AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)02/18 Report--

Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said on Tuesday that weak global car sales are expected to weigh on Nissan's fiscal 2019 results, Reuters reported.

Speaking to shareholders for the first time since taking over as CEO of Nissan, Uchida said at a shareholder meeting that he was willing to accept dismissal if he could not reverse the decline of Nissan.

Nissan announced on October 9, 2019 that its board of directors formally appointed the company's senior vice president, chairman of Nissan's China Management Committee, and president of Dongfeng Motor Co., Ltd., as president and CEO, to replace Hiroshi Nishikawa, the former CEO who was forced to resign because of excessive compensation.

Mr. Uchida was in a tough time for Nissan when he was CEO. At present, the situation of Nissan is very grim, operating profits and sales are declining, the deteriorating Nissan is putting great pressure on Nissan, the company hopes that he can take positive measures to revitalize the company's performance.

A few days ago, Nissan released results for the third quarter of fiscal 2019 (September-December), showing that its revenue in the first three quarters was 7.5073 trillion yen, down 12.5% from the same period last year; operating profit was 54.3 billion yen, down 82.7% from the same period last year; and net profit was 39.3 billion yen, down 87.6% from the same period last year. Of this total, the company posted a net loss of 26.09 billion yen in the third quarter (October-December), which led to its first quarterly net loss in nearly a decade due to falling sales.

Nissan cut its operating profit and net profit forecasts for fiscal 2019 to 85 billion yen and 65 billion days, respectively, while Nissan also lowered its sales forecast for 2019, forecasting global sales of 5.05 million new cars in fiscal year 2019 (April 2019-March 2020), down 3.6 per cent from previous expectations. Full-year profits for fiscal 2019 will be the lowest in 11 years, and dividends will be cut to the lowest level since fiscal 2011.

Restoring declining sales and profits, low-cost investment in electric vehicles and self-driving technology, and iterative updating of models are still urgent problems for Nissan, against a backdrop of falling profits. Cost-cutting has also become the only measure that Nissan has to take.

Nissan will cut 12500 jobs worldwide, or about 10% of Nissan's workforce, and the layoffs will be completed by March 31, 2023. In addition, the company will cut its marketing budget and streamline its product line, involving a total of 60 models from Infiniti, Nissan and Datsan.

At the shareholder meeting, Mr. Uchida implored shareholders to be patient, saying he would come up with a plan by May to help the company recover from falling profits and business restructuring.

Mr. Uchida has promised to come up with a plan in May to help the company recover its declining performance. At a time when Nissan's performance is declining, Mr. Uchida must prove to the board that he can alleviate many of the company's operational problems and use the right way to promote and repair the partnership with Renault. Judging from the current situation, Uchida is still under great pressure, shouldering the expectations of the company and the future fate of the company.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat