Five years ago this month, on Monday, December 30, 2019, Carlos Ghosn shocked the world by making a dramatic exit from Japan to his home state of Lebanon.  , Studies that he was in Lebanon made it to the French press around 9: 30 am GMT and then, shortly after, around the world.
The once renowned chief executive of the empire of Renault, Nissan, and Mitsubishi Motors is nevertheless fighting to get his name out, while Nissan’s firm situation has deteriorated once more, as advertising accounts suggest the manufacturer may be going bankrupt.
Ghosn, in an exclusive meeting with Asia Times, said he doesn’t think bankruptcy is good. ” But they need cash and they need expenditure”, he said. ” Management has no idea how to move things around.
He doesn’t think that an ally with Honda Motor Co., a style of current press coverage, does materialize”. There might be a invasion, in my opinion. The Chinese government may decide it didn’t allow Nissan to collapse. But as you know, a takeover is not an empire. The acquisition is only a takeover, which also implies that the business that is in charge will act in its own way and dispose of assets it does not have. That does occur, “he said.
Consider that Honda has never been able to form an alliance and is strongly separate. They’ve bragged over the years that they’re the little man going only against Toyota.”
Another issue is that Honda hasn’t been a market leader in its mechanical sector. Even in the United States, which is its main market, Honda’s market share is less than 10 %. In Europe, it is , less than 1 %. In Japan– where it is now the fourth-leading product, up one area from second the preceding year – it , also accounts for only 11 % of the market, nearly intact.
However, its revenue ratio in the first half of the current fiscal year, April to September, is only , 3.6 %, well down on the list of global manufacturers.
Things fell apart at Nissan post-Ghos n
Nissan’s running profit fell 90 % during the same time to , 32.9 billion yen. Its operating profit margin is now , 0.5 %. More significantly, auto sales this year are expected to drop to 3.4 million, along from 5.7 million in fiscal 2017 and 5.5 million units in governmental 2018, the final two years Ghosn was in command.
” Honestly, a lot of people have asked me how is it that after I left, whatever collapsed, “he said”. But not only did I left. Many more individuals departed with me. Ghosn originally estimated about a dozen. And these were persons who had grown up in the organization.”
He singled out José Muñoz, who in November became the CEO of Hyundai Motor Co”. Muñoz was one of the most appealing skills at Nissan, “he said”. Some weeks after my imprisonment, he left.”
Muñoz, who spent five years in Tennessee as head of Nissan’s North American operation, left Nissan on , January 11, 2019,  , two months after Ghos n’s arrest. The US adviser, a native of Tennessee, had warned him against traveling to Japan after being summoned to do so.
Muñoz joined Hyundai three months later in , April 2019 as key international operating officer. He had been chosen to serve as Nissan’s future senator in 2018.
If 30 times younger, do sign on for a Nissan correct
” Personally, I don’t think that this is mission impossible,” Ghos n said of Nissan’s current plight”, but it will be difficult for them. I can tell you that if someone had offered to help me turn Nissan near for me when I was 30 years younger. However, you must locate the right individuals with the right perspective on the sector. Clearly, the business in 2024 is not the same as the market in 1999. The problems are diverse.”
Ghosn doesn’t give information of how he might go about fixing Nissan”. Before making a diagnosis of the situation, I always make a plan. For the last six years, a lot of damage has been inflicted on the business. I would need to reevaluate the circumstances, including who is to blame and where the injury is occurring.
” When I arrived in Japan in March 1999, I didn’t have a plan in mind”, he said. It took me three weeks to assess the situation and come up with a strategy. But I didn’t do it alone. I created it with the input of numerous individuals inside Nissan.  ,
” I’m convinced that a lot of individuals inside Nissan are frightened and feeling helpless, “he added”. Why did we accomplish this? What happened to our business? Why is this business a scourge to behold?
” No one really great is going to visit a group of officials.  , They didn’t.  , They said that the empire was working. It wasn’t. They claimed Nissan would continue to grow. They claimed for the past six years that my administration had caused all the problems at Nissan, despite the fact that I had never had any issues in charge. After I left, all the issues started.  ,
They can’t continue to hold people accountable for something that occurred six years ago. This is their own doing.”
In terms of Renault, the business that bought a play in Nissan and sent Ghosn to move it, they are back where they were until 1999, which is a little French business with a European focus.  , They got out from China. They got out from Russia. They left from anywhere, and they are still doing so with a market presence and level not very similar to what they were before the empire, he said.
When I asked him whether Nissan can be a person suddenly in electric vehicles, Ghosn replied:” Travel on, they’re looking for life now. They didn’t seem to upgrade or innovate. They’re only looking for money. It’s pretty simple thing they’re doing, and they don’t understand how to do it. These people are panicking.”
Ghosn added that Nissan apparently has been attacked by Effissimo Capital Management and Oasis Management Group, two hostile wall money. He added that he physically believes Nissan will hit the wall and the results this time will be much worse than in 1999 and that these could be another cause of problems.
He warned that faith is the biggest issue moving ahead. You didn’t own an empire without trust. If the Japanese hadn’t trusted me in 1999, I don’t have turned them about. Without faith, we would never have been able to stay in Japan for 19 times. Trust ,  , is the base of everything. When partnerships is breached, the decline is nearby.
They are now attempting to create a drama that demonstrates to the people that they are creating a novel or that the empire has been modified. It’s all bullshit”, he said.
Living in Beirut
Ghosn is at ease in Beirut, even though his life isn’t the same as it was when he used his personal-use corporate jet to fly between five opulent homes and apartments on three continents, mainly for running alliances.  ,
He’s not the only criminal in the home. The judge handling his case allegedly asked her husband about a crime she allegedly committed while Carole, a double federal National and Lebanese, was evasive in responding to his wife’s questions. She was interviewed on , April 11, 2019, a , year after prosecution raided their Tokyo room and took her mobile and her Syrian card.  , She would be charged 10 months later,  , eight days after Ghos n’s escape and the day before his Beirut press conference, with making false statements in that April meeting.
While not discussing the details of Carole’s situation, Ghosn reported, as he’s done in the past, that one of his investigators at the Tokyo Detention House warned him that if he didn’t repent” We are going to be looking outside. We’re going to include your partner, we’re going to involve your children, we’re going to include your friends, and we’re going to discover things.  ,
” This was all taped,” Ghos n said”, and the tapes are in the hands of the prosecutor’s business.”
For this review, we asked Ghosn if, after Israel’s two-month bombing battle, he could also walk carefully from his house to sit out in a cafe.
” No trouble, “he said”. Definitely nothing. Despite the nation suffering a bit, the war didn’t have a significant impact on us. Luckily, we live in an region which avoided any war behavior. But we’ve been great. We’re hopeful that the peace holds even though it’s not perfect. But so far it’s holding.”
He continued,” His kids can visit him without any limits.” They can occur whenever they want, “he said. In fact, Ghos n’s children will be in Lebanon for a family Christmas vacation.
When questioned about his home in Beirut’s special Ashrafieh neighborhood and whether he had been expelled as per media reports, he responded,” I’m in the same house, but little. This legitimate challenge will take a very long time. I am aware that I have been kicked out of my house in response to numerous explosive comments in the press. They’re not accurate. I am still in the exact home. It’s going to take many, several times before this issue is resolved “in judge.
Ghosn has challenged Nissan’s says of possession of the house through a Beirut-based company, Phoinos Investments SAL, on the premise that the manufacturer owes him money. When he escaped from Japan, Nissan froze his goods, including wealth in the firm’s retirement account. The property officially is valued at$ 19 million.
However,  , Ghosn, then 70, continues his battle to have his popularity cleared. Despite the fact that the majority of legitimate strategies have been blocked in Japan, France, and the US, he has never given up.
Concerning the European situation, he said:” European prosecutors issued an arrest warrant in , April 2022 , and asked me to go to France, ignoring the fact that there is now a red see on me from the Japanese, which forbids me to keep Lebanon,” said Ghosn.
” I didn’t go. As a result, we don’t know the details of what the prosecutors are planning. Which means: It may take another year for us to learn the specifics. It’s not a very complicated case, but we still don’t know what the charges will be.”
I was asked if the allegations relate to his business dealings with Suhail Bahwan, the founder and former chairman of Suhail Bahwan Automobiles LLC in Oman.
” Without getting into details, “he replied”, the prosecutors are trying to establish that money from Renault or Nissan”  , — media reports indicate , 15 million euros  , —” came to me. That’s the , case , that the French prosecutors are making. There is no case if Renault or Nissan don’t send me any money. And there is no case, “he said.
Asked about a British Virgin Islands case, involving a super-yacht, in which he was ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages, Ghosn said:” We’re appealing. I’m being pressured to spend money by Nissan. ” Litigating” is very expensive and obviously they’re using Nissan’s money. I’m using my own. We didn’t try to defend ourselves because I can’t leave Lebanon. I believe our appeal case is very strong.
Concerning his criminal complaint and case against Nissan in Lebanon, in which he is seeking$ 1 billion in damages and he has identified 11 Nissan executives, he replied:” Justice is working. It’s slow because of the situation of the country, but I’m still fighting on the Lebanon case. Obviously, that means I have many things at work in Lebanon against Nissan.”
He said,” I am not going to talk too much about it,” and when asked if he would like to discuss his situation in Lebanon further because his name is on the Interpol red notice list, he said,” I am not going to talk too much.” But I don’t consider the battle over.”