TOKYO, April 19 (Reuters) – Nissan Motor on Friday cut its annual operating profit forecast by 14.5%, citing weaker-than-expected vehicle sales.
The Japanese car manufacturer, historic partner of French Renault, now forecasts an operating profit of 530 billion yen (3.22 billion euros) instead of 620 billion yen for the year which ended in March . Net profit is now estimated at 370 billion yen instead of 390 billion yen.
Nissan said its vehicle sales would total 3.44 million units for the year, lowering its estimate just two months after a downward revision to 3.55 million units, partly due to a weak performance in China.
The impact of increased competition in the U.S. market, the New Year’s Day earthquake on Japan’s Noto Peninsula and shipping disruptions in the Red Sea hurt sales, Makoto Uchida said. CEO of Nissan, during a press conference.
The new annual operating profit expected by Nissan for the financial year would still be 40% higher than that of 377 billion yen recorded a year ago.
Nissan’s announcement, which came after the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed, weighed on Renault’s stock price in Paris. The French group’s shares fell by almost 4% in the morning, among the biggest falls in the CAC 40 (-0.56%). (Reporting Daniel Leussink and Satoshi Sugiyama; French version Lina Golovnya, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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