Carlos Ghosn’s arrest shows the merits of a carmakers’ merger

CARLOS GHOSN was dubbed “Le Cost Killer” for his work transforming Renault, a French carmaker. After Renault rescued Nissan in 1999, he also became known as the “Keiretsu Killer” for severing the tangle of cross-shareholdings that had almost brought the Japanese firm to its knees. Nearly two decades later, Mr Ghosn’s creation, an alliance between Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi, has become the world’s biggest carmaker. But his arrest in Japan has shed light on what a tangled and acrimonious cross-shareholding it, in its turn, has become. The time has come to overhaul it.