Renault suffer massive hit after surprise departure

Renault has issued a major financial warning as shares tumbled in the French manufacturer after the departure of CEO Luca de Meo. 

de Meo announced his resignation in June after five years at the helm of the company, with an interim CEO in Duncan Minto, the chief financial officer, being named this week.

However, in a major warning, Renault revealed that it had a free cash flow (FCF) of just €47 million (£40.6 million). This was hundreds of millions below analyst expectations of €645 million (£558 million), according to reporting from Reuters.

After the announcement of the profit warning, Reuters reported that Renault shares (RENA.PA) have fallen 18% to 33.8 euros per share.

As of 1130 BST on Thursday, July 17th, Renault's shares stood at 33.63 euros per share, down from 35.92 euros at the start of trading. On July 10th, the value of a share stood at 40.79 euros.

Renault explained that car sales had been lower than expected, but despite being sheltered from the tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, Renault's figures are still sluggish. 

Renault remains the owner of the Alpine F1 team, having renamed its works team to Alpine ahead of the 2021 season to advertise its sports car brand. 

Alpine is to undergo a major change in 2026, after de Meo decided to end power unit manufacturing at Viry for 2026, with the team reverting from a works to customer status, with Mercedes providing power units to the Enstone squad.