Nissan CFO Stephen Ma Steps Down Amid Financial Crisis

We recently revealed that Carlos Tavares, the boss of Stellantis, abruptly stepped down as CEO of the company following disagreements over how to address the company's declining profitability.

Now, Nissan’s chief financial officer (CFO), Stephen Ma is reportedly resigning, shortly after a report that said the company has 12 or 14 months to survive if it doesn’t find a new shareholder.

His resignation follows the June 2023 retirement of Ashwani Gupta, the now-former chief operating officer (COO) of Nissan, who was later reported to have had a camera system installed at his Tokyo residence.

Ma has been employed by Nissan or its Chinese joint venture partner Dongfeng since 1996, just a few years before the automaker entered its now 25-year partnership with French brand Renault. He was promoted to the position of CFO in late 2019.
Although both automakers benefited financially from the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the Japanese company has suffered since Carlos Ghosn, the former CEO, was arrested on suspicion of embezzling company cash, a charge he has since denied.

The Financial Times reported last week that a senior executive close to the automaker stated, "We have 12 or 14 months to survive." Nissan's financial problems have been becoming worse in recent months as a result of declining sales in its two largest markets, China and the US.

"This will be difficult. Finally, we need the US and Japan to be making money," the top Nissan official told The Financial Times.

According to a source close to Renault, the company is willing to sell a portion of its shares to Honda.

Renault wants to lower its investment in Nissan even more, having reduced it from 43.4% to less than 36% last year, leaving the Japanese brand looking for a long-term, dependable shareholder, such as a bank or insurance firm, to give financial stability.

Following a decline in consolidated operating profit for the first half of the Japanese fiscal year 2024 from 303.8 billion yen to 32.9 billion yen, Nissan announced earlier this month that it would reduce global production capacity by 20% and eliminate 9000 jobs in order to "stabilise and right-size" the company.

Makoto Uchida, the CEO of the company, has declared that he will willingly give up half of his monthly salary, and other members of the executive committee are likewise reducing their salaries.

In the last 12 months, Nissan's share price has dropped 36%, reaching its lowest level since the COVID-19 epidemic closed borders worldwide.

Nissan's reliance on US sales is in jeopardy, as was reported last week, following the announcement by incoming President Donald Trump that he would put a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico.