Aramco plans to buy a stake in Renault’s future thermal engine unit

On Thursday, French newspaper Le Monde revealed that French car giant Renault (EPA: RENA) is ready to open its internal combustion engine business to the Chinese company Geely and Saudi Aramco.

The manufacturer wants to consolidate its combustion engine activities into a subsidiary that will open its capital to these Chinese and Saudi players to fund its development of electric vehicles.

This comes within the framework of the French car giant Renault’s attempt to organize itself quickly to find a way to confront the electric revolution while ensuring the future of factories for gasoline or diesel engines.

The French group is currently discussing bringing two new partners into a company’s capital that will oversee the development and production activities for thermal and hybrid engines.

Renault not only opened negotiations with the Chinese car manufacturer Geely but also entered into serious negotiations with the world’s largest oil group Aramco.

According to the news, Saudi Aramco (TADAWUL:2222) may enter into a partnership with Renault that could work with it in the after-oil and synthetic fuels.

As for the Geely Group, it already in May bought 34% of the South Korean subsidiary Renault, with which it combined its combustion engine activities

New Entity

If the negotiation process ends successfully, Renault and Geely can each own 40% of the company’s share capital for thermal engines, Aramco 20%, and discussions are still underway with other partners.