Renault wants SEAT’s CEO, Luca De Meo, to take on the role of its new Chief Executive

La
Vanguardia, the Spanish newspaper, announced on Saturday that the French multinational
automobile manufacturer, Renault, has offered to hire Luca De Meo as the new
Chief Executive officer. De Meo has previously served as the chairman of Spanish
carmaker, SEAT. SEAT is a subsidiary of the German automaker, Volkswagen.

Renault’s
New CEO Will Take Over Nissan And Mitsubishi As Well In The Upcoming Years

The
report further highlighted that the new CEO will take over the responsibilities
at Renault for the first two years of hiring. Following the performance
evaluation, he is expected to assume the leadership role in Renault’s
alliance with Mitsubishi and Nissan as well.

As
per the previous reports, analysts had highlighted De Meo, Clotilde Delbos, and
Patrick Koller as the top candidates for the role of CEO at Renault. Clotilde
Delbos has been serving the role of interim Chief Executive at Renault while
Patrick Koller is best known as the Chief Executive of French-based global
automotive supplier, Faurecia.

Following
the arrest of Renault’s
former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, on charges of financial misconduct, the
French automaker has remained challenged in terms of operations and performance
at large. If De Meo accepts the offer and takes on the role of Renault’s CEO,
analysts expect him to be the guiding light that will bring the company back up
to speed.

Both
SEAT and Renault has refrained from commenting on the news at this stage.

Renault’s
previous CEO, Thierry Bollore, was expelled from the company in October. The
move was directed at removing the prominent executives of the Ghosn era in order
to protect the valuable alliance with the Japanese car manufacturer, Nissan.
Following Bollore’s ousting, the Financial Chief, Clotilde Delbos, was appointed
the interim Chief Executive of Renault.

Luca
De Meo Significantly Improved The Sales Figures At SEAT During His Four-Year
Tenure

In
his tenure at SEAT that spanned over four years, De Meo has earned the
reputation of significantly increasing the company’s sales figures and making
it a prominent name in the list of Volkswagen subsidiaries.

Renault’s performance in the stock market in 2019 has remained challenged so far. Having opened the year at €52.93, share prices were seen trading as high as €63.87 in April. The year-to-date high was followed by a continuous streak of bear rallies that recorded a yearly low of €40.92 in the last week. The stock is currently exchanging hands at €42.46 that marks less than half of Renault’s record high of €120 in 2007.

Renault
currently has a market cap of $12.70 billion. Its price to earnings ratio, as
of Friday, is 4.99.