TOKYO, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Shareholders of Nissan Motor Co. on Tuesday approved a new board of directors led by current President and Chief Executive Officer Makoto Uchida, as the company faces pressure to rebuild its business and ties with Renault SA following the ouster of former chairman Carlos Ghosn.
At an extraordinary shareholders' meeting held in the port city of Yokohama, shareholders approved the appointment to the board of Uchida, who assumed the chief executive post on Dec. 1 last year.
Meanwhile, Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta, Executive Vice President Hideyuki Sakamoto and Pierre Fleuriot, lead independent director at Renault, have also won approval as new board members.
The troubled carmaker last week reported a group net loss of 26.09 billion yen (237 million U.S. dollars) for the October-December quarter, a sharp decline from a profit of 70.41 billion yen a year earlier.
Uchida told the shareholders that as the president, he accepts full responsibility for the sharp downturn in the company's performance, adding that a medium-term business plan will be outlined in May.
The meeting is the second of the current fiscal year aimed at revamping the company's management, which also effectively marks the complete retirement of former President and CEO Hiroto Saikawa. He resigned last year for allegedly receiving excessive remuneration.
The previous meeting was held last April, in which Ghosn was removed from the board after his arrest in November 2018 for alleged financial misconduct at Nissan.
According to some analysts, Nissan has no option but to rebuild ties with Renault and promote joint development of cars and investment cooperation for next-generation technologies to improve performance in the challenging market environment. However, there are tensions between the two companies over the leadership of their alliance.
