Nissan 2013 Annual Report Download - page 15

MESSAGE FROM THE CFO
Fiscal year 2012, the second of our mid-term business plan, was a year of
progress for Nissan. This progress was made despite some significant
challenges. From an external perspective, the weak European market—and
more significantly, the negative impacts on our China business due to political
tensions between Japan and China related to disputed territorial claims—
meaningfully limited our unit sales and profit potential in the year. Internally,
we struggled with the ramp-up of important new product launches, the Altima
and Pathfinder, in the key U.S. market, which constrained product availability.
While the availability issue in the United States is now largely behind us, it did
also negatively impact our sales performance and profit potential during the
2012 fiscal year.
Notwithstanding these challenges, Nissan delivered solid business
performance by continuing to focus on and executing the strategies and
initiatives of the Nissan Power 88 mid-term plan. Nissan’s global sales in
fiscal 2012 reached 4,914,000 units, an all-time record. Looking at the fiscal
2012 financial metrics, consolidated net revenues reached 9.6 trillion yen, up
2.3% versus the previous year. Operating profit stood at 523.5 billion yen and
our net income was 342.4 billion yen —this is slightly above last year’s net
income level even after comprehending the negative impacts on our China
business income due to the Japan/China islands dispute.
We generated solid automotive free cash flow of 248.6 billion yen even
as we continued to invest in capacity expansions in markets such as Brazil,
Mexico, Russia, China, India and ASEAN, which offer significant future
business growth opportunities. With this solid free cash flow generation, we
continued to strengthen our balance sheet, increasing our Automotive net
cash position to 915.9 billion yen, an all-time high.
A STRONG YEAR DESPITE CHALLENGES
LOOKING AHEAD WITH CONFIDENCE
As we look forward to fiscal 2013, we expect the global automotive industry
to set yet another volume record, growing to over 81 million units. Based on
the continued execution of our Power 88 mid-term plan strategies and
initiatives and our strong product offerings, we project Nissan unit sales to
grow to 5,300,000 units for the year.
Joseph G. Peter
Chief Financial Officer
The solid business results and improvement in our balance sheet is
recognized by external rating agencies—in this regard, during the year we
received rating upgrades from both Moody’s and R&I and we now carry an A3
and A+ long-term credit rating with each, respectively.
Our mid-term business plan is
designed to significantly enhance
shareholder value through
business growth.
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NISSAN MOTOR COMPANY ANNUAL REPORT 2013
MANAGEMENT MESSAGES
CONTENTS
CORPORATE FACE TIME
PERFORMANCE
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
NISSAN POWER 88