12:41 pm, November 12, 2020
Nissan lost 44.4bn yen – some £320.7m – in the last quarter after the pandemic hit its profitability while it also battled with the Carlos Ghosn scandal.
It contrasted with the 59bn yen (circa £426.1m) profit Nissan Motor Co made during July to September in 2019.
The Yokohama-based manufacturer also reported today (Nov 12) that its quarterly sales dipped to 1.9trn yen from 2.6trn a year earlier.
However, it expects global sales to recover to pre-pandemic levels by December if improvements continue at the current pace.
Chief executive Makoto Uchida vowed that the company would work hard to recover and become ‘a trusted company’, delivering products that will be praised as ‘Nissan-like’.
Part of Nissan’s earnings report addressed the Ghosn case.
Ex-Nissan executive Greg Kelly is currently on trial in Tokyo District Court on allegations of violating the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act in not fully disclosing Ghosn’s compensation, as reported by Car Dealer.
Ghosn, who maintains he is innocent, jumped bail and fled to Lebanon – which has no extradition treaty with Japan – last December. Kelly also says he is innocent.
Nissan said it expected to make a loss of 615bn yen (circa £4.4bn) for this fiscal year, which ends in March – an improvement on its earlier projection of a 670bn yen (circa £4.8bn) loss.
It lost 671bn yen in the previous fiscal year.
Uchida said that global vehicle sales were bound to decline because of the pandemic.
Nissan’s latest forecast says it expects to sell 4.17m vehicles for the fiscal year – down from 4.9m the year before and a one per cent improvement on an earlier forecast.
It added that it still planned to launch 12 new models, including a new compact car in Japan.
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