Net Income More Than Doubles at Nissan

Nissan Motor Co. posted net income of 75.3 billion yen (€729 million) in the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31 compared with 30.8 billion yen (€298 million) in the same period of 2011. Operating profit jumped 33% to 118.1 billion yen (€1.1 billion).

Quarterly revenue climbed 15% to 2.7 trillion yen (€26.2 billion). Sales grew 21% to 1.4 million vehicles. Nissan says strong worldwide volume more than offset the negative impact of the strong yen.

For the full fiscal year, Nissan's net earnings increased 7% to 341.4 billion yen (€3.3 billion). Revenue advanced 17% to 9.4 trillion yen (€91 billion). Sales rose 16% to a record 4.8 million vehicles, outpacing the 4% growth of the global auto market. Operating profit edged up 2% to 545.8 billion yen (€5.3 billion).

By region, the company's full-year sales jumped 22% to 1.2 million vehicles in China, 12% to 1.1 million units in the U.S. and 18% to 713,000 units across Europe, including Russia. Domestic sales rose 9% to 655,000 vehicles.

Nissan's worldwide market share rose 0.6 points to 6.4%. The company aims to boost its global share to 8% by the fiscal year ending in March 2017.

In the current fiscal year, Nissan expects to boost net profit 17% to 400 billion yen (€3.9 billion) and operating income 28% to 700 billion yen (€6.8 billion). The company predicts sales will climb 10% to 10.3 trillion yen (€99.7 billion) on a 10% volume gain to 5.4 million vehicles.