Renault Faces Criticism Over Disclosure of Emissions Raids
- Shares fell 20 percent after union disclosed investigation
- Renault says commenting would have only fed `rumor mill'
Renault Plans Recall, Should Investors Be Worried?
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French investigators swept into three Renault SA sites on the morning of Jan. 7 looking for evidence the automaker cheated on emissions tests. The raids remained a secret for nearly a week until a trade union mentioned the news almost as an afterthought in a leaflet about jobs.
If management thought the visit wasn’t worth mentioning, they were quickly proven wrong. The stock slumped 23 percent, wiping out 5.8 billion euros ($6.4 billion) of market value before recovering to close down 10 percent. Renault later issued a press release confirming the raids, while trying to stem the sell-off by saying nothing sinister had been found.