Nissan has reported a set of Q2 results that show net income down on higher taxes but operating profit up. The operating profit gain has taken analysts by surprise.


Nissan Motor announced that in the six months through September, net income after tax totalled 212.4 billion yen, down 22.5% compared with the same period last year due mainly to a higher effective tax rate and less favorable one-time items compared to the same period in 2006.


However, net revenues amounted to 5.064 trillion yen (US $42.42 billion, euro 31.21 billion) in the April-to-September period, up 11.7% compared with a year ago.


Operating profit totalled 367.1 billion yen (US $3.08 billion, euro 2.26 billion), up 5.3%, while the operating profit margin came to 7.2%. Ordinary profit amounted to 360.3 billion yen (US $3.02 billion, euro 2.22 billion), down 0.2%.


In the first half, Nissan sold 1,816,000 vehicles worldwide, up 6.3% compared with last year on demand for new products.
 
“With many further exciting products to come, Nissan is back on track towards sustainable profitable growth and we maintain our full-year forecast,” said Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn.

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In the first six months of 2007, Nissan launched seven all-new products worldwide: Altima coupe, G37 coupe, Atlas F24, Livina, Aprio, Rogue and X-Trail. During the remainder of 2007, a further four products will be added to the range with the GT-R, Murano, Infiniti EX and Frontier Navara Single Cab pickup. 


In the July-to-September second-quarter, Nissan’s net revenues amounted to 2.618 trillion yen (US $21.93 billion, euro 16.13 billion), up 12.7% compared with a year ago.  Operating profit totalled 218.7 billion yen (US $1.83 billion, euro 1.35 billion), up 12.0%, while the operating profit margin came to 8.4%.


Ordinary profit amounted to 209.0 billion yen (US $1.75 billion, euro 1.29 billion), up 2.4% and net income totaled 120.1 billion yen (US $1.01 billion, euro 0.74 billion), a decrease of 26.8%.
 
The improvement in second quarter operating profit comes from the strong performance of newly-launched products and improved geographical and product mix. Net income is down due to the continued impact of a higher effective tax rate compared to the previous year, Nissan said.


Nissan sold 941,000 vehicles worldwide in the second quarter, up 6.6% compared with the prior year.


Nissan’s forecast remains unchanged for the full fiscal year with operating profit of 800 billion yen (US $6.84 billion, euro 5.41 billion) and net income of 480 billion yen (US $4.10 billion, euro 3.24 billion).


“This is very good — much better than expected,” Koji Endo at Credit Suisse told the FT.


“Provided that the US subprime problem and currency rates aren’t going to be bad, I believe we may be able to add expectations of a revision.”