Say what you will about Carlos Ghosn, but he certainly knows how to stir up controversy. After fleeing house arrest in late 2019 and taking refuge in Lebanon, where citizens are not extradited, the ex-Nissan supremo still speaks to the press from time to time. Every media appearance is filled with sharp criticisms of his former employer, and his latest interview with French news broadcaster BFM TV is no exception.
The 71-year-old former executive of Nissan, Renault, and their alliance claims he saw the Japanese automaker’s problems coming: “I had foreseen the decline of Nissan and the disappearance of the alliance.” He might have been right about the first part, but the two companies are still together, though the partnership isn’t as strong as it once was. Cross-shareholdings are decreasing from 15 to 10 percent, and Renault is acquiring Nissan’s 51 percent stake in their Indian operations.
As for what went wrong at Nissan, Ghosn lays the blame squarely on its leadership: “Decisions that were too slow,” he said, adding that “most of the problems lie with Nissan’s management.” Known for speaking his mind, the former CEO didn’t hold back: “The company is in a desperate situation” and is “forced to go begging for help from one of its main competitors in Japan.”
That competitor is Honda. However, we should clarify that the proposed mega-merger between the two fell apart just a few months into negotiations. Ghosn believes a super-company resulting from a Nissan-Honda merger “doesn’t make sense.”
Last August, he told Automotive News that Honda had been planning a “disguised takeover” that would have put it “in the driver’s seat.”
He wasn’t wrong about that. When talks collapsed, Honda admitted it didn’t want a merger of equals but instead aimed to make Nissan a subsidiary:
“Honda proposed changing the structure from establishing a joint holding company—where Honda would appoint the majority of directors and the chief executive officer based on a joint share transfer as initially outlined in the MOU—to a structure where Honda would be the parent company and Nissan the subsidiary through a share exchange.”
Looking back, Ghosn had plenty to say, calling the Nissan-Honda merger attempt a “desperate move.” He described the existing alliance with Renault as “small and fragile” and said Nissan has become “boring, mediocre.” In his latest interview with BFM TV, the man who faces an international arrest warrant after jumping bail in Japan and fleeing to Lebanon claimed Nissan is “in the doldrums.”
As a reminder, Ghosn is facing allegations of misuse of company assets, money laundering, and corruption. He famously escaped on a private jet while allegedly hiding in an audio equipment case because the box couldn’t fit into the screening machine. However, he later denied the rumor in an interview with Fox Business Network: “I was not in a musical box.”