Nissan driving towards victory against Toyota and Honda in race for earnings
NISSAN is on track to be the most profitable of Japan’s three big carmakers this year, after record car sales last year and improved market share in every major region pushed up quarterly operating profit.
Nissan kept its net profit forecast at ¥290bn (£2.37bn) for the year to end of March, ahead of Honda’s forecast for ¥215bn and Toyota’s ¥200bn.
“It looks like the company is doing pretty well compared to Toyota and Honda,” said Hiroyuki Fukunaga, chief executive of Investrust, noting Nissan’s nine-month operating profit now totalled 84 per cent of its annual target.
“These were positive results, the upward [forecast] revision from Toyota led to hopes for the next financial year, but Nissan seems like it’s going at cruising speed,” he added.
Nissan also kept its forecast for full-year operating profit of ¥510bn which is below analysts’ forecasts.
Nissan reports under Japanese accounting standards, with earnings from China included in operating income, while its two main rivals report under US accounting rules, with their earnings from China included in their net income figures.