Mitsubishi Motors, Nissan to hold media briefing with Ghosn in attendance

Mitsubishi Motors Corp on Thursday said it would hold a joint news conference with Nissan Motor Co Ltd at 4:15 p.m. (0715 GMT), to be attended by Mitsubishi Chairman and President Osamu Masuko and Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn.

People familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday that Ghosn would become chairman of Mitsubishi Motors as part of Nissan's plan to buy a 34 percent stake in the smaller peer, which is recovering from a mileage cheating scandal.

Masuko will stay on as president of Mitsubishi Motors when the stake purchase is complete, a person with direct knowledge of the discussions told Reuters on Thursday.

Spokespeople at Nissan and Mitsubishi declined to comment.

Ghosn also serves as chairman and CEO of Nissan and its alliance partner, French automaker Renault SA.

Nissan in May said it would buy 34 percent of Mitsubishi Motors for around 237 billion yen ($2.29 billion) after Mitsubishi admitted to falsifying the mileage of four minivehicle models, including two made for Nissan.

Mitsubishi Motors blamed poor communication, lax governance and internal pressure for its lack of compliance after it was found in August to have overstated the mileage of eight additional models.

When the Nissan deal is finalised, shareholdings in Mitsubishi Motors by Mitsubishi group companies - trading house Mitsubishi Corp, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd - will likely be diluted to around 17 percent, from about 34 percent before the deal was announced.

Nissan has said it will not sell its stake to a non-group company without Mitsubishi Motors' consent for 10 years.

($1 = 103.6700 yen)