Tokyo, March 28, 2002 - Nissan announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Nissan Finance, intends to purchase an amount of 37,799,462 shares, which are being issued by Renault through a reserved capital increase. This transaction, subject to approval by Renault's shareholders, called today in an extraordinary assembly, will result in an ownership of 13.5% of Renault's share capital.
As announced March 21, 2002 by Renault, the shares will be acquired at a price of 50.39 euros, resulting in a total payment of 1.904 billion euros ( 217.5 billion yen).
In accordance with the agreement announced by Renault and Nissan on October 30, 2001, Nissan retains the right to increase its stake in Renault up to 15%, subject to approval by the CPT (Commission des Participations et des Transferts). Nissan will consider any potential supplemental move after closing its FY01 financial statements and finalizing its FY02 forecast to be disclosed in May.
The announcement of today's transaction follows that made in October 2001, whereby Renault and Nissan announced a process to strengthen their strategic alliance. Included were an acquisition of an equity stake in Renault by Nissan and the exercise of warrants held by Renault, increasing its stake to 44.4%. The warrants were exercised on March 1, 2002.
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