Why Carlos Ghosn fleeing to Lebanon could actually be good news for Nissan – and perhaps Britain too

At the very least the Nissan-Renault alliance will have to be redrawn to reflect the reality that the Japanese firm is inherently the stronger partner

Ghosn leaving his lawyer’s Tokyo office in April (Reuters)

Carlos Ghosn’s flight to Lebanon may or may not turn out to be a good choice for him personally, but it may be very good news for the future of Nissan – and perhaps for Nissan’s operations in Britain.

The starting point here is that Ghosn, backed by Renault, saved Nissan. Nothing that has happened since his arrest can take away from that achievement. But in recent years he became the advocate for the French side of the partial merger of the two companies, in effect allowing Renault to milk Nissan for the funds to keep it going. For the past decade, at least until this year, Nissan made more profit than Renault. Yet it was the junior partner in the relationship, owning only 15 per cent of Renault, while the French side owned 43 per cent of Nissan.

Japanese fears that Ghosn was the voice of France were confirmed when the immediate reaction of the Renault high command to his arrest was to question the reasons for his detention. Only as the case against him was revealed did French support fade. Ghosn denies any wrongdoing.