Tokyo (AFP)

New coup at Nissan: Jun Seki, the number three of the Japanese automaker allied to Renault, will soon resign, confirmed Wednesday to AFP a source familiar with the matter.

The 58-year-old vice-chief operating officer of the Japanese group plans to join the Japanese electric motor manufacturer Nidec next year, where he plans to exercise high responsibilities, he himself told the agency. Bloomberg financial information.

Requested by AFP, spokesmen for Nissan and Nidec were unable to speak on the subject immediately.

"He announced (his departure, editor's note) internally recently. It's been a while since he discussed with Nidec," a source close to Nissan told AFP.

Having so far spent his entire career at Nissan, Mr. Seki was one of the candidates for the post of general manager of the group after Hiroto Saikawa's shattering departure in September, overtaken by a case of premiums collected in excess of the when Carlos Ghosn was in charge.

But the position ultimately fell to another senior Nissan executive, Makoto Uchida, and that of operational director (COO) to Ashwani Gupta, two figures in favor of strengthening the alliance with Renault, which had been losing ground since the eviction of Mr. Ghosn, arrested in November 2018 and then charged in Japan for alleged financial embezzlement.

Close to Mr. Saikawa, who had appointed him responsible for the group's recovery plan this spring, Mr. Seki had retained this mission in the new management, which took office on December 1. He had been associated with her by taking the symbolic title of operational vice-director.

According to some media reports, Mr. Seki was probably frustrated that he had not been appointed general manager.

"It is possible", but rather "disagreements" with Mr. Uchida and Mr. Gupta on how to turn around the company, whose results are at half mast, which would have decided Mr. Seki to leave, said the source interviewed by AFP.

"Somewhere it is a certain rationalization, because Mr. Seki was not considered as a pro-alliance. And the duo formed by Mr. Uchida and Mr. Gupta works very well", assured this same source.

This surprise start hurt Nissan's action on Wednesday, which fell 2.29% to 638.6 yen at 10:20 a.m. (1:20 GMT) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, while the star index Nikkei barely fell by 0, 11% at the same time.

© 2019 AFP