(Bloomberg) -- French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said he favors having a car industry professional as head of Renault SA.
“The next CEO hasn’t been chosen,” he said in an interview on BFM television on Sunday, adding that a “pro” from the sector is needed because the industry is undergoing a radical transformation to electric and self-driving vehicles.
The list of candidates is narrowing, with Seat brand head Luca De Meo emerging as a favorite to get the job, French newspaper Le Figaro reported Friday. Le Maire declined to comment on the report as has Renault.
The manufacturer embarked on a search for a new CEO after ousting Chief Executive Officer Thierry Bollore last month. Chief Financial Officer Clotilde Delbos temporarily took the helm, and quickly moved to cut the carmaker’s financial guidance for 2019.
Other candidates for the job include former head of Airbus SE’s planemaking unit, Fabrice Bregier, Arkema SA CEO Thierry Le Henaff, PSA Group’s Vincent Cobee, former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV executive Alfredo Altavilla, and Faurecia SE CEO Patrick Koller, Figaro said, without saying where it got the information.
The French government is Renault’s most powerful shareholder and Le Maire was at the center of its decision to block a planned tie up with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, which now plans to merge with Peugeot-maker PSA Group.
Renault has been working to repair its alliance with Nissan Motor Co. since the arrest of their former leader Carlos Ghosn in Japan a year ago. Le Maire said the government wouldn’t interfere in that country’s legal process, as a group of French lawmakers urged in a newspaper column on Sunday that Ghosn should face trial in France.
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