French Industry Minister Cautious on Renault-GM Deal

By Godfrey Tung'wet Posted 04 July 2006 @ 01:59 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

Paris (Reuters) - France's Industry Minister on Tuesday expressed "enormous caution" over any future tie-up between carmakers Renault (RENA.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) and General Motors (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

Click to Enlarge France's Industry Minister on Tuesday expressed "enormous ...

"It's a very long term strategy and there has to be a lot of caution," Francois Loos told i-Television.

"I have confidence in the capacity of the Renault group and the Renault-Nissan alliance, but on the other hand you have to be enormously cautious; let's not start rejoicing, all that isn't on the agenda. Today we're waiting and questions like that take a long time," he said on the alliance proposal.

Renault and its Japanese partner Nissan said on Monday they are ready to start alliance talks with General Motors Corp which could form a $100 billion global auto giant, provided the U.S. group asks them.

Renault (RENA.PA: Quote, Profile, Research) said after a board meeting to discuss a proposal made by GM's (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) 10 percent shareholder Tracinda, that it backed a position proposed by its chief executive Carlos Ghosn. Tracinda is owned by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian.