If there’s one thing everyone should know by now about fugitive auto executive Carlos Ghosn, it’s his gift for self-publicity and theater.
Though not quite rivaling the daring escape from Japan in 2019 following his arrest on financial misconduct charges (which he denies), news that Ghosn is suing his former employer Nissan Motor and related individuals for a whopping $1 billion in damages is pretty entertaining. For context, that’s more than 5% of Nissan’s market capitalization.
The legal maneuver casts a spotlight on the unhappy Renault-Nissan marriage and Ghosn’s undeniably shabby treatment by Japan’s legal system (including a lengthy period of solitary confinement) at an unfortunate moment. Lately Renault SA and Nissan have sounded sincere about their determination to put tensions in their alliance behind them and plot a fresh course by equalizing their respective share holdings. Meanwhile, global investors have begun to look more favorably on Japanese stocks, in part due to perceptions that corporate governance has improved there.