Nissan Motor Co. will seek shareholder approval Tuesday for new board members led by chief executive Makoto Uchida as the troubled carmaker faces pressure to rebuild its business and ties with Renault SA following the ouster of former boss Carlos Ghosn.

Uchida, who assumed the chief executive post on Dec. 1 in a leadership reshuffle, and three others nominated to the board are awaiting approval at an extraordinary shareholder meeting later Tuesday.

The meeting will be the second of the current fiscal year aimed at revamping the company's management, following one in April that removed Ghosn from the board after his arrest in November 2018 for alleged financial misconduct at Nissan.

Uchida's predecessor Hiroto Saikawa and former Chief Operating Officer Yasuhiro Yamauchi will resign as directors. Thierry Bollore, who was dismissed from Renault as chief executive, stepped down from the Nissan board last November.

Aside from Uchida, Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta, Executive Vice President Hideyuki Sakamoto and Pierre Fleuriot, lead independent director at Renault, have also been nominated as new board members.

If the four nominees are approved by the shareholders, Nissan's board will consist of seven outside directors, two each from Nissan and Renault as well as Gupta, who came from Mitsubishi Motors Corp., the third partner in the Japanese-Franco alliance.

Uchida faces the daunting task of improving performance while grappling with a slowdown in global demand and the high costs of shifting to electrified, connected and self-driving vehicles.

The company last week reported its first quarterly net loss in 11 years for the third quarter ended December, due largely to flagging global sales that forced it to cut its full-year earnings forecast and undertake additional restructuring steps.

A new coronavirus outbreak in China is also pressuring its earnings, with production at most of its factories in its largest single market suspended.

Nissan has no option but to strengthen ties with Renault and promote joint development of cars and investment cooperation for next-generation technologies to survive the challenging market environment, analysts say.

But tensions have often run high between the two companies over the leadership of their alliance.

Renault, which has a 43.4 percent stake in Nissan, has sought a merger, an idea rejected by the Japanese automaker, which fears its autonomy would be undermined.

==Kyodo

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