PARIS, Aug 31 (Reuters) – Renault shares climbed on the Paris Stock Exchange on Wednesday, buoyed by information from Reuters that the carmaker could welcome Geely Automobile and an oil group, but not its partner Nissan, to the capital of its future heat engine entity.
At 10:22 a.m., Renault shares rose 2.41% to 28.85 euros, the largest increase in the CAC 40, down 0.64% at the same time.
Renault plans to create within it an electrical center based in France and another based abroad and bringing together petrol and hybrid engine and transmission sites.
If Renault intends to remain the majority shareholder in its “Ampère” electrical division, it plans to remain only the reference shareholder of its “Horse” thermal entity, which will also have a workforce of around 10,000 people.
According to two sources close to the group, Renault would retain 40% of the thermal entity, Geely would enter at the same level and the oil company at 20%, which would leave no room for its partner Nissan.
“Some might infer that there might be a separation in strategy between the two companies,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Tom Narayan.
Stifel analysts also point out in a note that the interesting fact of this information from Reuters is the absence of involvement in the operation of the Japanese group, yet a long-time partner of Renault.
“The possibility of a partial split of the ICE internal combustion engine activity with partners likely to take over” explains the performance of the title, added Pierre-Yves Quéméner at Stifel.
“This should optimize the capital allocation of Renault, which is making a long transition to full electrification (in Europe at least),” he added. (Written by Laetitia Volga, with Elena Vardon, edited by Bertrand Boucey)