Nissan wants partner Renault to cut down its stake

Nissan Motor Co Ltd is looking to restructure its more than 20-year-old alliance with Renault, and has asked the French car firm to cut its stake in the Japanese automaker, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Renault owns about 43 per cent of Nissan, while the Japanese firm owns 15 per cent of its top shareholder, minus the voting rights.

In June, Nissan had for the first time revealed that its alliance pact with top shareholder Renault keeps the latter from unilaterally increasing its stake beyond 44.4 per cent.

Their talks cover the question of whether Nissan will join Renault's new unit being set up for electric vehicle (EV) assets in exchange for its French ally winding down the Nissan stake, the paper said.

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The paper further informed that Nissan's Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta, who was one of the firm's executives to visit France last month, had discussed whether the Japanese car maker would invest in Renault's new EV business.

Renault is trying to match up to its competitors, such as Tesla and Volkswagen, in the race for clean driving by planning to split its EV and combustion engine businesses. It expects to unveil a detailed blueprint for the new EV entity this autumn.

(With inputs from agencies)