Nissan has sold the Yokohama headquarters that was once nicknamed the “House that Ghosn Built.” The price is $630 million, and the buyer is a group sponsored by Taiwanese auto parts maker Minth Group.
A special purchase company managed by KJR Management will lead the acquisition, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named. KJR is the Japanese real estate arm of private equity firm KKR. The price is about $40 million below what had been speculated this spring, which Jalopnik called something of a fire sale.
Nissan is staying put. It will lease the building back from its new owners under a 20-year lease. Carlos Ghosn himself cut the ribbon on the headquarters in 2009. He is now disgraced and living in exile in Lebanon.
A smaller Nissan
The sale fits the downsizing under new CEO Ivan Espinosa. Jalopnik described Ghosn as one of the last empire-builders in the auto industry and Espinosa as an empire dismantler.
The money problem is real. Nissan expects an operating loss of almost $2 billion through March 2026.
Jalopnik argued that Ghosn and his onetime protege Carlos Tavares, forced out of Stellantis late last year, have faded in importance. Building a corporate machine on the scale of the Renault-Nissan alliance, it wrote, cannot hide uncompetitive products or a failure to focus on profit.
The lease length drew its own comment. A 20-year term suggests the new landlords expect Nissan to get through the current crisis. If Espinosa’s plan works, the carmaker that stays on as tenant will be a lot smaller.
