Mercedes-Benz parent company offloads $500 million stake in Renault

Daimler is walking away from its relationship with Renault, with the German giant selling off €316 million (AU$495 million) worth of shares in the French carmaker.

According to Bloomberg, the sale is part of a plan to dissolve a three-way partnership between Renault, Nissan, and Daimler – the parent company of Mercedes-Benz.

While the 2010 deal meant all three companies owned a minority stake in each other, the breaking up of the partnership had Nissan sell its €1.15 billion (AU$1.8bn) Daimler shares in May, with Renault doing the same in March.

It’s expected Daimler will offload its 3.1 per cent holding in Nissan in the future.

Mercedes-Benz axed its Nissan Navara-based X-Class ute following mediocre sales, but continues to offer the Citan in Europe – a small people mover and commercial panel van based on the Renault Kangoo.

The partnership also resulted in Nissan’s premium brand Infiniti basing a number of its models on Mercedes-Benz cars.