TOKYO (Reuters) -Nissan Motor sees a record net loss of 700 billion yen to 750 billion yen ($4.91 billion-$5.26 billion) for the financial year that ended in March, it said on Thursday, due to impairment charges as the struggling automaker restructures.
That compares with a previous forecast for a loss of 80 billion yen. It would be the company’s largest ever loss and comes as new CEO Ivan Espinosa attempts to turn around Japan’s third largest automaker, which is cutting jobs, reducing capacity and closing plants.
Nissan booked impairments of more than 500 billion yen in North America, Latin America, Europe and Japan after reviewing production assets with additional restructuring costs to total more than 60 billion yen.
“We are taking the prudent step to revise our full-year outlook, reflecting a thorough review of our performance and the carrying value of production assets,” Espinosa, who took the helm this month, said in a statement.
Nissan and Honda ended merger talks to forge a $60 billion car company in February. The deal broke apart due to Honda’s proposal to make Nissan a subsidiary, sources have said.
Nissan said it sees full year operating profit of 85 billion yen, around 30% lower than its previous forecast.
The automaker, which said it will forego a dividend for the full year, will report its earnings on May 13.
($1 = 142.4300 yen)
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya and Sam Nussey; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Susan Fenton)
