Nissan financial results down 15% on strong yen

AFP - Nissan on Thursday posted a 15 percent drop in quarterly profit as a strong yen and weak European market dented revenues, nevertheless Japan's second-biggest automaker said its full-year forecast was on track.

In its fiscal first-quarter through June, Nissan said its net profit fell 15 percent to 72.3 billion yen with an operating profit of 120.7 billion yen, which is down 19.7 percent from a year before.

The dollar is currently sitting at the 78 yen level

On forex markets the dollar is currently sitting at the 78 yen level, just above the record low around 75 yen touched late last year.

Nissan as well said its outlook for the full-year to March remains unchanged, forecasting net profit of 400 billion yen on sales of 10.3 trillion yen.

The April-June quarter

"So that means the April-June quarter was a difficult quarter for them to earn profits as they had to sell older model cars during pouring money into plants to bring out new models," he told AFP.

In May, Nissan posted a 341.43 billion yen full-year net profit and record sales for the year to March, as it shrugged off the devastating impact of last year's quake-tsunami disaster on production and flooding in Thailand.