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| Reports in Japan say Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa will step down over issues with his pay |
Nissan's CEO said Monday he will step down next week, deepening the crisis at the Japanese car giant still reeling from the arrest and ouster of former chief Carlos Ghosn's over alleged financial misconduct.
It is yet
another blow for the firm that has seen sales plunge and been forced to slash
jobs since Ghosn's stunning arrest for allegedly hiding part of his salary from
official documents to shareholders.
Hiroto
Saikawa said he would leave the company on September 16, following the results
of an investigation into excess pay he received after altering the terms of a
bonus.
Saikawa is
suspected of improperly adding 47 million yen ($440,000) to his compensation
under a scheme in which directors can earn a bonus if their company's share
price rises above a certain level in a set period.
Nissan
officials were keen to stress that there was no illegality but that he should
not have delegated the task to a junior executive.
"At
the end of the day, the operation which should have been carried out by the
president himself was... delegated to others, which is a violation of the
rules," said Motoo Nagai, a board member.
Saikawa
admitted handing the task to a company secretariat and said he was "not
proud" of this but insisted it was not the same as the misconduct of which
Ghosn is accused.
He was it
was "totally different from the intentional wrongdoing that was
uncovered" during the internal Nissan probe into Ghosn and his right-hand
man, US executive Greg Kelly.
The
controversial "share appreciation" scheme has now been scrapped, the
Nissan board announced.
Current
chief operating officer, Yasuhiro Yamauchi, will take over as acting CEO on
September 16, when Saikawa officially leaves, and Nissan hopes to find a
permanent replacement by the end of October.
Alleged
overpayments
The
carmaker is currently undergoing an overhaul intended to strengthen governance
after the Ghosn scandal.
In June,
Nissan shareholders voted in favour of various measures including the
establishment of three new oversight committees responsible for the appointment
of senior officials, pay issues and auditing.
They also
approved the election of 11 directors as the firm restructures, among them two
Renault executives as well as Saikawa.
The reforms
were designed to put Nissan on a more stable footing after the arrest of Ghosn,
who has been sacked from his leadership roles at the Japanese firm and others.
He is
awaiting trial on charges of under-reporting millions of dollars in salary and
of using company funds for personal expenses.
Ghosn has
denied any wrongdoing and accuses Nissan executives opposed to his plans to
further integrate the firm with France's Renault of plotting against him.
'Dark
side'
Saikawa, a
one-time Ghosn protege, turned sharply against his former mentor after his
arrest, referring to the "dark side" of the tycoon's tenure and
accusing him of accruing unchecked power that allowed his alleged wrongdoing to
go undetected.
But the CEO
himself came under pressure in the scandal's wake, facing calls to resign from
shareholders who view him as too heavily associated with the Ghosn era.
And while
he resisted calls to step down immediately, he has always said he planned to
hand over the reins after Nissan is back on track.
The Ghosn
scandal has proved disastrous for Nissan, which in July announced that net
profit plunged nearly 95 percent in the April-June quarter, and confirmed it
would cut 12,500 jobs worldwide.
The
Japanese firm has also struggled to steady its relationship with Renault as
part of a tripartite alliance with Mitsubishi Motors that Ghosn founded and
once led.
Asked how he
felt towards his once-mentor Ghosn and Kelly, Saikawa said he believed their
actions had put the company in the difficult position in which it now finds
itself -- with hardship for customers, staff and dealers.
"This
is the biggest responsibility... and I think they should think about this, they
should feel bad about this. But they haven't expressed any apology for creating
this situation," said Saikawa.
"I
want Mr Kelly and Mr Ghosn to feel bad about the situation they have
created."
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