The company recorded an operating loss of 40.5 billion yen ($ 376 million) for its fiscal year ended in March, compared to an operating profit of 318 billion yen ($ 2.9 billion) for its Previous exercice. It was the company's worst performance since 2009.
More pain could happen. Given the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, "it is difficult to reasonably forecast the outlook for fiscal year 2020 at this time," said CEO Makoto Uchida during a presentation of the results on Thursday.
Ads arrive one day later Nissan , Renault and Mitsubishi said they would deepen their alliance. Companies will make fewer models, share production facilities, and focus on each automaker's existing geographic and technological strengths as they try to cut costs and overcome the coronavirus pandemic.
The world's largest automotive alliance added that it would abandon the growth strategy pursued by former boss Carlos Ghosn, whose arrest in 2018 for financial misconduct plunged the group into confusion. Ghosn denied any fault.
The new strategy boosted Nissan stocks, which rose more than 8% in Tokyo on Thursday before the results were released. The shares were down 29% over the year.
Nissan said the overhaul would cut costs by 300 billion yen ($ 2.8 billion). The company will reduce the number of models it produces from 69 to less than 55, leave the South Korean market and close its vehicle manufacturing plant in Barcelona.
The Spanish government has "regretted" the Nissan decision and will try to persuade the company to keep the plant open, the industry ministry said in a press release.
Nissan said its car manufacturing plant in Thailand would become its sole production base in Southeast Asia after the closure of its plant in Indonesia this year.
The Barcelona plant directly employs around 3,000 workers and some 20,000 other workers depend indirectly on manufacturing there, a Spanish government spokesperson told CNN.
Ashwani Gupta, Nissan's chief operating officer, said the company remains committed to Europe.
"[The] The United States, China and Japan are the top three markets for us in terms of market share. But Europe is very important to us because it is we who created the crossover SUV. We will concentrate this in Europe, "he told CNN.
To "share the pain" caused by the overhaul, Uchida said he would benefit from a 50% pay cut for the first half, and that other executives would see a 30% pay cut.
- Al Goodman, Kaori Enjoji and Angus Watson contributed to this report. Source link
