DETROIT — Japanese automakers Nissan Motor and Honda Motor reportedly plan to enter into negotiations for a merger to higher compete within the quickly altering international automotive trade, the Nikkei newspaper reported Tuesday.
Honda and Nissan are contemplating working beneath a holding firm, and shortly will signal a memorandum of understanding, in accordance with the report. In addition they look to ultimately convey Mitsubishi Motors, by which Nissan is the highest shareholder with a 24% stake, beneath the holding firm.
The mixed Nissan-Honda-Mitsubishi enterprise would equate to greater than eight million car gross sales yearly, in accordance with Nikkei. That might place the corporate among the many world’s largest automakers, however nonetheless under fellow Japanese automaker Toyota Motor, at 11.2 million in 2023, in addition to German automaker Volkswagen, which final 12 months reported gross sales of 9.2 million automobiles.
In related statements, Honda and Nissan neither confirmed nor denied the report: “The reported content material was not launched by our firm,” Honda mentioned. “As introduced in March of this 12 months, Honda and Nissan are exploring varied potentialities for future collaboration, leveraging one another’s strengths. We’ll inform our stakeholders of any updates at an applicable time.”
The merger report follows the 2 Japanese automakers coming into right into a strategic partnership earlier this 12 months on shared automotive parts and software program.
Such a tie-up can be the biggest automotive trade merger since Fiat Chrysler joined with France-based PSA Groupe to kind Stellantis in January 2021.
Automotive consultants and different consultants have not too long ago been calling for an improve in mergers and acquisitions to share prices and higher compete towards quickly increasing Chinese language automakers in addition to U.S. all-electric car chief Tesla.
U.S.-traded shares of Honda closed up about 1% on Tuesday. Over-the-counter shares of Nissan, which is in the course of a restructuring, jumped greater than 11%.
