Nissan's net income up 23.6 percent in April-Dec 2014

Nissan Motor Co today announced improved financial results for the nine months to December 31, 2014, as solid US sales, cost efficiencies and favorable currency movements contributed to a 23.6 percent rise in net income to 338.8 billion yen.

Operating profit rose to 417.9 billion yen for the period, representing a 5.2 percent margin on net revenues that climbed 11.1 percent to 8.09 trillion yen.

"Nissan delivered solid financial results in the first nine months of the fiscal year, reflecting rising US sales of our latest models and a normalizing yen-dollar exchange rate," said Carlos Ghosn, president and chief executive officer.

"We anticipate good full-year results as our product offensive and positive momentum in North America and Western Europe offsets volatility in other markets. Given these trends, along with the continuing impact of currency movements and cost controls, we are today revising upward our full-year financial forecast."

Nissan now expects to report net income for the fiscal year of 420 billion yen on projected revenues of 11.15 trillion yen.

The revised forecast follows a nine-month period in which Nissan saw rapidly rising demand for models such as the Altima and Rogue in the US, where retail volumes rose 10.9 percent to 1.03 million units. Nissan also reported a 13.4% rise in European unit sales, reaching 534,000 units as the award-winning Qashqai and new Pulsar helped lift customer orders.

The double-digit sales increase in the US and Europe – outperforming the growth rate in total industry volumes – offset declines in Japan. In Nissan's home market, a combination of higher sales tax and weak consumer confidence contributed to lower unit sales, which fell 10.5 percent to 417,000 vehicles.

In China, where Nissan is the leading Japanese car brand, unit sales rose 5.2 percent to 879,000 units for the nine-month period. For the calendar year to December 31, sales were up 0.5 percent to 1.22 million units amid signs of slowing Chinese growth.

Globally, Nissan sold 3,835,000 vehicles in the first nine months of fiscal 2014, a 4.4 percent rise year-on-year.

Nissan made continued progress towards the goals of its Power 88 mid-term plan during the period: delivering synergy benefits from its Common Module Family, the vehicle architecture shared by the Qashqai, Rogue and X-Trail; unveiling new models including the Murano crossover and Titan pick-up truck; and maintaining its global leadership in electric vehicles with the best-selling Leaf and the e-NV200 van.

The company also pressed ahead with the development of autonomous technologies, forging a research alliance with NASA, signing a technology licensing agreement with Hitachi Construction Machinery Co for commercial vehicles and winning awards for new systems such as Direct Adaptive Steering.

Nissan's Alliance strategy, based around its partnership with Renault, continued to deliver synergies and technology-sharing benefits. Total unit sales for the Alliance reached 8.5 million vehicles for the 2014 calendar year.

Meanwhile, Nissan has revised downward its unit sales forecast for fiscal 2014, reflecting current global sales trends. The company expects to sell 5.3 million units this fiscal year, up 2.2 percent year-on-year.