"Cooperation with Daimler will be the topic of the special board meeting that will take place on Tuesday, April 6," an unnamed source was quoted as saying by Autonews. "The principle of a stake swap, of below 10 percent, has been established."
Earlier reports said Daimler would purchase a small 3 percent ownership in the French manufacturer by using treasury shares as a means to calm down investors over the 2009 lack of a dividend.
Since Renault is not even remotely comparable in size with giant Daimler, questions on what money will use the French for their stake in Daimler started being asked. According to ikkei business daily, this is where Nissan will step in, acquiring one or two percent in the German carmaker.
Although this alliance would make sense from an economical perspective, some began to wonder how would such a small amount of shares influence the way in which the parties involved look at the deal.
"There is no absolute need for cross-shareholding to achieve the cost savings within a partnership, but it could be an internal signal to staff at both carmakers that they have to work together to make this succeed," Fitch Ratings analyst Emmanuel Bulle told the source.
"A 3 percent stake? At that level no one is obligated to do anything really, so I would try and dampen expectations before the market starts to estimate billions in synergy potential."
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