Nissan Motor Co. completed its acquisition of a $ 2.3 billion stake in Mitsubishi Motors Corp., clearing the way for Carlos Ghosn to take over as chairman and embark on a bid to turn around a third major automaker.
Mitsubishi Motors said Nissan paid 468.52 yen per share for about 34 percent of its outstanding stock, in a company statement. Ghosn, 62, will become chairman effective Dec. 14, putting him at the helm of Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan and its alliance partner Renault SA.
Nissan is coming to Mitsubishi Motors' rescue following its admissions to improperly measuring fuel economy and manipulating test data. A Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance creates the world's fourth-largest auto group, after Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co. An industrywide push toward electrification and autonomous-driving technology is leading smaller carmakers to align with bigger rivals to share resources and save costs, exemplified by Suzuki Motor Corp.'s talks to form an alliance with Toyota.
Mitsubishi Motors Chairman and President Osamu Masuko will stay on as president of the company. An alliance with Nissan will create 25 billion yen ($ 241 million) in synergies for the 2017 fiscal year, he said.
Nissan expects common platforms and joint purchasing will yield savings equal to about 20 percent of its investment. The two companies have highlighted financial services, pickup trucks, and plug-in hybrid and electric cars among areas they can complement each other.
"One of the keys to making this succeed is how quickly can we see the transference of the Mitsubishi future programs onto Renault-Nissan alliance platforms," Mark Fulthorpe, an auto analyst at IHS Markit, said before the companies' announcement. "There's a great deal of flexibility there which will support most vehicle types, including the pickups."
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