Renault RENA.PA announced on Wednesday that it was launching a second wave of sales of Nissan shares
7201.T as part of the overhaul of their alliance, involving 7% of the capital of the Japanese group which will acquire part of it.
As part of the capital rebalancing agreements of the Franco-Japanese partnership founded around twenty years earlier, Renault placed 28.4% of its stake in its Japanese partner in a trust, which it intends to monetize in particular to help to find the investment category in the eyes of the rating agencies.
Renault announced in December an initial sale of 5% of Nissan for a cash flow of 764 million euros and a loss on sale of around one billion euros.
“Renault Group (expressed) its intention to sell 280,690,000 Nissan shares (representing approximately 7% of Nissan’s capital),” the French automaker announced Wednesday in a press release.
“In accordance with the New Alliance Agreement, Renault Group has the option to sell the remaining 180,447,100 shares that have not been repurchased by Nissan, over a period of 180 days to Nissan or third parties.”
As part of this second wave, the Japanese group has already agreed to buy back around 2.5% of the capital. According to Renault, Nissan also indicated its decision to cancel the acquired shares.
The sale of the 2.5% represents for Renault a positive cash flow of up to 362 million euros and a loss on sale of up to 450 million euros. After the transaction, approximately 22.8% of Nissan’s capital remains in the trust.
The capital rebalancing of the alliance formalized last year planned to reduce Renault’s stake in Nissan to 15%, the same level as that of Nissan in Renault.
(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume, edited by Kate Entringer)