TOKYO — For the second time in two months, Nissan last week slashed its profit outlook, partly due to quality problems with its transmissions.
Nissan blamed the twin problems of falling sales and rising warranty costs in the U.S. market, the carmaker's traditional profit center.
At the same time, Nissan's controlling shareholder, Renault SA of France, last week aired a proposal for a new ownership arrangement with the Japanese automaker, in which the two companies would be folded into a holding company, according to a report in Japan's Nikkei news service. Renault owns 43.3 percent of Nissan.
Nissan rejected a holding company proposal by Renault earlier this month, according to the Nikkei report, which cited comments by Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard about the proposals.
The report claimed that Renault — in the interest of creating a more balanced power relationship between the two automakers — is suggesting a holding company with control divided evenly between them, with the French government owning a 7 percent share of the entity, and a headquarters located somewhere outside of both Europe and Japan.