FRENCH carmaker Renault will sell a 5 per cent stake in Nissan, the first stage of a planned disposal of its holding in the Japanese carmaker as part of a wider rebalancing of the two companies’ long-standing alliance, Renault said on Tuesday (Dec 12).

The move, which Renault said will reflect a loss on its initial investment of up to 1.5 billion euros (S$2.2 billion), will be the first tranche of a series of share sales by Renault to reduce its Nissan stake to 15 per cent from around 43 per cent. To do so, it has placed a 28.4 per cent in a trust and is expected to sell down that holding gradually.

Renault and Nissan finalised at the end of July the terms of a restructuring of their alliance after months of negotiations, aiming for a downsized, but more pragmatic and agile partnership.

The sale of shares worth an estimated 765 million euros will be carried out through a share buyback on Wednesday, Renault said. The 1.5 billion euro capital loss will hit the firm’s net result for the year, but will not affect operating income, Renault said.

Renault shares were down 0.2 per cent in early Paris trade after briefly rising at the market open.

Nissan said in a separate statement it had agreed to acquire the shares that Renault was selling by making use of a right of first offer and that it would cancel those acquired shares.

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The Japanese automaker said the acquisition cost will amount to an estimated 119.95 billion yen (S$1.1 billion). It added it would fund the transaction by using its net cash position.

The move was “in line with Nissan’s commitment to enhancing shareholder returns and capital efficiency”, Nissan said. REUTERS