Honda-Nissan merger talks, Nikkei reports

Nissan engine Shares rose on Wednesday following a media report that the Japanese automaker is seeking a merger Honda engine.

Nissan shares were last up 22%, while Honda shares fell 1.2%.

According to a report in Nikkei newspaper, Honda and Nissan are considering operating under a holding company and will soon sign a memorandum of understanding. According to the report, they also want to eventually bring Mitsubishi Motors, in which Nissan is the main shareholder with a 24% stake, under the holding company.

In a statement, Nissan said media reports that it was “considering a business integration” with Honda were not based on an announcement from our company. Nissan said it is considering various options for future collaboration with Honda and Mitsubishi, but no decisions have been made yet.

According to Nikkei, the combined Nissan-Honda-Mitsubishi company would be equivalent to more than 8 million vehicle sales annually. That would place the company among the world’s largest automakers, but still behind Japanese automaker Toyota Motor, with 11.2 million in 2023, and German automaker Volkswagen, which reported sales of 9.2 million vehicles last year.

The merger report follows the two Japanese automakers entering into a strategic partnership for shared automotive components and software earlier this year.

Such a merger would be the automotive industry’s largest merger since Fiat Chrysler merged with France-based PSA Groupe to form Stellantis in January 2021.

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– Michael Wayland and Hui Jie contributed to this report.