日产董事长东京被抓，出了什么事

日产汽车董事长卡洛斯·戈恩涉嫌违反金融法在东京被捕后将被免去职位，汽车业最大的全球联盟也因此深陷动荡。

日产首席执行官西川广人在日本横滨告诉记者，周一戈恩因涉嫌违反日本金融法在东京被拘留。他还表示，戈恩是一位很伟大的人，曾拯救日产于水火之中，与雷诺公司和三菱汽车结成联盟。戈恩和总监格雷格·凯利在日产内部已接受数月调查，董事会决定在周四的会议上免去二人职位。

日产表示，戈恩和凯利向东京证券监管机构报告的薪酬金额均低于实际数目，此举是为了降低戈恩的披露薪酬。戈恩方面，“还发现许多严重的违规行为，比如挪用公司资产，凯利参与其中也已证实。”日产在声明中称。

西川广人表示，暂无法透露涉嫌不法行为的更多细节。他说，之所以出现违规行为，是因为权力过于集中在一人身上，而由于日产结构不够透明所以没能发觉。据共同社报道，戈恩涉嫌在五年里隐瞒收入50亿日元（4400万美元）。

如果说有人堪比达沃斯，非卡洛斯·戈恩莫属

面临严重指控，汽车业最有权势的高管戈恩可能就此黯然下台，他曾带领日产和雷诺挑战大众和丰田等业内巨头。此前根据三方签订协议构建的联盟在64岁的戈恩稳定领导之下不断深化，该事件之后未来发展存疑。虽然戈恩不再担任日产首席执行官，但就任董事长后为永久联盟奠定了基础，即便离开也依然稳固，也存在合并的可能性。

“投资者应该放心。摩根大通的分析师何塞·M·阿苏门迪在研究报告中称，因为戈恩是合作的关键因素。与日产合作“对雷诺未来的战略至关重要。”

不过，消息传出后欧洲股市震荡，雷诺股价在巴黎市场跌幅达15%，而日产的全球存托凭证下跌超过11%。

严峻的挑战

日产危机的出现恰逢汽车产业格局的结构性变化。

业界向电动和自动驾驶汽车转变的趋势迫使传统汽车制造商投资数十亿美元研发新车型，而像Uber和特斯拉这样的新竞争对手则在不断地蚕食其市场。戈恩将成为第二位在见证汽车行业转型完成之前出人意料地从人们视野中消失的汽车产业大拿。领导菲亚特东山再起并促成公司与克莱斯勒合并的塞尔吉奥·马尔基翁内于今年7月逝世，而他的继任者是54岁的Jeep前任首席执行官迈克·曼立。

为什么戈恩离开的时机尤为糟糕？

日产表示，公司一直在向日本检方提供信息，并将全力配合调查。朝日新闻早些时候曾报道，戈恩自愿被检方带走。东京检方办公室代表称，他们不会对个案发表评论，而且雷诺的发言人也拒绝置评。

根据日本法律，检方必须提出正式起诉之后才能移交法院庭审。因此，戈恩的逮捕并不意味着他会被判有罪。人们并不清楚他现在在哪，以及整个法律流程需要耗费多长的时间。

戈恩在9月称，他将继续削减自己在三家汽车制造商的内部职务，并继续担任该联盟（由他亲自促成）的领导者。

多年来，戈恩是日本和法国薪酬最高的高管之一，但其薪酬也经常是人们批评的对象。戈恩因其多重职务而拿到了数份薪酬，这些职务包括雷诺-日产-三菱联盟的主席、雷诺首席执行官以及日产和三菱的董事长。

在日产，他2016年的薪酬达到了约11亿日元（约合1000万美元），在最近的财年拿到了约650万美元，而他近期从雷诺和三菱分别拿到了约850万美元和200万美元的薪水。在雷诺，他在同意减薪20%之后，其薪酬方案才勉强获得了股东的通过。

法国财政部发言人拒绝对这一新闻置评。法国持有雷诺约15%的股份，而且支持戈恩在这家法国汽车制造公司继续留任。

随着三家公司开始寻求改变联盟协定构架，戈恩一直在思考自己今后的职业道路。戈恩去年放弃了他作为日产首席执行官职务，而且表示可能在2022年自己四年任期到期之前辞去雷诺首席执行官一职。外界据此猜测这位联盟构建师以及过去20年以来的主要领导者将离开联盟。

彭博新闻在7月称，这些汽车制造商给自己留出了两年的时间，来决定是否进行合并，或寻找其他的替代机制来加强合作关系。戈恩在9月指出，这些公司将在其担任雷诺首席执行官的前半个任期之内“搞定所有事情”。

这位法籍巴西人在1996-1999年担任雷诺执行副总裁期间帮助雷诺东山再起。他随后受命重振日产公司。期间，他削减了日产的购买成本，关闭了5家工厂，裁员2.1万人，并在随后的三年中将节省的成本投资生产了22款轿车和卡车。

在这一事件发生之前，日本汽车行业已经出现了一系列危机，其诸多丑闻涉及产品质量和生产记录造假等。去年，日产成为了舆论的焦点，当时，日本监管方发现审核车辆的检查员并未获得相关认证。日产因此而召回了120多万辆轿车。（财富中文网）

译者：夏林

Nissan Motor Co. will remove Carlos Ghosn as chairman after he was arrested in Tokyo for violations of financial law, throwing the auto industry’s largest global alliance into turmoil.

Ghosn, a towering figure who saved Nissan from collapse and brought it together with Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., was detained Monday in Tokyo over the suspected breach of Japanese financial laws, Nissan Chief Executive Officer Hiroto Saikawa told reporters in Yokohama, Japan. Ghosn and Director Greg Kelly have been under investigation at Nissan for several months, and the board is set to meet Thursday to remove them both.

Both Ghosn and Kelly were reporting compensation to securities regulators in Tokyo that was less than the actual amount, Nissan said, adding that they did this to reduce Ghosn’s disclosed compensation. Regarding Ghosn, “numerous other significant acts of misconduct have been uncovered — such as personal use of company assets — and Kelly’s deep involvement has also been confirmed,” the carmaker said in a statement.

Saikawa said the company can’t disclose further details of the suspected wrongdoing. Too much power being concentrated to one individual allowed for the misconduct, and Nissan failed to detect it because its structure wasn’t transparent enough, he said. Ghosn is suspected of understating his income by 5 billion yen ($44 million) over five years, Kyodo reported.

If Davos Were a Person, It Would Be Carlos Ghosn

The bombshell allegations threaten to bring down one of the auto industry’s most powerful executives, who turned Nissan and Renault into a challenger to giants Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Corp. They also cast doubt over the future of the alliance, a three-way pact that has sought to go deeper under the steady hand of Ghosn, 64. While no longer Nissan’s CEO, he’s been laying the groundwork as chairman to make the alliance permanent after his departure — including the possibility of a merger.

“Investors need to be reassured,” as Ghosn is a key driver of the collaboration, Jose M. Asumendi, an analyst with JPMorgan, said in a research note. Cooperation with Nissan “is critical to Renault’s strategy going forward.”

The news rattled the European equity market, with shares of Renault falling as much as 15 percent in Paris, while Nissan’s global depository receipts sank more than 11 percent.

Big Challenges

The crisis at Nissan is taking place amid a tectonic shift in the auto landscape.

The move toward electric and self-driving cars has forced traditional automakers to invest billions, while new competitors like Uber Technologies Inc. and Tesla Inc. invade their turf. Ghosn would be the second major auto-industry figure to leave unexpectedly before seeing through the transition. Sergio Marchionne, who led Fiat back from the brink and engineered its merger with Chrysler, died in July, leaving 54-year-old former Jeep chief Mike Manley at the helm.

Why Ghosn’s departure would come at a particularly bad time.

Nissan said it has been providing information to Japanese prosecutors and is cooperating fully with their investigation. Ghosn went voluntarily with prosecutors, the Asahi newspaper reported earlier. A representative for the Tokyo prosecutors’ office said they don’t comment on individual cases and a spokesman for Renault also declined to comment.

Under Japanese law, prosecutors need to make official charges before a case can be brought to court. So Ghosn’s arrest doesn’t mean he’ll be found guilty. It’s unclear where he is now and how long the legal process will take.

Ghosn said in September that he will continue to pare back his role at the three automakers he brought together, while continuing to head their alliance.

Among the best paid executives in both Japan and France for several years, Ghosn’s compensation has regularly drawn criticism. Ghosn receives numerous paychecks in his multiple roles as chairman of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, CEO of Renault, and chairman of both Nissan and Mitsubishi.

At Nissan, he was paid about 1.1 billion yen ($10 million) for 2016 and about $6.5 million in the most recent fiscal year. He took home about $8.5 million at Renault and about $2 million from Mitsubishi in the latest period. At Renault, his package for 2017 was narrowly passed by Renault shareholders, but only after he agreed a 20 percent reduction.

A spokesman for France’s finance ministry declined to comment on the news. The country owns about 15 percent of Renault and supported Ghosn’s renewal at the helm of the French automaker.

Ghosn has been contemplating his next career step as the companies look to change the pact’s structure, possibly through a merger. Ghosn gave up his role as CEO of Nissan last year and has said that he may step down as CEO of Renault before his four-year term ends in 2022, fueling speculation the alliance could lose its architect and main leader for the past two decades.

The carmakers have given themselves two years to decide on a possible merger between them or find an alternative mechanism to enhance their partnership, Bloomberg News reported in July. Ghosn said in September that the companies will “clarify everything” within the first half of his current term as Renault CEO.

A Brazilian-born French national, Ghosn revived Renault as executive vice president from 1996 to 1999. He then was assigned to turn around Nissan, where he reduced the company’s purchasing costs, shut five factories, eliminated 21,000 jobs and invested the savings back into 22 car and truck models in three years.

The latest developments add to a string of crises in the Japanese auto industry, from scandals involving product quality to falsification of records. Nissan found itself in the midst of a controversy last year, when Japan’s regulators discovered uncertified inspectors were approving vehicles, leading to a recall of more than 1.2 million cars.