Ex-Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn says merger with Honda ‘cannot work’

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who fled Japan while awaiting trial on charges of financial misconduct, said Monday that the Japanese automaker’s merger plan with Honda Motor Co. “cannot work,” as he sees limited potential for synergy between their operations.

At an online press conference marking the fifth anniversary of his escape to Lebanon, Ghosn, who led Nissan for nearly two decades starting in 1999, criticized the struggling automaker, saying it has “lost sight of what is happening” and “it looks like there is no vision” to revive its slumping sales.

Ghosn held the virtual event hosted by the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan a few hours before Nissan and Honda said that they will launch talks on a merger that would create the world’s third-biggest automaker group by volume.

Ghosn noted that there is “no complementarity” between the two makers. Analysts, meanwhile, have pointed out that Nissan and Honda have similar production lineups and market operations.

“They are strong in the same fields. They are weak in the same fields,” he said. “There is duplication everywhere. So industrially, for me, it doesn’t make sense.”

Nissan asked Honda for help “in panic mode,” Ghosn said, adding, “Frankly, I wonder how this is going to work. I mean, it cannot work. This is a situation in which Nissan is finding itself today.”

He spoke from Lebanon, where he fled in December 2019 after he jumped bail following his arrest in November 2018.

Ghosn was arrested on charges of underreporting his remuneration and misusing the automaker’s funds. However, he has maintained his innocence, claiming he fled to escape what he described as Japan’s “rigged” justice system.

Hidden in a box on a private jet, Ghosn fled to the Middle Eastern nation, one of three countries where he holds citizenship and which does not have an extradition treaty with Japan.

The Japanese government has asked the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, to take custody of Ghosn. Despite being a member nation of the organization, Lebanon has refused.