Renault dropped plans to provide vehicles for General Motors’ Saturn brand after talks with would-be buyer Penske Automotive Group broke down at the last minute, chief operating officer Patrick Pelata said.
“We negotiated with them, but we were unable to reach agreement at the end,” Pelata said in an interview Thursday.
GM said Wednesday it will close Saturn after Penske ended discussions to buy the brand, citing Renault’s decision to pull out of the vehicle-supply talks. In a statement, which didn’t mention Boulogne-Billancourt, France-based Renault by name, Penske blamed the proposed supplier’s board for rejecting an agreement it had reached with management.
Renault chief executive Carlos Ghosn didn’t recommend approval of an agreement with Penske at Wednesday’s board meeting, Pelata said after a news conference in Paris. Ending the talks “was not a board decision,” he added.
“The deal probably made a lot of sense to Renault at first glance,” Mike Tyndall, a London-based European auto specialist with Nomura Securities, said in a telephone interview.
The proposal may have drawn objections from Nissan, Renault’s 44 percent-owned Japanese affiliate, he said.
“When they looked into the details, they probably realized it would do the Renault-Nissan alliance more harm than good,” Tyndall said. “They’d be using potentially cheaper versions of alliance products to compete with Nissan in its most important market.”
