Nissan reports net income of 523.8 billion yen (+14.5%) for FY2015-16

The Japanese carmaker delivered increased full-year revenues and profitability. Rising demand for new products in North America, Western Europe and China offset the impact of negative foreign exchange movements and slowing or declining sales in emerging markets.

Operating profit rose more than 34% to 793.3 billion yen for fiscal-year 2015, representing a 6.5% margin on net revenues that reached 12.19 trillion yen for the period.

On a management pro-forma basis, which includes the proportionate consolidation of results from Nissan’s joint venture operation in China, net revenues increased to 13.4 trillion yen in fiscal 2015, up 7.7% year-on-year. Pro-forma operating profit rose by 30.2% to 935.5 billion yen compared with fiscal-2014, representing a profit margin of 7.0%.

Globally, Nissan sold 5.42 million vehicles in the period, a 2.0% rise year-on-year.

“These solid results reflect the success of our continuing product offensive, particularly in the North American market,” said Carlos Ghosn, president and chief executive officer. “Encouraging demand for new models, combined with continued cost efficiency, helped us withstand currency headwinds and volatile trading conditions in several emerging markets.

“In the coming year, we will deliver further product innovation – particularly in autonomous-drive systems – and rising synergies from the Renault-Nissan Alliance. Looking ahead, we expect continued improvement in Nissan’s underlying performance as we focus on the demanding goals of the Power 88 mid-term plan. However, we have adopted a cautious outlook for the current fiscal year given continuing market and exchange rate volatility.”

FY2016 outlook

Nissan expects to sell 5.6 million units in fiscal 2016, up 3.3% and equivalent to global market share of 6.3%.

Recently-launched models including the Nissan Maxima, Altima, Titan pick-up truck, and Infiniti Q30 are expected to contribute to global sales growth in the coming year.

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