Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. are set to end merger talks next week, pulling the plug on a project that could have created the

Nissan Motors is expected to withdraw from merger talks with Honda over the companies' failure to come to an agreement on terms, sources told local media on Wednesday.

The Financial Times reported that Nissan's poor recent financial performance has caused its market capitalization to fall to one-fifth of Honda's, changing the balance of power in the negotiations. The merger, if it were to go ahead, would be worth an estimated $58 billion and would create the world's fourth-largest automaker.