Renault SA Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard promised to improve relations with partner Nissan Motor Co., telling shareholders at an annual meeting in Paris that broken trust between the companies is repairable.
“The priority is to restore a strong alliance,” Senard said June 12, noting that time, patience and effort from both sides will be needed. “Trust has to be earned,” he said.
Senard, 66, is facing investors for the first time since taking the helm in January, two months after the arrest of his predecessor, Carlos Ghosn, on charges of financial crimes in Japan. Brought in by the French government — Renault’s most powerful shareholder — to patch up relations with Nissan, Senard has done the opposite. He further rocked the partnership by pushing and failing to get a merger with the Japanese automaker and then with Italian rival Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV.
The fallout from the Ghosn affair “left the alliance more damaged than what was initially apparent,” Senard told shareholders. The partnership “is making a new beginning that needs to be confirmed.”
Ghosn’s downfall on charges he denies has had profound effects on Renault and Nissan, serving to exacerbate a climate of mutual suspicion between the carmakers and creating internal turmoil as revelations unfolded about his alleged financial transgressions. As head of Renault, Nissan and the third partner, Mitsubishi Motors Corp., Ghosn had unusual powers that helped hold the alliance together.