Nissan to pull out of venture fund with Renault in cost-cutting drive: Reuters

Nissan is likely to pull out from a venture capital fund it runs with alliance partners Renault and Mitsubishi Motors, as part of the Japanese automaker’s drive to cut costs and conserve cash, two sources said, Reuters reads.

Nissan will formally take a decision on whether to leave the fund, Alliance Ventures, by the end of this month, two Nissan insiders told Reuters, declining to be identified because the information has not been made public.

The likely move comes after Nissan’s junior partner, Mitsubishi Motors Corp, told an alliance meeting last week that it would no longer continue to inject money into the fund, one of the sources said.

The decision to leave the Amsterdam-based fund was all but a done deal, the other source said, adding: “Of course we’re out. The house is on fire.”

A Nissan spokeswoman said it was speculation and declined to comment. A Mitsubishi spokesman said no decision had been made.

The move comes as Nissan – which has seen its earnings slump – is now facing a downturn in China, its biggest market, due to the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. China sales plunged 80% last month.

It also highlights the extent of the automaker’s cost-cutting under new CEO Makoto Uchida, who is under pressure for a quick turnaround.

Alliance Ventures is aimed at finding “learning opportunities” for the alliance through investing in startups, and is supposed get up to $200 million a year from the three alliance partners, although it never achieves that full amount, the first source said.