Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn says a failed shareholder proposal to bring him back shows investors have lost patience with three CEOs who failed to revive the automaker.
Speaking from Beirut, Ghosn told Reuters that shareholders “had enough” after years of deteriorating results. At Nissan’s annual meeting, CEO Ivan Espinosa faced the anger, but the board-backed vote rejected the proposal.
“It’s a reaction with plenty of common sense,” Ghosn said. “You can feel the anger and the frustration of the shareholders.”
Ghosn pointed to Nissan’s 80% share-price collapse since his 2018 ouster, annual sales halved to about 3 million vehicles, plant closures and job cuts as evidence of management failure.
He argued Nissan has become slow and defensive, retreating from markets rather than confronting competition. Only a CEO role can save the company, he warned, adding, “If there is one person … who can make it happen, it’s mine.”
Without a serious course correction, Nissan risks becoming a small affiliate of a larger, likely Chinese rival, he said. He compared the situation to the 1999 crisis just before Renault’s rescue - “but with less hope.”
Ghosn, who fled to Lebanon while awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges he denies, now says he regrets accepting another term leading Renault in 2018. “This was a big mistake.”