Renault board blocks payouts to Ghosn worth 10 million euros

Renault said Wednesday that its board has decided not to pay out the equivalent of two years of salary to ex-CEO Carlos Ghosn which would have been due to him under a non-compete clause in his contract.

After a meeting on Wednesday, the board also said that he was not eligible for millions of euros' in stock options which were "subject to his presence within Renault".

Company sources, speaking to AFP ahead of the meeting, said the loss of the non-compete pay and stock options amounted to about 10 million euros (USD 11.3 million) for Ghosn, who remains in jail awaiting trial in Japan.

The former auto boss, once considered the most powerful man in the industry, resigned his position at Renault last month after being arrested on financial misconduct charges in Tokyo in November.

He is accused of under-reporting millions of dollars in salary as head of Nissan, Renault's partner in an alliance Ghosn built up into the world's top-selling auto group.

The French state, which is a major shareholder in Renault and had tangled with Ghosn before over his pay, had said it would do its utmost to avoid a "golden parachute" for the 64-year-old that would have proved highly controversial.

As part of his pay package, Ghosn was entitled to 100,000 Renault shares each year, but they were only convertible after four years in the company.

Ghosn was therefore unable to claims the shares from 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, the company said in its statement.

At current prices, the 100,000 Renault shares from 2015 would be worth some 5.7 million euros.