Nissan shares plunge over 10% after downbeat quarterly results, production-cut plans

The Nissan ARIYA on the EV test track at the New York International Auto Show on March 28, 2024. 

Danielle DeVries | CNBC

Shares of Japanese automaker Nissan tumbled as much as 10.12%, a day after the company posted downbeat quarterly results and said it would reduce global production capacity by 20%.

Shares of the company — which also announced plans to cut staff by 9,000 — hit a four-year intraday low of 368.5 yen on Friday, their weakest since September 2020

Nissan released its second-quarter results ended September on Thursday, which showed that it recorded a 9.3 billion yen (about $62 million) net loss, a reversal from the 190.7 billion yen net profit it made in the same quarter last year.

Operating profit in the second quarter plunged almost 85% year-on-year to 31.9 billion yen, while revenue dropped 5% to 2.99 trillion yen.

Nissan also sharply lowered its full-year outlook, cutting its revenue projection to 12.7 trillion yen from 14 trillion yen, while also reducing its operating profit forecast to 150 billion yen from 500 billion yen.

The company board chose to not pay an interim dividend, and also scrapped the year-end dividend forecast.

Nissan said that the company was “facing a severe situation” and will take “urgent measures to turnaround its performance.”

These measures include reduction in headcount, other cost cuts as well as plans to “rationalize its asset portfolio, and prioritize capital expenditures and investments in research and development.”

It aims to reduce fixed costs by 300 billion yen and variable costs by 100 billion yen, compared to its 2024 financial year.

The company said it would also adopt a structure that allows it to be sustainably profitable and cash-generative by its 2026 fiscal year, even with annual sales of 3.5 million units.

Sales volume for the first half of its fiscal year came in at 1.6 million units, down 1.6% compared to the same period a year ago.

Nissan added that CEO Makoto Uchida will voluntarily forfeit 50% of his monthly compensation from November, while other executive committee members will also voluntarily opt for pay cuts.