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Renault splits into 5 businesses in drive to boost profit

  PARIS — French car maker Renault announced a major overhaul that will see it separate its activities in five businesses, deepen ties with China's Geely and spin off its electric vehicles unit through a stock market listing next year. At a long-awaited investor presentation on Tuesday, Renault said it targeted operating margins of 8% for 2025 and rising to more than 10% in 2030, from 5% expected this year. It also plans to reinstate dividends from 2023 after a three-year hiatus, and generate more than 2 billion euros of cash annually between 2023-25, growing to more than 3 billion euros in the following five years. An early mover in the electric car race, Renault has fallen behind newer, more agile rivals like Tesla. After needing emergency state cash during the COVID pandemic, the group is looking to extend on a turnaround following losses in 2019 and 2020, and increase the valuation of its different parts. But big question marks remain on its strained relationship with long-standing Japanese partner Nissan, as Renault looks for other outside investors for each of its divisions. The main plank of the car maker's strategy is separating its combustion engine business — which will partner with Geely in a 50-50 joint venture, also announced on Tuesday — from its electric vehicle unit, to be listed in the second half of next year. Nissan is expected to take a stake in the EV venture, codenamed "Ampere," alongside other investors, though Renault will keep a majority stake. Talks with Nissan have been dragging on, amid Japanese reservations about sharing technology with others, including a Chinese rival like Geely, sources have told Reuters. Shares in Renault fell 2% by 1254 GMT after earlier dipping more than 4% as it gave little detail on the state of play of the discussions with Nissan on the future of their partnership. Renault CEO Luca De Meo said the group wanted to give the alliance a strong future and a "new chance." But he also said that — as in a marriage — "it is important for us to have our own hobbies and our own life." The companies had initially set a Nov. 15 target to reach a deal, but no announcement is now expected on that date, according to people familiar with the talks. Aside from the Ampere EV unit and the combustion engine division, Renault will have an additional three businesses — the Alpine sports-car brand, financial services and new mobility and recycling activities.

Renault gets a 'wake-up call' — a record $8.6 billion loss

PARIS — French carmaker Renault said it had been given a wake-up call on Thursday with a record net loss of 7.29 billion euros ($8.6 billion) in the first half of the year, inflicted by the COVID-19 crisis and troubles at its alliance partner Nissan. Global automakers have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, which has shuttered factories and kept many customers away from car dealerships. But the Renault-Nissan alliance has been hit especially hard as it was already weakened by low margins and boardroom turmoil surrounding Carlos Ghosn, the architect of the alliance who was ousted in 2018. Renault shares were down 3.3% when trading opened in Paris. "Today's results will be a disturbing wake-up call," CEO Luca de Meo, the former Volkswagen executive who started at Renault this month, said on a call with analysts. "We are currently touching the bottom of a negative curve that started several years ago, and probably even earlier," de Meo added. "We are in a complex, difficult situation. We all are. But ... we were already, I would say, feverish. So for sure it is even harder for us." De Meo said the company would now double down on a previously announced turnaround plan, laying off thousands of workers, reducing the range of models, and improving cooperation between alliance partners on vehicle production. He said a team of 40 senior executives from across Renault was cloistered on the top floor of the company's headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris, working on details of a strategic plan which will be presented in January at the latest. He said his focus would be pushing the Renault brands that can deliver profits — especially compact cars, SUV crossovers, and electric and hybrid vehicles — and shifting emphasis from volume to value. "We know what we need to do," de Meo said. "Better times are waiting at the end of this twisty road." Renault said group operating losses, factoring out the effect of Nissan's losses, reached 2 billion euros in the first half, compared with operating income of 1.5 billion last year. Sales slumped 34.9%, a result the company attributed mainly to the global COVID crisis and Renault burned through $6.38 billion in cash over the first half. Nissan Motor Co this week warned of a record $4.5 billion operating loss this year and its lowest sales in a decade. Its negative contribution accounted for 4.82 billion of Renault's net losses, the French firm said on Thursday.

Nissan Rogue gives brand rare monthly sales lead over Honda

The five top-selling brands in the automotive industry are usually Ford, Toyota, Chevy, Honda and Nissan, in that order. This lineup emerged intact when counting a year's worth of sales for 2013, and there was no reason to expect it would change at the beginning of 2014. But it did. Thanks to surging sales of its all-new Rogue, Nissan managed to pull ahead of Honda to become the fourth best-selling auto brand in January 2014, selling 81,472 units (an increase of 10.41 percent compared to January 2013) to Honda's 80,808 (a decrease of 3.96 percent).
The Rogue led the way for Nissan, contributing an additional 4,880 units in January compared to the same month last year - a 54.5-percent increase for a grand total of 13,831 units. But the Rogue had help, with the Frontier pickup adding an extra 2,307 units (an 87.9-percent increase), the Juke an extra 1,081 units (a 45.8-percent increase), the Altima an extra 1,051 units (a 4.9-percent increase) and the Maxima an additional 983 units (a 32.9-percent increase). Honda, meanwhile, was hurt by falling sales of the Accord (down 13.9 percent) and Pilot (down 7.6 percent), and stagnant sales of the Civic.
Honda, however, should take pride in the fact that it's luxury division, Acura, outsold Infiniti, Nissan's luxury division, last month - 10,823 units sold to 8,998. That margin of victory was large enough to keep the parent company of American Honda ahead of Nissan North America for the month of January.