Tokyo, Feb 13 (EFE).- Japanese automakers Nissan Motor and Honda Motor decided on Thursday to abandon negotiations on a merger.<\/p>
During board meetings on Thursday, the two companies decided to withdraw the memorandum of understanding signed in December and to end talks aimed at a business integration, public broadcaster NHK reported. <\/p>
The collapse of the negotiations was announced by local media at the beginning of last week and has been attributed to differences between both firms on the ownership structure of the joint company.<\/p>
Honda had presented a proposal to make Nissan a subsidiary completely under its control within the framework of the joint company, which the latter rejected, NHK said.<\/p>
According to local media reports, Honda was also unhappy with the progress of Nissan’s restructuring plan to overcome its financial struggles, which includes a 20 percent reduction in its global production and 9,000 job cuts.<\/p>
After Toyota Motor, Honda is the second largest Japanese automaker by sales volume and Nissan the third.<\/p>
If the merger, which was scheduled to be completed in 2026, had gone ahead, it would have created the world’s third largest automaker.<\/p>
Honda’s CEO Toshihiro Mibe will hold a press conference on the failed plan to merge both companies at 4:50 pm on Thursday while his counterpart at Nissan, Makoto Uchida, will appear an hour later to present the firm’s quarterly results and presumably speak on the same subject. EFE<\/p>
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