Nissan Motor Co. said Thursday its group operating profit for the first nine months of the year through March 31 rose 3.1 percent from a year before to a record 631.16 billion yen, chiefly due to brisk demand in Japan, North America and Europe.
Group sales in the reporting period climbed 11.4 percent to 6.79 trillion yen, the automaker said. In terms of volume, sales leaped 10.0 percent to 2,653,648 vehicles.
Sales rose 9.2 percent to 3.54 trillion yen in Japan, 10.5 percent to 2.76 trillion yen in North America and 15.4 percent to 1.11 trillion yen in Europe.
Pretax profit, however, slipped 1.1 percent to 605.47 billion yen and net profit dipped 2.0 percent to 365.69 billion yen due primarily to losses related to the introduction of a defined-contribution pension plan and the value depreciation of fixed assets, written down through asset impairment accounting, the carmaker said.
The company kept intact its earlier forecast for its earnings in the year ending this March, with pretax profit projected at 860 billion yen, up from 855.70 billion yen in fiscal 2004.