France wants Carlos Ghosn out

He was ousted by a Nissan boardroom coup, dumped by Mitsubishi, imprisoned by Japanese prosecutors and now Carlos Ghosn’s French backers want him out, too.

The man who once ruled the world’s biggest car-making group, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, with iron control is under pressure from the French Government to resign from his post as Renault’s CEO.

Its board has scheduled a meeting today (Thursday) to replace Ghosn as Renault chairman with Michelin head Jean-Dominique Senard and as its chief executive with Ghosn’s number two at Renault, Theirry Bollore.

Ghosn has been held in a Tokyo prison since mid November amid allegations of financial misconduct, including failing to declare more than US$40 million in withheld income and putting personal trading losses onto Nissan’s accounts.

The meeting has been forced onto Renault by the French Government, which owns a 15 per cent stake in Renault and has been embarrassed by the ongoing scandal with Ghosn.

French newspaper Les Echos reported Ghosn was ready to resign, having been convinced by repeated conversations with Renault and the French Government.

Where Ghosn has been bluntly direct, charismatic and the undisputed centre of attention in the alliance, the 65-year-old Senard has a reputation for allowing the company stand in the spotlight, rather than himself.

He will also be the pointman of the Renault side of the alliance as it rebuilds the fractured relationship with its Japanese partners, both of whom rallied against Ghosn’s plans to roll them inside a single company, rather than an alliance.

While he began his working life at French oil company Total, he made his reputation at Michelin, where Ghosn also spent his first 18 working years.

He became the first ever Michelin CEO to come from outside the family in 2012 and he is strongly backed by the French Government, with its Finance Minister calling him a “great industrialist”.

While only a year older than Ghosn, Senard is a decade older than Bollore, who also started his career at Michelin and worked with the tyre-maker in Japan, which might be useful experience in the next few months.

At the urging of the French Government, Bollore was named chief operating officer at Renault a year ago.

It would be an ignominious end for a leader who rescued Nissan from bankruptcy nearly 20 years ago and turned the alliance into not only the world’s biggest car-maker but also the world’s biggest EV-maker.

Ghosn, who had his latest application for bail refused yesterday (Wednesday), proclaimed his innocence in a recent appearance to petition the court to lift his incarceration.

“Contrary to the accusations made by the prosecutors, I never received any compensation from Nissan that was not disclosed, nor did I ever enter into any binding contract with Nissan to be paid a fixed amount that was not disclosed,” the 64-year-old Ghosn said.

“We transformed Nissan, moving it from a position of a debt of 2 trillion yen (US$18.5 billion) in 1999 to cash of 1.8 trillion yen (US$16.6 billion) at the end of 2006, from 2.5 million cars sold in 1999 at a significant loss to 5.8 million cars sold profitably in 2016,” Ghosn said in a statement.

“These accomplishments - secured alongside the peerless team of Nissan employees worldwide - are the greatest joy of my life, next to my family,” he said.

Ghosn’s family has insisted he has been the victim of a boardroom coup by Nissan’s Japanese board members.