Not so va va voom

16 March 2017 By Liam Proud Follow @liamwardproud

The carmaker’s shares lurched on reports of French authorities’ allegations of emissions cheating. Unless Renault’s protestations of innocence are bogus, the concerns look overblown. A far bigger problem for the group would come if boss Carlos Ghosn were to be shunted aside.

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France's consumer fraud watchdog told prosecutors that Renault boss Carlos Ghosn should be held responsible for the carmaker's suspected diesel emissions cheating, Reuters reported on March 15 citing a judicial source.

The comments were included in a dossier submitted last November by the finance ministry's DGCCRF anti-fraud body, Reuters said. The agency announced at the time it had found "suspected breaches" of French law by Renault, and prosecutors opened a formal investigation two months later.

Renault shares fell 3.7 percent on March 15 after details of the watchdog's allegations were published by French newspaper Liberation, which said French authorities were looking into whether or not Renault had misled customers over the amount of pollution emitted by its diesel vehicles.

Renault on March 15 acknowledged the publication of what it called an "unbalanced national newspaper article", but said it "cannot confirm the veracity, completeness and reliability of the information published".

"Groupe Renault reminds that none of its services has breached European or national regulations related to vehicle homologations. Renault vehicles are not equipped with cheating software affecting anti-pollution systems."

Renault’s Paris-listed shares were down 4.1 percent to 78.8 euros as of 1011 GMT on March 16.

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