A MAJOR car brand is reportedly looking to raise £5billion including a loan guaranteed by the UK government after axing 20,000 jobs.
Cash-strapped Nissan, Japan’s third-largest carmaker, is already facing £4billion in losses – its worst annual loss in a quarter century.
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But now, the company are said to be considering raising more than 1 trillion yen – just over £5 billion – from debt and asset sales in a bid to prop up Nissan.
The struggling Japanese automaker plans to issue as much as 630 billion yen in convertible securities and bonds, including high-yielding US dollar and euro notes, according to Bloomberg News.
The move would also include a £1billion syndicated loan guaranteed by the British government, the documents show.
Sale-and-lease-back plans for its Yokohama headquarters, plus properties it owns in the United States, are also reportedly on the cards.
The aggressive fundraising plans underscore Nissan’s rapidly deteriorating financial and operational position, despite efforts by newly appointed chief executive Ivan Espinosa to turn the company around.
In addition, Nissan is reportedly seeking to sell part of the stakes it owns in Renault and battery maker AESC Group, as well as plants in South Africa and Mexico.
Bloomberg News cited sources as saying Nissan’s board did not appear to have approved the funding proposal yet, leaving it unclear whether it would happen.
The proposal was also slated to include the rollover of some debt, the report said.
A Nissan representative said the company does not comment on speculation.
It comes after Nissan said they could part ways with its global headquarters in Yokohama, Japan, to fund the company’s urgent restructuring plan.
After having moved to the 22-story high-rise in 2009, the car manufacturer is now facing mountains of debt and is on track to cut 20,000 jobs, shut several of its plants and slash billions in costs.
With a glitzy gallery, the flashy headquarters can showcase more than thirty motors and stands in stark contrast to their previous offices.
The company have said that part of their plan has called for reviewing assets that can be sold in a desperate bid to pay for the restructuring.
With its own headquarters in sight, thought to be worth approximately £500 million, Nissan would structure a deal so it could continue to use the site through a lease so its offices and operations remain in place.
A company spokesperson said: “Nissan is considering all possibilities to recover its business performance, but there are no specifics to share at this point of time.”
The move is not unprecedented, however, with McLaren doing something similar with its HQ in Woking in recent years.
Nissan confirmed in April that it was anticipating losses of up to £4 billion, its worst annual loss in a quarter century.
Nissan is also planning to close seven factories by 2027, including two domestic sites which are thought to be the Oppama and Shonan plants, saving £2.6 billion in the process.
There have also been reports of downsizing or a partial sale of its Tochigi assembly plan and test centre facility north of Tokyo which was recently equipped with manufacturing technologies to assemble electric vehicles.
To underline the dire financial situation, the motor company is even halting the development of certain models to cut its expenses.
While the car company has been hit hard by the effects of Donald Trump’s tariff war, Nissan’s new CEO, Ivan Espinosa, has admitted the company’s financial trouble started a decade ago.
He said: “This is not something that happened in the last couple of years.
“It’s more of a fundamental problem that probably started back in 2015, when management thought this company could reach [annual global vehicle sales] of around eight million.
“There were heavy investments both in terms of planned capacity as well as in human resources, but the reality today is we are running at around half that volume. And nobody did anything to fix that until now.”
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