Renault to acquire Nissan’s 51% stake in Indian auto manufacturing arm

Renault Group announced on Monday, March 31, that it plans to acquire the remaining 51 per cent shareholding of Renault Nissan Automotive India Private Ltd, which the Japanese automaker holds, reported the news agency Reuters.

As per the agency report, Nissan owns 51 per cent of the stake in the Chennai-based subsidiary Renault Nissan Automotive India Private Ltd, which started its operations in 2010.

The Paris-based automaker Renault initially held a 30 per cent stake in the firm while the remaining 70 per cent was with the Japanese carmaker. Nissan's stake dropped from 70 per cent to 51 per cent in 2023 as a part of the deal to invest $600 million to manufacture six car models in India.

According to the report, the deal is expected to be completed by the end of the first half of 2025.

Renault, Nissan partnership

On Monday, Renault and Nissan also announced that they have agreed to amend their long-standing partnership with a move to allow the reduction in their cross-shareholdings to 10 per cent, compared to the previous 15 per cent levels, as per the agency report.

“As a long-time partner of Nissan within the alliance and as its main shareholder, Renault Group has a strong interest in seeing Nissan turn around its performance as quickly as possible,” said Luca de Meo, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Renault in the official statement cited in the report.

Under the new terms of the agreement, Nissan will be released from its commitment to invest in Renault's electric vehicle (EV) unit Ampere. The company originally planned to invest 600 million euros in the EV venture.

This move comes a day ahead of the new CEO takeover, Ivan Espinosa, who is set to take control of the Japanese carmaker to boost its competitiveness against global peers.

Renault also projected that its cash flow forecast will be at least 2 billion euros in 2025 despite an impact of nearly 200 million euros for the Indian manufacturing arm acquisition.

“Pragmatism and business-oriented mindset were at the core of our discussions to identify the most effective ways of supporting their recovery plan while developing value-creating business opportunities for Renault Group,” said De Meo in the statement cited in the agency report.