Mitsubishi Unlikely to Join Honda-Nissan Integration Talks

Tokyo, Jan. 24 (Jiji Press)--Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is unlikely to join the business integration talks between Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., it was learned Friday.

Mitsubishi Motors will not come under the holding company to be established based on the integration plan, but it wants to cooperate in developing cutting-edge technologies such as those related to electric vehicles and autonomous driving.

Honda and Nissan started talks to integrate their operations last December. Mitsubishi Motors, whose largest shareholder is Nissan, said that it would consider whether to join the talks by the end of this month.

Mitsubishi Motors has a market capitalization of 700 billion yen, only 7 pct of the total among the three automakers. Honda and Nissan have market capitalizations of 7.9 trillion yen and 1.6 trillion yen, respectively.

Considering the expected inequality after integration, Mitsubishi Motors are seen choosing to remain independent.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]