The board of Renault is ready to enter into exploratory alliance talks with General Motors if such a proposal would come from the US carmaker, the company has said.
The board of Renault's current partner, Nissan, also approved talks and charged the joint chief executive of both car firms, Carlos Ghosn, with leading the discussions.
The audacious plan for a tie-up between General Motors and Renault that would create a $100 billion global car giant was conceived by GM's most high-profile investor, billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who urged the US company last week to consider a three-way partnership with Renault and Nissan. A tie-up would put Carlos Ghosn, the Brazilian-born executive, at the helm of a global car group that will be breathing down the neck of Japan's Toyota, which has a market value of some $190 billion.
However, analysts doubt that the deal would benefit Renault, which has a controlling 44 per cent stake in Nissan, because of the risk involved just as the French company has embarked on a recovery plan drawn up by Ghosn after he turned around Nissan. Ghosn has expressed interest in acquiring a stake of up to 20 per cent in GM, a source said at the weekend.
The Kerkorian suggestion about a GM stake came after media speculation that Ford was seeking to head-hunt Ghosn.
The intentions of the Ford family, which controls the world's third-biggest carmaker, are emerging as a potential spoiler in the proposed tie-up between General Motors, Nissan and Renault. "I wouldn't be surprised to see Ford get into the mix here," Jonathan Steinmetz, analyst at Morgan Stanley, told clients on Monday.
Mr Steinmetz described the prospect of a GM-Nissan alliance as a "fork in the road for the Ford family", forcing it to decide whether to go it alone in the global automotive industry or become involved in an alliance.However, the chairman of Toyota, Fujio Cho said he was "astonished" at the suggested deal but he did not expect rival carmakers to race to bulk up in the way they did after the Daimler-Benz purchase of Chrysler, the third-biggest US carmaker, in 1998.
In France, Francois Loos, French industry minister, sounded a note of caution regarding Renault entering an alliance with GM, citing the carmaker's pension deficit and the tough US market. - Reuters/FT