Nissan intends to halt merger discussions with Honda, according to Reuters.

Japanese Nissan intends to halt merger talks with its competitor Honda, abandoning a deal valued at over $60 billion.

This was reported by Reuters citing its own sources.

According to the sources, the negotiations are becoming increasingly complicated due to growing differences between the two automakers.

It was previously reported that Nissan could withdraw from the talks following Honda's proposal to become its subsidiary. One source noted that Nissan rejected this idea as it contradicted the plan for an equal merger. Another source added that Honda, whose market value (7.92 trillion yen, or $51.9 billion) exceeds Nissan's by more than five times (1.44 trillion yen), was increasingly concerned about the pace of its competitor's restructuring.

On the same day, Nikkei reported Nissan's intention to end the negotiations, leading to a drop in its shares of over 4% and a temporary halt in trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, Honda's shares rose by more than 8%.

In their statements, Nissan and Honda indicated that the information from Nikkei is not based on official company data. They plan to finalize their future strategy by mid-February and will announce their decisions then.

According to a second source, Honda, with a market value of approximately 7.92 trillion yen ($51.90 billion), which is more than five times that of Nissan (1.44 trillion yen), was increasingly worried about the pace at which its competitor was implementing its restructuring plan.

Background. Earlier, Mind reported that Japanese automakers Nissan Motor and Honda Motor signed a memorandum of understanding to initiate business integration by establishing a holding company.