#GroupeRenault

Last week, Renault reported its first significant loss in a decade (€141 million) and a 3.3-percent decline in annual sales for 2019. It now expects a flat 2020 and claims it needs to commit itself to a €2 billion restructuring program over the next three years. Alliance partner Nissan also anticipates a weak year, and is doubling down on its own restructuring efforts by showcasing an eagerness to do whatever it takes to restore profitability.

However, the French government wants Renault to slow down and think about things before it starts shuttering local factories. Owner of a 15-percent stake in the automaker, it doesn’t wish to see its investment doing anything embarrassing. As such, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire warned the company to be exceedingly careful with how it handles business in France, urging it to avoid any measures that might negatively impact domestic employment rates.

The relationship between alliance partners Renault and Nissan remains incredibly strained. We’ve documented the souring of this corporate relationship closely since November, starting with the arrest of former Nissan chairman and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn, but the partnership’s new chapter is a bit more confrontational. Of course, the relationship trouble started long before that.

Still in the midst of a corporate power struggle, Renault recently decided to block Nissan’s board reforms — possibly in response to the Japanese automaker not supporting a possible merger between the French automaker and Fiat Chrysler. Regardless, the Alliance now appears to be in real jeopardy, with neither side interested in cooperating. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa appears to be hip to this fact, claiming the two sides need to take steps to stabilize and reinforce the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance or risk it dissolving completely.

Following a whirlwind 10-day courtship, Fiat Chrysler withdrew its marriage proposal to Groupe Renault on Wednesday night, citing irreconcilable differences.

FCA blames France.

The proposed 50:50 merger with the French automaker, floated on Memorial Day, was snatched off the table following an FCA board meeting, the automaker stated in a release, adding that it had “become clear that the political conditions in France do not currently exist for such a combination to proceed successfully.”

Thirty-two years after Chrysler bought Renault’s controlling stake in AMC, absorbing the automaker and folding its French-developed passenger cars into the new Eagle brand, the automaker’s Fiat Chrysler successor is interested in a merger.

On Monday, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles submitted a proposal for a “transformative merger” with Groupe Renault. The 50:50 merger would create the world’s third-largest automobile company and generate $5.6 billion in annual savings, FCA claims — equal to efficiencies born of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance.

Few good news stories seem to originate in Iran, but Renault wouldn’t agree.

The French automaker has inked a deal with the government of Iran to massively boost vehicle production in the middle eastern country.