Nissan Motor Co. is on track to post its first profit in four years this fiscal year due to cost cutting, Nissan president Carlos Ghosn told shareholders.
Ghosn, the former Renault executive whose cost-cutting program helped rebuild the French automaker in the mid-1990s, announced a three-year revival plan in October that includes factory closures and job cuts.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
“Overall, the Nissan Revial Plan is moving faster and having a deeper impact than expected,” Ghosn said Tuesday at the company’s shareholder meeting. “We are laying the foundation for sustained profitable growth.”
Nissan in May projected a group net profit of 60 billion yen ($568.07 million) in the fiscal year that ends March 31, 2001 after losing a record 684.4 billion yen last fiscal year.
Ghosn was sent to revive Nissan after Renault last year bought a 36.8 percent stake in the company.
Under the revival plan, Nissan will eliminate 16,500 jobs in Japan by shutting three auto assembly factories and two parts plants.
The company will also trim parts costs by increasingly sharing vehicle development expenses with Renault, whose stake in Nissan gives it the power to veto management decisions.
Ghosn added that the automaker plans to release 22 new models in the next three years, 15 in Japan and 10 each in North America and Europe.
Nissan’s loss last year, its worst ever, resulted from a one-time charge of 711.1 billion yen ($6.73 billion), mostly to make up for a shortfall in its pension fund and to cover losses from the closure of some of its factories.
