TOKYO -- Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa, engulfed in a widening crisis of confidence, confirmed the automaker is searching for his successor as quickly as possible but declined to give a timeline.
Saikawa's comments added urgency to transitioning to a new leadership at the Japanese company, which has been beset by upheaval since last November's arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn on allegations of financial misconduct during his time at the helm.
Saikawa has come under increasing pressure to step down amid fresh revelations he exercised a stock-linked compensation scheme to boost his payout by nearly half-a-million dollars.
Options being considered to replace Saikawa include appointing Nissan COO Yasuhiro Yamauchi as interim CEO, Bloomberg reported Sunday.
The nominations committee has drawn up a shortlist containing more than 10 possible candidates, an alliance source told Reuters. Besides Yamauchi, other names on the list are Jun Seki, who is overseeing the company's performance recovery and Makoto Uchida, chairman of Nissan's management committee in China, Reuters reported.
Reacting on Monday to Japanese media reports that he told other executives he planned to resign, Saikawa reiterated earlier comments that Nissan's nomination committee, newly created in June, was working on a succession plan. He said part of his work was to ensure that transition.
"The nominating committee has started, and we are in the process of passing onto the next generation," Saikawa told reporters. "I have been working on various things, thinking about passing on to the next generation from the beginning. That's all there is to it."
In separate comments, the embattled chief executive added: "I will do what needs to be done and have already been working on passing the baton at an early date."
Saikawa's comments came ahead of a Monday board meeting at which directors were expected to hear results of an internal investigation of the Ghosn scandal. Topics were expected to cover allegations of improper executive incentives, possible penalties and succession plans.
Saikawa, 65, said at Nissan's shareholders' meeting in June he was preparing to step down.
"I am reaching a big milestone personally in terms of fulfilling my responsibility," Saikawa said. "I want the committee to accelerate preparation so we can hand over to the next generation."
Still unknown is how quickly will Nissan transition to a new CEO.
In June, Nissan shareholders approved Saikawa's reappointment to the board, despite growing controversy about his oversight during the time of Ghosn's alleged misdeeds.
Japan's Kyodo news agency reported earlier Sept. 9 that Saikawa planned to step down to take responsibility for being overpaid through the company's equity-linked remuneration scheme.
His exit date and successor had not been decided, Japanese media reported.
Saikawa served as co-CEO with Ghosn, 65, during a one-year transition before taking control as solo CEO in 2017. But since then, Saikawa's tenure has only been besieged by scandal.
The first crisis erupted in late 2017, when Nissan disclosed it had been conducting faulty final inspections of vehicles at assembly plants throughout Japan.
That triggered the recall more than 1.2 million vehicles in Japan, a callback of virtually every passenger car the company produced for sale in Japan over the previous three years.
More inspection misconduct was uncovered in 2018, and then came Ghosn's arrest.
After Ghosn's takedown, Saikawa was among his harshest critics.
Saikawa's initial denunciations were all the more shocking in Japan, because he was long seen as Ghosn right-hand man.
Ghosn parachuted into Nissan as the Renault-installed "Cost Cutter" to revive the struggling Japanese automaker through fiscal discipline.
But it was Saikawa who won Ghosn's trust as the enforcer who helped break the Nissan keiretsu of affiliated suppliers in the early days of the Nissan revival plan. And later, as Nissan's veteran chief competitive officer, he helped chart the company's course with Ghosn.
Since Ghosn's arrest and indictment, however, Nissan has plunged into upheaval.
The company was soon beset by a flurry of executive exits and departures to other companies.
Saikawa is now struggling to rekindle operating profit that plunged 99 percent in the fiscal first quarter, reboot flailing U.S. sales and mend strained ties with its partner Renault.
Japan's No. 2 automaker is also laying off 12,500 workers and trying to reform corporate governance.
The recent allegations that Saikawa gamed Nissan's share-linked incentive program to deliver a bigger personal payout further tarnished his tenure amid mounting pressure to step aside.
Naoto Okamura contributed to this report
