[Company analysis] Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (日産自動車)

「Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (日産自動車)」is an automobile manufacturer headquartered in Kanagawa Prefecture. It is one part of「Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance(ルノー・日産・三菱アライアンス)」which has the largest automobile sales in the World. In the 1990s, due to the aftershock caused by collapse of the bubble economy, they faced a serious management crisis. but by conducting bold business restructuring plan, they are fully recovered. The number of consolidated employees is approximately 138,893.

 

1. Company Profile

2. Summary and Features

3. Major Business

4. Financial Information

 

 

 

1. Company Profile

 

※Unit is JPY million, as of 2019

Company name	Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
Company name (Japanese)	日産自動車
Date of establishment	Tuesday, December 26, 1933
Headquarters location	〒220-8686 神奈川県横浜市西区高島一丁目1番1号
Capital	605,813
Consolidated sales	11,574,247
Consolidated operating profit	318,224
Consolidated total assets	18,952,345
Consolidated capital	5,623,510
Capital adequacy ratio	29.7%
Consolidated number of employees	138,893

 

 

 

2. Summary and Features

 
「Nissan」is conducting their business in 50 countries such as North America and Europe under the various brand name. As a luxury car brand, they use "Infiniti", and for emerging countries, they use "Datsun" as a low-priced brand. This company is particularly strong in overseas SUVs and small cars market. In 2010, it's export volume was over than 4 million units which even surpassed the「Toyota Motor Corporation」. In Japan domestic level, they got 2nd largest number of registered vehiclesin fiscal 2017, and it is only second only to Toyota Motor.

The beginning of「Nissan Motor」goes back to「Kwaishinsha Motor Car Works(快進社自働車工場)」which was established in 1911 by Hashimoto Masujiro(橋本增治郞) in Tokyo. At the time of its founding, it was mainly manufacturing and selling small cars, but due to the deterioration of business performance, the company was temporarily disbanded in 1925. After that, they established「DAT Jidosha & Co., Ltd.(ダット自動車製造)」and restarted their business. In 1934, the company name was changed to「Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.」. 

In 1966, it merged with「Prince Motors, Ltd.,(プリンス自動車工業)」which was in business difficulties. To overcome the yen's appreciation and tariff barriers in the mid-1980s, they took an aggressive strategy to build local automobile manufacturing factories around the world. However, after the collapse of the bubble economy, sales for their high-end vehicles became sluggish, and they were outperformed with their competitor, 「Toyota Motor Corporation」which tried to enhance their efficiency in production and sales. Eventually, in 1998, they faced a financial crisis with a debt of approximately 2 trillion yen.

At that time,「Renault」bought out 37% of「Nissan Motor」shares. And by taking the investment and personnel resource  in from「Renault」, they started to conduct business restructuring. They closed some of their production factories in Japan, in an effort to reduce costs. In addition, the structure of the Japanese-style business unit has been reorganized into a system of affiliated companies in Western European style. And the number of employees has decreased to 22,900, which was 15% of the total number of employees. In addition, with the strengthening of the lineup of vehicle models, revitalization in design, they eventually overcame the business crisis that they had confronted.

In 2016,「Mitsubishi Motors Corporation(三菱自動車工業)」which was in finiancial crisis, was purchased, and the 「Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance」was formed. According to the 2017 standards, the shipment volume of this new alliance was approximately 10.61 million. It was the largest level in the world even surpassing「Toyota」. In addition「Nissan Motor」has a particularly high reputation in China, and its market share also exceeds「Toyota Motor」.

 

 

 

3. Major Business

 

■ Automobile business
They manufacture and sell automobiles, including the luxury brand "INFINITI", which has an excellent reputation for its sophisticated design and high driving performance, and related business.

 

 

 

4. Financial information

 

※Unit is JPY million

		2016	2017	2018
Consolidated sales		11,720,041	11,951,169	11,574,247
Consolidated operating profit		742,228	574,760	318,224
Consolidated total assets		18,421,008	18,746,901	18,952,345
Consolidated net assets		5,167,136	5,688,735	5,623,510
Breakdown of sales	Japan	2,173,881	2,194,482	2,305,327
	America	5,924,032	5,978,226	5,631,892
	Europe	1,605,613	1,784,063	1,576,267
	Asia	1,007,105	1,001,973	1,028,699
	Others	1,009,410	992,425	1,032,062