Nissan’s Quarterly Operating Profit Plunges 50%

Nissan Motor Co. saw its operating profit in October-December plummet 50% to 82.4 billion yen ($753 million).

The decline was caused mainly by higher marketing costs in the U.S. and recalls in Japan. Nissan spent 40 billion yen ($362 million) in Japan to examine 1.2 million vehicles that originally had been approved by unqualified inspectors.

The company’s quarterly net income more than doubled to 302 billion yen ($2.8 billion) from 132 billion yen. The one-time gain was due to a windfall of 208 billion yen ($1.9 billion) from the change in the U.S. corporate tax structure.

Nissan sold 1.38 million vehicles in October-December, unchanged from the same period last year. Volume gains in the U.S. and China offset declines elsewhere. Net sales revenue dipped 2% to 2.9 trillion yen ($26.3 billion).

For the full fiscal year ending March 31, Nissan left its net revenue forecast unchanged at 11.8 trillion yen ($108 billion). But it cut its operating profit forecast 12% to 565 billion yen ($5.2 billion). The company expects revised tax rates in the U.S. will hand it a net profit of 705 billion yen ($6.4 billion), up 32% from its previous estimate.