(Reuters) -Taiwan’s Foxconn is pausing its interest in Nissan Motor as the Japanese automaker explores a potential merger with Honda Motor, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Foxconn’s decision comes after it sent a delegation to meet with Nissan’s biggest shareholder Renault in France, the report said.
Nissan and Foxconn did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. Renault declined to comment.
Reuters this week reported that Foxconn, which manufactures Apple’s iPhones, had approached Nissan about a bid, but the Japanese firm rejected it.
Foxconn has not given up completely on a bid for Nissan, Bloomberg News said, adding that the Taiwanese company prefers to see if the two Japanese auto giants make legitimate progress towards a deal before deciding on its next move.
A Honda-Nissan merger would create a $54 billion company producing 7.4 million vehicles annually, ranking as the world’s third-largest automaker by sales, after Toyota and Volkswagen.
(Reporting by Bipasha Dey in Bengaluru; Editing by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Susan Fenton)
