By Kantaro Komiya
TOKYO (Reuters) -Nissan Motor will reassign Chief Financial Officer Stephen Ma to head its China business in January, it said on Wednesday, a high-profile shake-up for the crisis-hit Japanese automaker as it cuts thousands of jobs worldwide.
Nissan (OTC:) Americas Chairperson Jeremie Papin will replace Ma as finance chief.
President-CEO Makoto Uchida is facing mounting pressure to rebuild Nissan after sales slumps in its key China and U.S. markets.
Nissan said last month its half-year net earnings were down more than 90% from the same period last year and cut its annual operating profit forecast by about 70%.
Uchida also announced a plan to axe 9,000 jobs and 20% of its global production capacity to reduce costs by $2.6 billion in the current financial year ending in March.
Ma briefed analysts and investors about the execution of the restructuring plan at a closed-door meeting last month, Reuters previously reported.
Ma will be reassigned to the chairperson of Nissan’s China business as part of a reshuffle of some executive committee members, effective Jan. 1, the company said.
Former Stellantis (NYSE:)’ Jeep CEO Christian Meunier, who previously was the head of Nissan’s luxury brand Infiniti, returns to the company and succeeds Papin as the Americas chief.
The role changes “will bring the necessary experience and urgency to the countermeasures we are taking to get the company back on track”, Uchida said in a statement. Nissan will carry out another management transformation in April, it said.
Some board members opposed to Uchida’s reappointment, saying he had not delivered detailed restructuring plans, the newspaper has reported.
The management reshuffle is the latest example of leadership turmoil at Nissan, which has never fully recovered from the 2018 arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn and the unwinding of a partnership with French automaker Renault (EPA:).
In 2019, CEO Hiroto Saikawa stepped down after admitting he received excess pay. Chief Operations Officer Ashwani Gupta left last year, and Nissan later investigated claims that Uchida put Gupta under surveillance.
Ma, 54, joined Nissan’s U.S. unit in 1996 and has held financial roles in the group and its Chinese joint venture with Dongfeng. He became Nissan’s finance chief in December 2019, weeks after Uchida took over as CEO.
Bloomberg News reported last month that Ma was expected to step down.
Ma’s successor, Papin, joined the Renault-Nissan alliance in 2009 as a financial advisor and has been leading Nissan’s U.S. business since 2021.
Papin will face the tough task of carrying out the recovery plan to restore financial stability. Credit rating agencies Moody’s (NYSE:) and Fitch revised Nissan’s credit outlook to “negative” last month, citing deteriorating free cash flows.
Activist investors Effissimo Capital Management and Oasis Management have quietly built up stakes in Nissan. Both are known for pushing for capital allocation and governance reforms at Japanese companies.
