The creation of a Japanese motor supergiant seems unlikely to happen. Nissan has decided to withdraw from the agreement signed with Honda to negotiate a merger of both companies due to differences between the two regarding the structure of the resulting joint company, as reported by Efe after the Nikkei newspaper broke the news on Wednesday.
Nissan Motor will abandon the memorandum of understanding (MOU) under which it was negotiating with Honda Motor since late last December due to the inability to reach a consensus on the terms of the merger, as reported by the aforementioned Japanese economic newspaper.
A Nissan spokesperson said that this news "does not correspond to any information announced by the company" and indicated that the company plans to make its official position on the status of the negotiations public by mid-month.
Following the publication of this information, Nissan's shares fell by 4.8% in Tokyo. In contrast, Honda's shares rose by 12%. The Tokyo Stock Exchange then suspended Nissan's trading, stating that it was necessary to confirm the accuracy of the information regarding the end of the negotiations.
Nissan has gone through a turbulent decade, with the 2018 arrest in Japan of its former chairman Carlos Ghosn, who later fled to Beirut in a dramatic operation.
The company also carries billions of dollars in debt that, according to press reports, it must repay in the next two years.