Nissan isn’t in the pink of health at the moment, and that may be putting it lightly. The Japanese carmaker’s share price has fallen to the lowest level in over a decade after it slashed its full-year profit outlook and scrapped year-end dividend payouts.
Nissan’s stock is down 19% since the start of the year, following a 28% decline in 2019 and 22% in 2018. The Yokohama-based carmaker also revised its full-year operating profit forecast to 85 billion yen (RM3.2 billion), down from an initial estimate of 150 billion yen (RM5.65 billion).
With plunging sales, it’s not an easy time and task to steer this big ship, more so after the ouster of Carlos Ghosn, but Makoto Uchida stepped up as the new CEO in December. Formerly Nissan’s head of China, Uchida was repeatedly heckled by shareholders at the recent shareholders’ meeting and has responded by putting his job on the line, Reuters reported.
Facing various demands ranging from cutting executive pay to offering a bounty to bring Ghosn back to Japan (the former Alliance supremo is now a fugitive in Lebanon), Uchida said he was ready to be sacked if he failed to improve profitability. Nissan is on course to post its worst annual operating profit in 11 years.
“We will make sure that we steer the company in an effective way so that it is visible in the eyes of viewers. I will commit to this: if the circumstances remain uncertain you can fire me immediately,” he declared, without giving a timeframe.
Uchida also pleaded with shareholders to be patient while he comes up with a plan by May to recover from falling profits and a corporate shake-up following Ghosn’s ouster. “If you can be patient a little bit longer, on a day-to-day basis you will be able to sense we are changing,” he said, asking for time. As he’s been in the very hot seat for just a couple of months, that’s only fair, but pressure is mounting very early in his tenure.
At the extraordinary meeting in Yokohama, shareholders voted in new directors including Uchida and COO Ashwani Gupta, while voting on motions for the old guard – CEO Hiroto Saikawa and COO Yashuhiro Yamauchi – to leave their board director positions.
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Did nothing but willing to get sacked because he will be given a fat salary if so. Yeah, right these japanese are as honest as a snake’s tail.
The reason why Nissan is facing uncertainties and no turnaround is all due to market has seen how you treated your saviour! And Ghosn was spot on with his predictions Nissan will go under in 2-3 years. With such crisisess happening, it may be sooner than he predicted!
Once again this is brought upon yourselves by your japanese greed and ego. This is the start to the breakup of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance and soon the end of Nissan themselves.
Nissan is so ungrateful. When they were down, when they were practically bankrupt, they went to Renault begging on their knees for help.
And Renault was so generous to send in their best A Team and their best CEO and tons of money to save them. And save them they did, all thanks to Ghosn whose achievements are like Messiah. And what the japanese did, they backstabbed him and paraded him around to be shame just like Messiah. They were about to sacrifice him just like Messiah but he was smart to run in the end. Japan didn’t syukur for him coming to save them but instead wanted to end him. And there are many examples like these japanese that never syukur for being saved.
These japanese and others like them don’t deserve leaders such as Ghosn & Najib & Mesiah that only appears once in 2000 years, willing to put everything they had into saving their company/country/souls, but see what those got saved do to them? Jailed, spat at, publicly humiliated, willing to sacrifice them w/o thinking what they had done to save them.
The world and its people and history doesn’t deserve such luminaries.
Similar to Dr Li situation in Proton. To be CEO of Nissan, you really have to be of unsound mind to take the job.
However unlike Nissan, Proton isn’t going to backstab and assassinate their saviour unlike these ungrateful Jepunis. Proton got more maruah than Jepunis brands.
I see our troll is continuing his unsounded mind to steal other people’s nicks and bringing Proton into irrelevant threads. Try harder your trickery are too easy to spot.
The formula of success of Nissan cars of the 70s and 80s.. Make cheap cars eithblow running costs. It was proven with the sunny/pulsar/sentra/Almera and also March/Micra.
Sell Almera at 90k head to head with vios and city, ppl won’t opt for Nissan.
Even local dealer Tan Chong hesitate to sell Nissan cars. They prefer to sell Renault, under the leading program or sell it to a third company like GOCAR and SOCAR as hourly rental cars.
It’s futile. Nissan will collapse and end up being acquired by some other Japanese automaker because, after all, being xenophobic Japanese, they will never let themselves be acquired by a larger stronger Chinese company
Nissan will then end up becoming what they did to Mitsubishi, a bit part minor player that always reminiscence of the old glory days.
To be CEO of Nissan, you really have to be of unsound mind to take the job.
Ya, quit Nissan…….becoz oredi secured another top post at another company, better pay, better benefits, etc.
Better he quits now before he is known as The Man Who Sunk Nissan
This, ladies and gentlemen, is a masterclass by the Japanese on how you destroy a company’s value. They killed their proverbial golden goose that laid their golden eggs.
This is not going to give investors confidence in the company’s future. New CEO already showing signs of giving up…
I am sure I am not the first to say this: Karma is a b*tch, Nissan.