(Reuters) – A Honda-Nissan merger would not deliver quick wins because the automakers would first have to align their strategies, while overlapping regional markets would limit sales benefits, S&P analysts said on Wednesday.
While the potential deal would create a $54 billion auto company, the third largest in the world, any benefits to its credit prospects would come with a delay, they wrote in a research note.
“We believe it will be difficult for them to quickly achieve significant impact by expanding the scope of their collaboration to include batteries, software and autonomous driving,” S&P analysts said, but added that the ultimate impact on their creditworthiness would be significant. .
A merger would likely have a negative impact on Honda’s standalone credit prospects, while it should have a positive impact on Nissan’s, she added.
They also noted that while Honda and Nissan have different development strategies, they operate in similar regional markets, particularly in North America, China and Japan.
“So they don’t complement each other much in terms of regional sales,” the analysts said.
(Reporting by Boleslaw Lasocki in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi)
