PIF in talks for major Sunderland investment - Newcastle United supporters take note

Declining sales, mounting debt and significant cost-cutting measures have placed the Japanese car manufacturers in desperate need of support. For context, Nissan’s operating profit margin has shrunk to just 0.5 per cent and 9,000 job losses - six per cent of its workforce - were announced in December.

Net income plummeted by 94 per cent in the six months leading up to last September, with one senior source telling the Financial Times they had “12 to 14 months” to survive. If Nissan ceased to exist, the North East economy would be seriously implicated.

Nissan’s UK base has been in Sunderland since 1984 and employs around 6,000 people across the region. The British government provided a financial incentive to the company to set up a base on Wearside amid a period of industrial decline.

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Fast forward to the present and Nissan’s future looks dicey - but Newcastle United’s owners could come to the rescue. According to Automobilwoche, PIF are locked in discussions over a rescue package, ending suggestions about a possible merger with Honda.

The sovereign wealth fund are already in the electric car industry as they have a 60 per cent investment - worth $8billion - in US start-up Lucid Motors. Any potential Nissan investment could align with PIF’s EV vision, with the company aiming “to both design and manufacture the first Saudi-branded electric vehicles, and is expected to directly contribute $8 billion to Saudi Arabia's GDP by 2034”.

The irony is how Newcastle’s ownership may be about to save an important cog in the Sunderland economy - a move that is likely bittersweet for Black Cats fans. News previously emerged about PIF buying the 49 per cent minority stake in Newcastle International Airport, a deal that, as of last month, was edging towards completion.

Newcastle City Council under fire for growing Saudi Arabian connection

Newcastle City Council leader Karen Kilgour last week defended the relationship between the local authority and the Middle Eastern state. As well as the football club and the rumoured airport takeover, PIF have been linked with regeneration projects and a joint venture with Newcastle University.

“From our point of view, our relationship is with the club and not the owners,” Kilgour said. “I have never met the owners and am not likely to meet the owners. Our relationship is with those people involved in the day-to-day running of the club, so it is a very different conversation then.

“Our position has not changed, in that we wholeheartedly condemn any human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else in the world. But there is also something about understanding diplomacy and those conversations need to happen at a national level (and) recognising what sort of influence a leader of a council may or may not have. It is not a bold statement, but diplomacy is probably a better way of achieving change in the long term.”

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