Shares in French automaker Renault posted strong gains in afternoon trading on Monday after the company said it expected substantial additional savings via its alliance with the Japanese firm Nissan.
A Renault spokeswoman told AFP the group aimed to achieve synergies worth four billion euros ($5.2 billion) by 2016, more than double the 2011 figure of 1.7 billion euros.
Renault shares showed a gain of 4.60 percent to 35.94 euros in late trading, while the Paris CAC 40 index was up by 1.0 percent overall.
The term synergies refers to savings companies make when they combine similar operations.
"The figure of four billion euros was announced for the first time internally during a meeting of the alliance" that took place recently, the spokeswoman said.
She denied however that Renault was in discussions on the fundamental structure of its alliance with Nissan, a global automaker that has weathered a sector downturn relatively well.
"There is nothing like that. We deny that," the Renault spokeswoman said.
Since 2002, Renault has owned 43.4 percent of the shares in Nissan, while the Japanese car maker has owned a 15 percent stake in Renault.
