Former Nissan CEO who negotiated Renault alliance dies

TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co Ltd <7201.T> on Tuesday announced the death of Yoshikazu Hanawa, its former president and chief executive who negotiated an alliance with Renault SA in a 1999 agreement which rescued the indebted Japanese automaker.

Hanawa, who died late last week at the age of 81, was the last CEO of an independent Nissan before France's Renault bought a controlling stake in the struggling manufacturer.

Tokyo-born Hanawa assumed the top rank in 1996 when weak sales and mounting debt was driving the automaker to the brink of bankruptcy.

Hanawa turned to Renault after approaching Ford Motor Co (NYSE: F) and the former DaimlerChrysler. Nissan has since outgrown its parent and leads in engineering and other key areas of an alliance ranked the world's fourth-largest carmaker by combined sales.

"Hanawa-san was an important part of the Nissan family and at the heart of the Alliance foundation," Nissan Chairman and CEO Carlos Ghosn said in a statement, using the Japanese honorific for the man he succeeded as CEO.

"He was an inspiration to many of us and an important contributor to the world's automotive industry."

The Renault-Nissan alliance this month ended an eight-month power struggle with the French government, Renault's biggest shareholder, agreeing to increased state influence at Renault and weakened control over Nissan.

(Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu)

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