At one time, it was called the “House that Ghosn Built,” but now amid heavy-duty downsizing under new CEO Ivan Espinosa, and with onetime legend Carlos Ghosn disgraced and exiled to Lebanon, Nissan’s headquarters in Yokohama has been sold.
Here’s Bloomberg with the details:
Nissan Motor Co. has agreed to sell its global headquarters…[for $630 million] to a group sponsored by Taiwanese autoparts maker Minth Group, as the struggling automaker seeks to shore up its financial position. The acquisition will be led by a special purchase company managed by KJR Management, a Japanese real estate unit of private equity giant KKR & Co., according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named discussing private information.
The sale of HQ has been in the air for a while. If the deal goes through as described, then the Minth Group would pick up the building for about $40 million less than what was speculated this spring. Something of a fire sale, in other words.
The end of an era
The deal doesn’t involve Nissan vacating the premises. Rather, the company will keep its operations in place and lease the space from the new owners. Going from landlord to renter is of course somewhat humiliating in the grand scheme of things – doubly so given that Ghosn himself cut the ribbon on HQ back in 2009 – but it does show that Espinosa is serious about his turnaround plan. Unlike Ghosn, one of the last empire-builders in the auto industry, Espinosa has cast himself as an empire dismantler.
The likes of Ghosn and his now also-deposed protege, Carlos Tavares (forced out of Stellantis late last year), have faded in importance. Corporate engineering on a massive scale (and the Renault-Nissan alliance was indeed massive) ultimately can’t hide non-competitive products and an inability to concentrate on profitability. The name of the game in the car business these days is making money, not dominating markets across the globe. Nissan needs a solid balance sheet more than it needs to own a building. And that balance sheet is in urgent need of bolstering, as the company expects to post an operating loss of almost $2 billion through March of 2026.
The deal entails a 20-year lease, so it’s reasonable to speculate that Nissan’s new landlords think the carmaker will survive the current crisis and be able to stay in business for a few more decades. Of course, if Espinosa is successful, then that surviving tenant is going to be a lot smaller. And the Era of Carlos Ghosn will be officially dead.
