AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)11/17 Report--

According to foreign media reports, Nissan plans to sell some or all of its 34% stake in Mitsubishi Motors because the COVID-19 epidemic caused Nissan a loss of 20.8 billion yuan in the first half of the year and is expected to lose 38.7 billion yuan for the whole year. Nissan may sell some or all of its shares in the face of a depressed business environment, the report said.

Since Ghosn's arrest, Nissan has been in a turbulent situation, and the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has brought irreparable losses to Nissan. The sudden drop in demand for new cars, dealer closures, factory shutdowns and supply chain disruptions have brought uncertainty to Nissan's development.

In May, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance unveiled a new strategy. According to the guiding strategy, Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors will focus on the market respectively to avoid duplication. Nissan will focus on China, North America and Japan, Renault Group will focus on Europe, Russia, South America and North Africa, and Mitsubishi Motors will focus on Southeast Asia and Oceania.

Nissan reported a net income of 3.09 trillion yen (195.103 billion yuan) and an operating loss of 158.8 billion yen (10.027 billion yuan) in the first half of fiscal year 2020. The net loss in the first half of the fiscal year was 330 billion yen (20.836 billion yuan). Mitsubishi Motors reported global sales of 351000 vehicles and sales of 574.9 billion yen in the first half of fiscal year 2020, resulting in a cumulative loss of 209.8 billion yen, compared with a profit of 2.5 billion yen in the same period last year.

Although the net loss in the first half of this year reached 330 billion yen, Nissan said it expected to reduce its full-year profit loss by 55 billion yen in the year to March, thanks to the recovery of the Chinese market. In addition, Mitsubishi Motors expects an operating loss of 140 billion yen (8.8 billion yuan) for the current fiscal year. Both companies are cutting production levels and costs to restore profitability.

Under the adverse influence of the global epidemic and the "Ghosn incident", the Chinese market has become one of the few bright sectors in Nissan's earnings report. According to the latest figures, Nissan sold 146000 vehicles in China in October, up 5 per cent from a year earlier. Its cumulative sales from January to October were 1.1315 million, down 8 per cent from a year earlier.

Ren Wanfu, an auto industry analyst, believes that the Chinese market is Nissan's largest single market in the world and its best performance last year, so it is an inevitable choice to increase investment in the Chinese market. At present, Nissan's performance in China is not as good as that of Toyota and Honda, but it is still very good, and its performance will rise further if it invests more in research and development and updates its models faster.

In response to the news, a Nissan spokesman told Reuters in an email statement that "Nissan has no plans to change Mitsubishi's capital structure." A spokesman for Mitsubishi Motors also denied the reports and said the company would continue to cooperate within the alliance.

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