"Renault does not earn enough money to prepare for a future that will require strong growth in R & D"

Losses & profits. There are sometimes phrases that we would like not to have pronounced. Some have a strange self-fulfilling virtue. When the Renault CEO, Thierry Bollore, protests in The echoes against his brutal landing of the group, Wednesday, October 9, he mentions as evidence of injustice the fact that "Renault is one of the very few car manufacturers that has not made any "Profit warning" despite the sectoral crisis context that(They cross) ". On Thursday, October 17, her successor, Clotilde Delbos, issued a formal warning on her results for the third quarter ended. The group's operating margin should this year be around 5% instead of the expected 6%.

One could, of course, retort that it is already not so bad, given the very poor performance of its ally Nissan and the bad international context. Nevertheless, Renault now earns half as much money as its French rival PSA, and its cash consumption was negative in the first half and could be negative throughout the year, which again is contrary to the forecasts given at the market.

Difficult climate internally

We understand better then, the difficult climate internally, which was not trivial in the decision to separate from Mr. Bollore. The president, Jean-Dominique Senard, would not have appreciated having discovered that the firm had decided to postpone payment of suppliers until 2020. A deleterious trick of a company at bay.

The new boss has not done in the diplomatic finesse by saying that one of the reasons for the difficulties of the last quarter came from the bad downward adjustment of R & D expenditure in the face of the decline in sales. One way, in hollow, to recognize that the company does not earn enough money to prepare a future which will, on the contrary, require a strong growth of the R & D. Hence the sudden motivation for a marriage with Fiat Chrysler.

It was said at one time, when speaking of the diamond mark, that Billancourt, the historical seat of its factories, should not be despaired. It should perhaps now not demoralize the research center of Guyancourt, the largest Renault site in France, with 12,000 people (four times more than its largest factory in France) and where meets Friday October 18, the board of directors.