Nissan Motor Co. announced Friday its group operating profit dropped 15.8 percent year-on-year to 531 billion yen in the nine months to December, as a dearth of new car models and rising raw materials costs cut its full-year operating profit forecast despite the weaker yen against the dollar and the euro.
For the full business year to March, Nissan cut its projections for operating profit to 775 billion yen from initial 880 billion yen and its net profit to 460 billion yen from initial 523 billion yen. However, it expects sales to hit 10.5 trillion yen, revising an earlier estimate of 10.0 trillion yen.
If these figures are accurate, the company, 44.3 percent owned by France's Renault SA, said it would register its first fall in profit in the seven years since Carlos Ghosn took the helm.