Nissan Reports Profits Rise on Weak Yen

Nissan has reported a 14% rise in net profits for the fiscal year ending 31 March, thanks to a combination of cost-cutting efforts, the weaker yen and a general recovery in major export markets.

Japan's second-biggest car maker said it earned 389bn yen (£2.26bn, $3.8bn) for the fiscal year, after sales rose 20% on the previous year to 10.48 trillion yen, driven by "a reverse of the yen's appreciation against the dollar, reductions of purchasing costs and growing sales".

Nissan president and chief executive officer, Carlos Goshn, said: "Nissan generated solid results in fiscal year 2013. Nissan's performance will improve further in 2014.

"We are taking determined steps to reach our Power 88 goals including greater focus on market-by-market execution, ramping up newly installed manufacturing capacity and strengthening our brand power," he said.

Nissan's Power 88 plan was first announced in June, 2011, a strategy to "deliver, on average, an all-new vehicle every six weeks for six years." The ambitious plan will run through to the end of the fiscal year 2016.

Nissan's net profit rose 4.8% in the January to March quarter, a net profit of 114.9bn yen ($1.1bn) up from 109.7bn for the same period last year.

Nissan forecast a net profit of 405bn yen for the current business year. It predicts global sales of 5.56 million cars this year compared with 5.188 sold last year.

Nissan said it expects more growth this year with the re-launch of the Datsun in emerging markets such as Russia, South Africa, India and Indonesia having been a success thus far.

In addition, new plant capacity in markets such as Mexico and Brazil would drive earnings growth as would an increas in sales of new models including Nissan Qashqai and Rogue, Datsun GO and Infiniti Q50.

Nissan posts its profits a week after its direct rival Toyota posted a record year as it almost doubled its profits to reach £10.6bn.