Nissan Offers Board Committee Compromise to Renault

Nissan Motor Co. hopes to defuse a conflict with Renault SA by offering new board assignments to the French carmaker’s two top executives, The Nikkei says.

Renault, which owns 43% of Nissan, has demanded greater representation on the new audit, compensation and nomination committees Nissan wants to set up to improve its corporate governance. The reforms were prompted by the arrest last November of then-Chairman Carlos Ghosn on charges of financial wrongdoing.

Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard and CEO Thierry Bollore already sit on Nissan’s board. But under the original restructuring plan, Renault would be allowed one seat on only one of the new committees.

Sources tell The Nikkei that Nissan now is offering to set up a fourth panel, perhaps to be called the strategy committee. Senard and Bollore would each sit on that panel. Renault also would be given one seat on each of the other three new committees.

Both companies are keen to find a compromise before Nissan’s reform plan is put to a shareholder ballot on June 25. Senard has said Renault would abstain from voting, thereby blocking the two-thirds approval required to adopt the measures, without gaining board committee representation befitting its top-shareholder position.