TOKYO (Feb. 2, 2007) -- Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., today announced financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2006, ending March 31, 2007, as well as for the first nine months. In the third quarter, consolidated net income after tax came to 104.4 billion yen (US $0.90 billion, euro 0.72 billion), down 22.6% compared with the same period a year ago.
Net revenue rose 1.8% to 2.343 trillion yen (US $20.16 billion, euro 16.24 billion). Nissans operating profit totaled 183.1 billion yen (US $1.58 billion, euro 1.27 billion), down 16.6%, while its operating profit margin came to 7.8%. Ordinary profit amounted to 177.1 billion yen (US $1.52 billion, euro 1.23 billion), down 15.6%.
Nissan sold a total of 795,000 vehicles worldwide in the October-to-December 2006 period, down 3.0%.
Against an environment of high raw material and energy prices, no pricing power and continuing weakness in mature markets, our industry faced many headwinds, said Nissan President and CEO, Carlos Ghosn. This unfavorable and adverse external environment combined with internal factors to create a challenging period for our company. For the first time since 1999 risks outweighed opportunities, continued Ghosn.
In the April-to-December 2006 period, net income after tax totaled 378.6 billion yen (US $3.26 billion, euro 2.62 billion), up 3.5% compared with the previous year.
Net revenue rose 1.2% to 6.877 trillion yen (US $59.18 billion, euro 47.66 billion). Nissans operating profit from April to December totaled 531.7 billion yen (US $4.58 billion, euro 3.68 billion), down 15.8%, while its operating profit margin came to 7.7%. Ordinary profit amounted to 538.0 billion yen (US $4.63 billion, euro 3.73 billion), down 11.1%.
Globally, Nissan sold a total of 2,504,000 vehicles in the first nine months, down 5.7% compared with last year. Sales declined in major markets such as Japan, U.S. and the mature markets of Europe. Nissan saw growth in markets including China, Russia and the Middle East, driven by new products and local economic growth.
During the third quarter of 2006, Nissan launched six new models including the Altima, Livina Geniss and Infiniti G35. During 2007, Nissan will accelerate its product launch program with 11 new models set to debut.
It goes without saying that for fiscal year 2007, we will continue to be guided by the commitments taken under Nissan Value-Up, said Ghosn. Those commitments are top-level operating profit margin; 20% return on invested capital and significant progress towards 4.2 million sales in 2008.
On top of everything that is planned through Nissan Value-Up, additional actions will be taken to boost our performance during the coming months. We will provide specific details of those plans when we announce our year-end results in April, continued Ghosn.
In light of the present results and of the factors facing Nissan for the remainder of FY06, the company has revised its operating profit and its net income forecast for the full fiscal year 2006 to 775 billion yen (US $6.67 billion, euro 5.37 billion) and 460 billion yen (US $3.96 billion, euro 3.19 billion) respectively.
Notes: Amounts in dollars and euros are translated for the convenience of the reader at the foreign exchange rates of 116.2 yen/dollar and 144.3 yen/euro, the average rates for the first nine months of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007.
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