Auto News: Sources Say Ghosn planned to remove Saikawa as Nissan CEO before arrest in Japan
 Nissan President and Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa speaks during a news conference after Japanese media reported that Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn will be arrested, at the company headquarters in Yokohama, November 19, 2018. — Reuters pic |
Hans Greimel Twitter December 9, 2018; Ghosn wanted to overhaul Nissan's management partly because he was unhappy with Nissan's financial performance under CEO Saikawa, sources said.
TOKYO – Carlos Ghosn was planning to remove Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa before Ghosn was arrested in Japan last month for alleged financial misconduct, people familiar with the matter said.
Ghosn, who was then Nissan Motor Co.'s chairman, was planning a wider management shakeup, and part of the blueprint included a new CEO, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The timeline of the shuffle was unclear. One source said Ghosn was planning to discuss the reorganization during a November trip to Japan with an eye toward implementing it next spring.
“He was getting ready for a shakeup that was going to affect Saikawa,” the other source said. “It was a path to a different CEO.”
But Ghosn never had a chance to discuss the matter with Nissan’s board.
Authorities arrested Ghosn on Nov. 19 after his plane landed in Tokyo. He has been detained in a Tokyo jail ever since as investigators probe allegations that he hid about $80 million in compensation from financial filings over eight years. Nissan’s board ousted Ghosn as its chairman three days after his arrest and is scheduled to meet Dec. 17 to appoint a replacement.
Ghosn’s plot to remove Saikawa as CEO was reported earlier Sunday by The Wall Street Journal.
Any plan to remove Saikawa would require approval of the board. A Nissan spokesman said the company was “unable to comment on a highly speculative story of this nature."
Ghosn maintains his innocence, according to a person close to the family. But the man credited with saving Nissan from bankruptcy nearly two decades ago could be indicted as early as Monday for allegedly under-reporting his compensation on official disclosures.
