Yomiuri Shimbun: Mitsubishi Motors will not join Honda and Nissan in cooperation

Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. plan to merge the two companies into a holding company, but Mitsubishi Motors Corp. will not be involved, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

The smaller automaker, part-owned by Nissan, will focus on strengthening its market share in Southeast Asia, the newspaper reported.

A Mitsubishi Motors spokesman said on Friday the company had not made any announcements and was considering all options, adding that any communication would be made in due course.

Mitsubishi shares fell 8.7% in early trading in Tokyo on Friday.

The two larger automakers last month unveiled plans for a long-term deal that would effectively put Nissan under Honda’s control as the Japanese automaker struggles to keep up with increasingly competitive global automakers. The pace of the industry.

They plan to establish a joint holding company and plan to go public in August 2026. The companies said they would announce the framework for ongoing negotiations in late January and finalize terms of the deal this year before setting up a public holding company in August 2026.

Mitsubishi Motors, in which Nissan holds a 24.5% stake, signed a preliminary agreement with Honda to explore joining the deal and said it expected to finalize the decision by the end of January.

Honda and Nissan have both struggled to compete with rising domestic automakers in China, which overtook Japan as the world’s largest auto exporter last year and is set to take the lead further in 2024.

A merger of Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors would create one of the world’s largest automakers, although the group would still be smaller than Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp.

France’s Renault, Nissan’s largest shareholder, acknowledged its long-time alliance partner’s statement and said talks with Honda were still in the early stages. Renault, which owns 36% of Nissan, also said in a statement that it would consider all options and continue to execute its strategy, which includes joint projects with Nissan.

——With the assistance of Tsuyoshi Inajima.

(Add stock price in third paragraph.)

More stories like this can be found at Bloomberg.com