Renault-Nissan, Daimler to Meet Press in Brussels on Tie-Up

Tokyo, April 7 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Nissan Motor Co. <7201>, its French partner Renault SA and Germany's Daimler AG are set to hold a joint press conference in Brussels on Wednesday morning to announce their capital and business tie-up.

Carlos Ghosn, who serves as Nissan president and Renault chairman,
and Daimler chief Dieter Zetsche will attend the press conference.
The alliance will create the world's third-largest automotive group
by sales volume after the pair of Germany's Volkswagen AG and Japan's Suzuki
Motor Corp. <7269> and the Toyota Motor Corp. <7203> group.
Combined global automobile sales at Nissan, Renault and Daimler
stood at some 7.63 million units in 2009. The Volkswagen-Suzuki alliance
sold 8.59 million vehicles worldwide, while the Toyota group sold 7.81
million vehicles.
Under the capital tie-up, Nissan and Renault are expected to each
buy a stake of about 3 pct in Daimler. The German auto giant is also seen to
obtain a similar stake in both Nissan and Renault. Renault already has a
44.3 pct stake in Nissan while Nissan owns 15 pct of the French automaker.
The Renault-Nissan pair and Daimler are seen agreeing to open their
advanced environmental technologies to each other in order to brush them up
further, informed sources said.
Ghosn and Zetsche are also expected to stress that the three
automakers will aim to create synergies by collaborating in a wide range of
areas such as sharing parts and components to reduce vehicle production
costs, according to the sources.
Following the joint press conference, Ghosn will hold a video
conference to answer questions from Japanese reporters who gather at
Nissan's head office in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo.