Japan's Nissan returns to profit, forecasts profit for year

TOKYO (AP) — Nissan reported a 114.5 billion yen ($1 billion) profit for the April-June quarter as its sales and profitability improved, especially in the U.S. market.

The Japanese automaker says it expects to return to profit for the fiscal year through March 2022, with a 60 billion yen ($545 million) profit. It had previously expected to sink into a 60 billion yen annual loss.

“We have delivered a strong performance in the first three months of our new fiscal year,” said Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida.

He acknowledged “uncertainties will remain across our operating environment” in the months ahead, while promising Nissan was regaining “its shine.”

The positive results in April-June were a reversal from a 285.6 billion yen loss the year before.

Nissan Motor Co. has been battered by weaker sales and computer chip shortages that have hit automakers during the pandemic.

The maker of the Leaf electric car and Infiniti luxury models has also seen its brand tarnished by the 2018 arrest of its former superstar executive Carlos Ghosn.

If realized, Nissan’s return to profit will come after two straight years of red ink, with a 449 billion yen loss racked up in the last fiscal year. That came on top of an even bigger loss of 671 billion yen the year before.

Quarterly sales almost doubled to 2 trillion yen ($18 billion) from 1.2 trillion yen a year earlier.

Nissan, based in the port city of Yokohama, kept unchanged its projection for global vehicle sales at 4.4 million vehicles, climbing 9% from 4 million vehicles sold in the last fiscal year.

Ghosn, sent in by French alliance partner Renault in 1999 to lead a near-bankrupt Nissan, was arrested on charges of under-reporting his future compensation and of breach of trust...