Nissan Motor Ltd S/Adr

Thank you for joining Nissan's fiscal year 2024 first half financial results announcement. First, let me introduce the speakers for today. Makoto Uchida, President and Chief Executive Officer. Stephen Ma, Chief Financial Officer. In today's agenda, we will begin with the presentation followed by Q&A session. Now, I'd like to turn over to Uchida-san.

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. Today, Nissan is announcing its first half financial results that reflect both evolving market conditions and specific issues faced by the company. Let me begin with the summary of the results for the first half of the fiscal year. This will be followed by CFO's Stephen Ma, who will be taking you through the details of the financial results for the first half and second quarter ending September 2024. I will follow with an assessment of the impact on our outlook for the fiscal year and then explain the turnaround actions we are initiating. As I stated earlier, Nissan's financial performance in the first half of this fiscal year was greatly impacted not only by external challenges but also by our specific issues. Net revenue was flat at 5.984 trillion yen. Operating profit fell by 90% year-over-year to 32.9 billion yen. Net income was down by 94% at 19.2 billion yen. Steven will now take you through the details.

Good afternoon everyone. I will now present the key metrics for the first half of the year. In the first half, total global retail sales decreased by 1.6% to 1.596 million units. Excluding China, sales were down by 0.5%. Retail sales decreased by 5.4% in China, 2.4% in Japan, and 1% in North America. In Europe, retail sales grew by nearly 1% and 1.5% in other markets. We lowered global production volume by 7.9% to 1.56 million units as we continue to adjust inventory levels to market demand. This slide shows our key financial performance indicators. In the first six months of the fiscal year, consolidated net revenue was 5.98 trillion yen and operating profit was 32.9 billion yen. Net income totaled 19.2 billion yen and we increased CapEx to 230.8 billion yen and R&D to 295.7 billion yen as we continue to focus on new model launches and investment related to ASSB. Net revenue for the automotive business was 5.35 trillion yen. Net loss was 116.1 billion yen and free cash flow was a negative 448.3 billion yen. However, we continue to maintain ample levels of liquidity and net cash was at 1.36 trillion yen. Turning to the financial performance for the first half and second quarter. Versus last year, net revenue decreased by 79.1 billion yen for the first half and by 159.9 billion yen in the second quarter. Operating profit decreased by 303.8 billion yen in the first six months to 32.9 billion yen and by 176.2 billion yen to 31.9 billion yen for the latest quarter. Net income for the first half totaled 19.2 billion yen and a negative 9.3 billion yen for the second quarter. This slide shows the operating profit variance factors from the first half of last year to this year. Foreign exchange had a positive impact of 28 billion yen due to the depreciation of the yen against several currencies, including the US dollar. Raw material costs had a positive impact of 21.2 billion yen and sales performance had a negative impact of 194.5 billion yen. Monosucre cost was 42.7 billion yen and inflationary items was 71.3 billion yen. Other items, including sales finance, credit losses, and remarket expenses, had a negative impact of 44.5 billion yen. These factors resulted in an operating profit of 32.9 billion yen for the first half. We will now explain the outlook for the fiscal year and the turnaround actions to restore the performance of the company.

In light of the significant challenges we are currently facing, we are revising our guidance for the full year. We anticipate retail sales of 3.4 million units, which represents a decline of 6.8% from our previous forecast. Sales in China are projected to decrease by 13.1%. While excluding China, we expect unit sales to rise by 2.3%. Sales in Japan are expected to reach 480,000 units. In North America, our forecast stands at 1.34 million units, indicating a 6.2% increase. Sales in Europe are expected to decline by 3.1% and other markets are projected to see a slight decrease of 0.2%. Production volume is now estimated at 3.2 million units. We are revising the forecast for the fiscal year. Revenues are expected to reach 12.7 trillion yen. Operating profit is revised to 150 billion yen. This is 350 billion yen lower than our previous forecast. Net income is to be determined as we are currently assessing the potential costs associated with our recovery actions. We anticipate capex to be 580 billion yen and R&D spending to be 650 billion yen. This slide shows the variance factors behind our revised outlook. The operating profit forecast has been updated to reflect an additional 110 billion yen negative impact for foreign exchange and raw material costs. We also expect a 200 billion yen reduction in sales performance primarily due to ongoing selling expenses related to our efforts to reduce inventory levels. For the full year, we also anticipate 20 billion yen in monozukuri costs and 20 billion yen in other costs. Considering all these factors, we have revised our operating profit forecast to 150 billion yen. Regarding the dividend for the fiscal year, we remain committed to sustainable shareholder returns. However, given the current situation we are facing, we have elected not to pay the interim dividend. The year-end dividend will be determined later based on the pace of recovery for the business. Earlier, we represented the results of the second quarter and the first half of the fiscal year as well as the full year guidance. In response to the latest performance, in order to demonstrate the management responsibility, I am forfeiting 50% of my compensation starting from this month. In addition, other executive committee members will also voluntarily take a pay reduction accordingly. Let me present the main causes of the extremely tough situation. Looking across the markets. In China, one of the core markets, the local brand's new energy vehicles have been growing rapidly in the recent years. As a result, the joint venture non-premium market, a main battlefield of the joint venture brands including Nissan, is shrinking. The speed of the decline is accelerated along with intensifying price competition this year. In addition, Chinese players are significantly increasing their exports to other markets such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America where our businesses are impacted. In the important market for Nissan, the United States, the demands for hybrid and plug-in hybrid are sharply increasing. Nissan, which does not have an offer, is struggling in the market. We also have issues that are specific to our company. The biggest issue is our inability to hit the sales plan in the past years. There are multiple reasons behind this. We cannot deny the fact that our sales plan was overstretched given the rapid changes in the markets. While our sales volume declined, the fixed costs, mainly the G&A expenses, are on the rise along with increasing variable expenses resulting from raw material price hike, supplier compensation, and other factors. Deterioration of model mix and rising incentives to reduce inventories and take competitive action also had negative impacts. Another big challenge is our inability to deliver the right products that cater to the customers' needs in a timely manner. One example is the United States. Until the end of fiscal year 2023, we were implementing Nissan Next Business Transformation Plan. As a result of a series of initiatives, we were able to generate an operating margin that was close to the Nissan Next goal. However, in reality, we were helped by the significant supply-demand imbalance due to semiconductor shortages. The environment facilitated our sales without relying on incentives. After the markets normalized, we started seeing actual competition. This revealed various issues of our company such as cost competitiveness and brand power. Meanwhile, back in March, we unveiled the midterm plan, the arc that bridges Nissan Next to Nissan Ambition 2030. After defining the arc, the markets continue to see significant changes. Given the latest situation, we have no choice but to partially revise the plan. Let me walk you through the list of initiatives defined in the turnaround plan. Given the poor performance of the company and the market environment, the turnaround actions are intended to recreate a lean and resilient business structure that can adapt to any changes in the business environment with flexibility and agility. It is also designed to increase product competitiveness, which is at the core of our business, and bring Nissan back on the growth track. Specifically, we are rightsizing the organization and transforming the profit structure to enable the company to afford shareholders' return and continuous investments for future growth even with an annual sales volume of 3.5 million units by fiscal year 2026. At the same time, for the mid- and long-term perspective, we are increasing investment efficiency and product competitiveness by promoting strategic partnerships with Renault, Mitsubishi Motors and Honda and other means. to ensure sustainable growth in order to drive the turnaround actions with quick decision-making we are revising the top management as a first step we will appoint chief performance officer who will be responsible for sales and profit as of December 1st. We will be making further changes to the leadership team in January and April next year. In addition, we are defining the roles of global headquarters and the regions more clearly while streamlining the organization and making processes more efficient to enable us to quickly adapt to the changing business environment. The ARC midterm plan calls for 1 million unit sales increase an operating margin of six percent or more given the circumstances we are revising the objectives let me describe the initiatives to realize the plan from two perspectives namely stabilization and optimization of the business and stronger products and future growth actions to stabilize business are already underway Tight control on marketing expenses and SG&A expenses, reprioritization of CapEx and R&D expenses, voluntary separation program in the United States, production adjustment and tight control on inventories. These are some of the examples of ongoing efforts. We are going to take additional actions to stabilize the business. In order to maintain healthy level of cash flow and improve profitability, we are doing the following. 20% reduction of global production capacity, headcount reduction of 9,000 globally, and cutting SG&A expenses. A series of actions to reduce manufacturing costs. Some of the examples are minimization of parts variation and specs. spec optimization, which are some of the means to cut costs of next-generation EV. These initiatives will be applied to ICE and the EPAR models ahead of schedule, rationalization of our asset portfolio, reprioritization of CAPEX and R&D expenses. Through these efforts, in comparison to the fiscal year 2024 level, we are cutting fixed costs by 300 billion yen and variable expenses by 100 billion yen. All the new models that we launched this fiscal year are well received in the markets. This demonstrates that our products are more competitive. However, changes in the markets are getting faster and greater. We have to work harder to address the challenges. These are the actions to address our product portfolio to maximize the market opportunities. Accelerated introductions of new energy vehicles in China, plug-in hybrid and e-power equipped vehicles in the United States. Increase sales volume per model to enhance model efficiency and make our brand power stronger. We are making our offer more competitive by doing the following. Reduce development lead time to 30 months to immediately reflect customer needs into our products. Offer diverse power trains in order to adapt to market changes. We also continue working to make our development more efficient in order to make the above items a reality. These are what we are doing about important partnerships that support our growth strategy, maximize the use of the alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi Motors, deepen partnership with Honda, and develop smart partnerships to complement on the technology and software services domains. This is the outline of the turnaround actions. I will update you on the progress in due course, such as on the occasion of the earnings announcement. Since I became CEO in December 2019, our company has worked on Nissan Next for about four years starting from May 2020. It is my deepest regret to face this challenging situation in the initial year of the arc, a plan to take our company towards future growth. The lives of 130,000 Nissan employees and their families around the world rest on my shoulders. I feel great responsibility as a leader of the company. The message of the turnaround plan is that this is not intended to make our company shrink. As I said in the beginning, it is about rebuilding a lean and resilient business structure that adapts to any changes in the business environment with flexibility and agility and increase product competitiveness, which is at the core of our business and bring the company back on the growth track. My biggest job as CEO is to pave the way to make what I presented a reality. I am determined and committed to fulfill my duty as CEO. That concludes my presentation.

Thank you for your attention. Please raise your hand on Zoom, switch on your camera and microphone before you start asking the questions. After we call you, please do introduce your name and publication and we request you to keep the questions to two per person. The first question we have is from Nikkei Shimbun Ochiai-san. Ochiai-san, could you please ask your question?

This is Ochiai from Nikkei Shimbun. Thank you for the opportunity. I have two questions. The first one, this iteration of financial performance, I think the biggest cause is U.S. operation. With regards to U.S. operation, what are the causes behind the underperformance and how are you going to recover, including U.S.? ? The results are worth and how do you assess this iteration and performance as CEO? This is my first question. Mitsubishi mortar steak will be sold partially. Why now? And 10% that you are selling, what's the significance or meaning behind it? you still remain a largest shareholder of mitsubishi motors but will this affect the relationship between mitsubishi motors and nissan these are the two questions thank you yes thank you for the question starting with the second question which is about mitsubishi motors stake as i mentioned earlier We need to bring back Nissan on the growth track, and alliance is an important partnership. And with Mitsubishi Motors, we have been collaborating on many projects to enhance the value of two entities, and this remains unchanged. And every day, we are initiating new activities with Mitsubishi Motors. That's the message with regards to this transaction. Mitsubishi, in order to support the business strategy of Mitsubishi Motors, this transaction will be done. As a result of the transaction, we would like to increase the flexibility of the financials of Nissan at the same time. Needless to say, as we work together with Mitsubishi Motors, we are discussing what should be the right level of ownership. Even in the process of discussion with rebalancing with Renault, we have had this discussion. And I am also discussing about the ownership in Mitsubishi Motors with the top management of Mitsubishi Motors. Mitsubishi Motors approached us and made a suggestion, and we agreed to support the business strategy of Mitsubishi Motors. This is what's behind. And going back to the first question, U.S. operation. How do I assess this? As I said earlier, the biggest issue is the fact that our core models that we plan for are not selling as much as I expected, or they are not generating the profit that we expected. This is the biggest cause. In North America, hybrid market is sharply increasing, and we don't have an offer. That's one issue. Looking back in the past, this is a big reflection, by the way. Because the imbalance between supply and demand, when the demand was higher than supply, we were able to reduce the incentives. That happened between 2021 and 2022 during the pandemic. When the market normalized, our core model's profits were not generated at the expected level, and this is revealed this year. and in these circumstances unless we enhance the brand power in the tough market like today US which is a key market we are unable to enhance the presence unless we have a better brand power that is why we are we are taking new actions in the region and we are going to introduce the members who are necessary to do so in order to increase the presence in US because this is very important in that sense the message here is that we were unable to generate the profit that we expected with the core models but the new models that we launched this year are highly appreciated like new kicks new kicks are selling as we planned and Infinity QX80 these new models are doing better than what we expected so we would like to continue growing this so that we can increase the presence in the United States that's what we would like to put efforts in in many aspects we spend a lot of incentives and this is one of the negative impact on operating profit and you see a significant impact compared to the prior year as we increase the sales power In many aspects, we see cost increase because we are unable to achieve the sales plan. As a result, there's a supplier compensation and other factors that are requiring spending. So brand power, cost structure are what we are addressing to reconstruct our performance or recovery the performance in U.S. operations. That's the message. Thank you. Okay, understood.

Thank you very much. We move on to the next question. It's from NHK, Obi-san.

Yes, this is Obi from NHK. Do you hear me? Yes, we do. Go ahead. Yes, thank you. Uchida-san, I have two questions. The first question, with regards to the U.S. presidential election, Mr. Trump will be the next president. You are exporting a lot of volume from Mexico to U.S. Under the new administration led by Trump, son, how will it impact your business? What's your assessment here? And what are the actions that you are taking? This is my first part of the question. And the second one, you are reducing the global headcount and you are forfeiting your part of our compensation. You are taking these actions. Honestly, how do you assess this latest performance? How are you going to recover the performance? What's your approach here? These are the two questions. Thank you very much. Starting with the first question, we are exporting a lot of vehicles from Mexico to U.S. What are the models? Sentra, Versa, as well as the new Kicks, which I referred to earlier. A lot of models are exported, like 300,000 units are exported for this fiscal year. Yes, for example, tariffs policy. I heard about some policy around tariffs, for example. But not only us, but many car makers are using Mexican production. So we would like to do a lot of lobbying efforts for the mid and long term. direction will remain unchanged but we will monitor carefully what is happening to figure out what should be the right direction that's the mic answer to the first question second part of the question needless to say after we unveiled the arc midterm plan we want and this was intended for the growth in the future but of despite the external environment, which is challenging. We also face a problem specific to Nissan, and we had to make a downward revision two times. I feel responsible for this. With regards to the management responsibility, what I have to do is, first, the turnaround may give you an image that we will shrink for temporarily but we will make our company stronger and pave the way for the growth in the future that's my mission as ceo in the nissan next business transformation plan we have been enhancing the quality of sales and that has been the result but based on what we see in the market today we need to increase the brand power and increase the presence that's what i would like to work on this is immediate challenge that I need to address as I said the question is how to do it fast and adapt to the reality that's a key it's imminent and in the future there are a lot of uncertainties In these uncertainties, we need to bring Nissan back on the growth track. That's the immediate challenge of mine. This is my primary mission for now. I take the situation very seriously. Thank you.

Thank you.

Let's move on to the next question from Nikken Kogyu Shimbun Murakami-san.

This is Murakami of Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun. Can you hear me? Yes. Please go ahead. I have two questions. First, Honda, this partnership, you are engaged in consultations. Your results were deteriorated. Will this have an impact to the progress of your talks with Honda? in your partnership with honda again can you describe the position of nissan and the concept of nissan that's my first question second question chief performance officer will be appointed and you also plan to change the top management structure what is the objective of changing the top management structure and how effective will those measures be and mr uchida you said that Further changes will be made to the top management team. What specifically are you planning? What's the picture you are drawing? Can you give us more details? Those are my two questions. Thank you. Let me take a second question first. At the moment, in the automotive sector, including Nissan, this is a lesson learned. We haven't been able to catch up with the times. We weren't speedy enough. So I think we need to accelerate speed. Then what is the kind of business structure that is required to do that? It's not just about top management. For example, in regional branches and the headquarters, there has to be a better division of roles in order to speed up the decision-making, and we are engaged in such review. To date, we were engaged in global model, and we were looking at the global market. and there will be a change as i said then we need the agility in our business structure that will enable us to do that but we have to fix a few points in order to become a more agile company what do we need to do this kind of discussion is underway amongst the top management and What would be the desirable management team that will drive Nissan towards the growth track? So those are some of the major transformations that will take place. And on your first question, discussions with Honda. This will be a repetition of what I said, but in March and August, we made the announcement. And what is the motivation? On many fronts, going forward, we need to strengthen our competitiveness. There are limits if we are to do that alone. So, that had triggered us to engage in partnership with Honda in a multifaceted manner. And software basic element technology will be jointly developed and how we can further evolve such technology and joint specifications in battery e-axle. These are some of the areas where we continue to engage in discussions. Since our announcement on 1st of August, we have been closely contacting Honda, and progress is being delivered in a steadfast manner. But Nissan's results wasn't so desirable. This is a fact. So we need to implement our turnaround initiatives and to put our actions together. And this is Nissan's homework, and at the same time, in terms of future competitiveness, we will also rely on our partnership with Honda, and it also depends on how that could be evolved. Thank you. To follow up, with the results deterioration, equal partners are you going to continue our discussion is it possible for you to maintain equal partners with Honda with Nissan's results deteriorating so badly isn't that going to be difficult as I said the objective is maximization of competitiveness by putting our efforts together with Honda so I do not think that there would be impact to our discussions of course we have to deliver as an independent company. That's a major prerequisite.

Thank you. Let us take the next question from Hata-san from Toyo Keisai. Hata-san?

Yes, Hata from Toyo Keisai speaking. Do you hear me? Yes, we do. Go ahead. Okay, Uchida-san, I have two questions for you. The first one is about the ARC sales plan. with the poor results, and you also announced the turnaround initiatives. You have just announced the ARC in March, which is 1 million unit sales increase. Are you going to give up on it? 3.5 million units will remain for the midterm. And by region, what will be the decrease of the sales, if you can disclose it? This is the first part of the question. Second one is Nissan's cash flow. You are selling 10% of the stocks of Mitsubishi Motors. Is one of the reasons a concern on cash flow of Nissan? You are buying back from Renault and you are investing in electrification. In the next fiscal year, I'm sure you are going to reimburse a lot of loans that you got during the pandemic. Fixed cost reduction of 300 billion yen and 100 billion reduction of variable expenses that you announced. Can you really improve the free cash flow of Nissan? Is this enough? Thank you. The second question will be summarized by myself and turn it over to CFO Ma-san. Starting with the Mitsubishi Motors stock. As I said, this is about supporting the business strategy of Mitsubishi Motors. That is why it's on the very day of financial announcement. So that is why you are asking that question, I believe. But that is why we are doing this today. that based on the cash flow of first half of the year we need to make it stronger that's our big challenge indeed 150 billion operating profit is the full year guidance so how to make the cash flow healthy or maintain the healthy level of cash flow is the immediate challenge on this point Automotive free cash flow is what we need to improve. We need to increase the earning capabilities. That should be the prerequisite. So I would like to ask Stephen to give more details on this point. Thank you. Ma-san, go ahead.

Yes, thank you, Hata-san, for the question. So obviously, as you saw from financial, we have pretty healthy net cash position on the auto side still, 1.3 trillion. Our liquidity is still very healthy at one point. Unused facilities about 1.9 and cash and cash equivalents about 1.4 trillion. So we have enough cash for now. So that's not the reason for selling the 10%. Obviously, as I just mentioned, we are supporting Mitsubishi Motors' strategy in how they want to achieve the shareholder return objectives and other enhancements. Right now we are okay, but obviously the COVID loan that you referred to, we already repaid a lot of them last couple of years. If I remember correctly, more than 500 billion we already repaid of the COVID loans. And also there are very few left, but there were a couple of more US dollar bonds and Euro bonds. We already made the first payment last year as well, more than 200 billion. So we are able to repay our debts as well. For now, obviously, we are okay. But as you saw, the free cash flow for the first time was not desirable. So we need to improve our cash generation for our auto business so we can make sure everybody is reassured about our position. Thank you.

The first question, the ARK 1 million unit sales increase, are we going to give up on it? As of today, 1 million units sales increase will be a tough objective. But how much will we revise to? It's very uncertain to say or make a projection. So in due course, I would like to show what we are going to shoot for. But before that, based on the latest performance of the company, we will do what we have to do immediately. We address some of them in this fiscal year. So in the fixed cost that we assume in the ARC, we try to increase the fixed cost in the ARC, but we are going to address it given the latest performance. And as I said, we are going to reduce the G&A expenses and other spending. So these are the key challenges. I think you want to ask... where we introduce we are going to 30 introduce 30 new models and you may ask are you going to cancel this product plan this 30 new models remain but the introduction timing may change because we are going to discuss on the volume assumption and the market environment there may be a revision on the timing of the introduction of the 30 new models What is the regional breakdown? Is there anything that you can unveil? Regional breakdown of the volume. Please give us more time. Then we can give you more precise forecast. But today, even at 3.5 billion units, we want to be able to generate profit. Such structure is what we want to create. develop in the turnaround initiatives so it doesn't mean that 3.5 million units is a projection even at 3.5 million units is the assumption and this includes China so giving the latest performance we are at 3.4 million units and even if we only increase by 100,000 units in the next two years we should be able to generate the profit that's the kind of structure that we want to design that's the immediate challenge having said that How do we foresee the growth should be updated to you in due course. Thank you. Thank you so much.

We'll take the next question from Automotive News, Hans.

Yes, thank you for taking my question. I have just some question about the slide 16 and the stabilize and right size the business. some of the measures that you are taking include the 20 global reduction in capacity and the 9 000 uh person head count reduction can you tell us a little bit about where you plan to do the re the production capacity what the end result will be like in terms of total production capacity where it will happen and the same with the head count how you get the 9 000 head count reduction Where will it happen? And then for both of these goals, what's the timeline? When do you need to achieve this by?

Thank you for your questions. At the moment, 3.4 million this year and production capacity 3.2 million. And current capacity, we have about 5 million, close to 5 million. So we need to right size and size down. but plant closure is not the objective. There could be various means. I can't mention where we're going to do that, but what are we going to do? What kind of things are we going to do? We have Sakamoto-san who's in charge of production, so I will ask Sakamoto-san to supplement.

Yes, thank you for your question. I'm a Chief Monosukiri Officer. My name is Sakamoto. Starting with China production adjustment in China and global Nissan production adjustment, I would like to classify them into two parts. For the global production volume adjustment, we have 25 vehicle production lines today. And these 25 production lines, what do we do? Specifically, about 20% of operational maximum capacity will be cut. That's our intention and the efforts are underway. What's the concrete way to do so? We reduce the line speed and change the work shift patterns. This is how we can increase the efficiency of the operational staff members. And another way, this is already incorporated into the plan, outdated there's one outdated line and new line in the same plant so we will focus the vehicle production on the new one so that it's more efficient and the third way this is already done which is nissan intelligent factory using some of the technology nissan intelligent factory we are going to enhance the efficiency of the operation so in which region are we going to reduce largely that's not what we are doing as i said against these 25 production lines depending on the market circumstances we are going to take what's right the right actions and reduce the were operational workers this is feasibly and we would like to make this a reality during the the arc for China this involves the vehicle production of the Chinese and partners so these vehicles are produced in the same line so it's a bit complex and I'm personally I'm not in the position to talk about how we are going to make adjustment for the partners but this is under discussion by through similar actions we are going to optimize the operations thank you

Thank you, Hans. Let's move on to the next question from Asahi Shinbun, Nishiyama-san. Okay, we just skip over to, we'll come back to Nishiyama-san. We'll take Omeda-san from TBS first. He's in the line. Omeda-san. TBS, move.

This is Umeda from PBS. Do you hear me? Yes, we do. Go ahead. Yes. As Sakamoto-san explained, plant closure is not an intention. You are optimizing the lines across the world, including the reduction of headcount. Does this happen also in Japan? And what's the specific timing? As of today, you cannot disclose the specific timing. These are my questions. Excuse me, place and timing will not be disclosed today. But as Sakamoto-san said, we are taking the how is what you want to hear about. As we look at the regional strategy, we need to think about the production footprint. That's what we are going to review and discuss. And Uchida-san, one question. U.S. Profit is deteriorating in U.S. because you are increasing the spending of incentive. I think this is one of the big causes. Because of the rising incentives, the performance is deteriorating. After Mr. Gong left, when the company's performance deteriorated, it seems like the situation is similar. So, compared to when you made a huge loss back in the past, you couldn't change Nissan or are you in the process of changing the company? What's your assessment? The way we spend incentives in the past and how we spend the incentives today is a bit different, as I said. In Nissan Next, we have been working to enhance the quality of sales. And on quality of sales, we are seeing the results, which is getting better. That's what we confirmed. But still, having said that, our core models... we are unable to deliver the profit with the core models. That's one issue. Segment market share. There are many key models that are strong in terms of segment market share, but is it translating to the bottom line? Well, you can see it in the results. Compared to the prior year, profitable models are not delivering the results that we expected. And we are trying to compensate for it with other models to maintain the segment share. That's a reality. But the new models that we launched this fiscal year are well received. Therefore, we are not selling at the bargain or damaging the price. But we are unable to deliver the profit which we expected. And the sales volume, the core models are falling short of the expectation. These are the lessons learned. the same time car flow management is what we need to strengthen in the sales and production meeting given the market circumstances the market is becoming tough even in the United States so we need to foresee what will be happening in the markets to me and give our accurate forecast and project the production volume in accordance with the accurate forecast this is a matter of course but did we do this effectively looking back in the past year there were areas in terms of timing of minor model and introduction timing where we had the problem so we need to fix this this is an immediate challenge thank you

We are tight on time, so we'll make this the last question. Asahi Simbun Nishiyama-san.

Thank you, and apologies for the lack of connection previously. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Please go ahead. Thank you. I have two questions. First, the results were undesirable. One of the causes was the U.S. market, and you explained that in your presentation. About the original plan and targets that were set in the original plan, weren't you over-optimistic? It's in hindsight, but don't you think that the plan originally was over-optimistic? Why were the plans so much deviating from reality? And to a certain extent, you knew what the US market would be like since last year. So weren't you able to factor that in? That's my first question. Second question. e-power or P-HEV will be introduced in the US market, but by when? What's the speed at which you will be taking those initiatives? You need to rush. What is your prospects for the US market? On the second point, in ARK, we already introduced our initiative of considering introduction of P-HEV in the US market. So that was back in March. So from there, we are talking about front-loading that by a few months. That kind of internal discussions are being held within our company, but can we do that next fiscal year? That's probably extremely difficult. So brand power and sales power we have at the moment, how can we recreate our sales power so that we can deliver results in the U.S. market? That would be our priority. On your first question of were we overly optimistic, no, we weren't optimistic, but we were determined to go that far. In hindsight, we had been overstretched in terms of the volume target. That's in hindsight. We can't deny that it was overstretched. So accuracy of sales projection and precision in terms of coming up with forecasts is something that we need to think about. I don't want to sound like I'm giving you an excuse, but We weren't able to foresee that HEV and PHEV would be so popular. That was one year ago, and since the end of last calendar year, we began to see this trend. But core model model year switching didn't match the timeline. So... We were confident that if we overcome those challenges that we would be able to deliver results. But in the very tough market environment, unless incentives are paid, we were not able to sell units. And in terms of U.S. fleet business, competition is intensifying significantly, more significantly than we had assumed. The result is serious. We are responsible for that, and we regret that. So how can we take advantage of the lessons learned? As I said, KICS has proven to be very popular, and sales units are as planned. So based upon such results, we would like to further improve the U.S. business and redesign our U.S. business. Thank you.

Thank you, Uchida Sen. With that, we will conclude today's session. Once again, thank you for joining us. If you have further questions, please direct them to Nissan Communications team. Have a good evening.