbalance

And now, Nissan brings "more to the alliance" than Renault, estimated yesterday the daily Nikkei, turnover and number of patents in support. Yet, instead of reap the benefits of this superiority, the Japanese manufacturer has, according to many Japanese media, the impression of sacrificing himself to the benefit of Renault. By accepting, for example, the manufacture of his little Micra in the Renault factory in Flins (Yvelines), and not in India as the previous generation, or by entrusting the assembly of Rogue crossovers for the American market to a South Korean subsidiary of Renault (Samsung Motors).

If the synergies of the alliance were touted by Ghosn, employees are more perplexed.

"I do not see the value of working with Renault and I think that is the case for many Nissan employees," says one of them on the Japanese public channel NHK. The former employee quoted above abounds in the same direction. "The pooling of services is good, but in practice it's not so easy. Both the people of Renault and those of Nissan say that integration to which Carlos Ghosn wanted to take them would not work, "he says.

"Nissan is in a state of excitement and is likely to demand that things change," says Koji Endo, an automotive analyst at SBI Securities. "But at the same time, it seems complicated: legally and concretely, what can he do? "

A change in cross-shareholdings in favor of Nissan?

"I do not think it will be possible in the near future," he says, explaining that the French state and Renault should first be convinced. Meanwhile, "the situation is serious, the confidence to work together has completely disappeared," says Nakanishi.

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