Paris (AFP)

Renault will recruit the former boss of Seat (Volkswagen group) Luca de Meo as general manager in an attempt to relaunch itself and give new impetus to its alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi, after a year of crisis.

The French automaker convened Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. a board of directors intended to validate this appointment, we learned from a source close to the group.

The directors of the Losange group, who will meet at the company's headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine), had already expressed themselves in December in favor of the candidacy of Mr. de Meo, an Italian of 52 years, to take the operational reins of the diamond group.

A press release must be issued at the end of the meeting.

The taking up of office by Mr de Meo, who has so far managed the Spanish manufacturer Seat (a subsidiary of Volkswagen), will not be immediate, but will have to wait another "few months" because of the contract which bound him to the German group, two sources close to Renault told AFP.

Large construction sites await this multilingual and perfectly French-speaking leader.

The president of the board of directors Jean-Dominique Senard is counting on him to breathe new life into a business shaken by the upheavals of the Carlos Ghosn affair, the former boss of the group who arrived clandestinely in late December in Lebanon to flee Japanese justice. who was to judge him for various embezzlement.

- Marketing expert -

Luca de Meo, a marketing expert who has spent his entire career in the automotive industry, straightened Seat, which he took over in 2015 after driving sales for the German manufacturer Audi. The Spanish brand, dying four years ago, broke a historic sales record last year.

The administrators of Renault had decided in October to dismiss from office the general manager Thierry Bolloré, whose performance and style of management, deemed authoritarian, were questioned. Since then, the financial director, Clotilde Delbos, has been acting.

Luca de Meo will notably have to turn around the activity of the diamond brand in Europe, which must move upmarket to stand out more from its Romanian "low-cost" subsidiary Dacia.

Renault is at worst on the stock market. The share has lost more than half its value since the arrest of Carlos Ghosn in November 2018, a sign of investor mistrust after a year of crisis between the French manufacturer and its ally Nissan.

Mr. Senard, who took control of Renault in the midst of a storm last year, is trying to convince that a re-founding of the Franco-Japanese partnership is underway while the rumor of a possible divorce has circulated.

- Renaissance of the alliance with Nissan -

The health of cooperation with Nissan, of which Renault owns 44% and which in turn holds 15% of Renault, is considered crucial for the French manufacturer's ability to cope with the technological upheavals underway in the automotive industry.

The electrification, the autonomous driving functions and the connectivity of the vehicles require massive investments and therefore a critical size to be able to amortize them over long series.

With Mitsubishi, of which Nissan owns 34%, the Franco-Japanese alliance rose to third place in the world for car manufacturers by the volumes sold, behind the German Volkswagen and the Japanese Toyota, but with a much lower profitability, fault so far sufficient synergies.

"80% of this alliance is in front of us and not behind," said Senard recently, while a renewal of the management teams was carried out at Renault as at Nissan.

A meeting of the leaders of the alliance is scheduled for Thursday at the headquarters of the Japanese manufacturer in Yokohama. Decisions are expected on concrete projects such as the development of joint vehicles.

At the end of November, a new secretary general of the Alliance, Hadi Zablit, was appointed to coordinate the new industrial cooperation projects of the three partners.

Renault also recruited in early January the former boss of research and development from its French rival PSA (Peugeot, Citroën ...), Gilles Le Borgne. At the head of engineering, his arrival should also contribute to the ongoing renewal within the diamond group.

© 2020 AFP