Nissan Friday: Why Is This Man Smiling?
If you wanted to have a ten minute advantage (for placing those jumbo derivatives order into the mainframe of your hedge fund) before Nissan’s annual results for the last fiscal were announced in the newly redecorated meeting room on the 8th floor of their Yokohama headquarters, all you had to do was read the smiling faces of Nissan’s top lieutenants. Executive VP Andy Palmer was all grins.
U.S. and Canada sales chief José Muñoz was all smiles. Grinning, Nissan EVP Colin Dodge quickly turned away from the camera and tried to mislead this reporter by saying the cheery faces are “because it’s Friday.” Sure.
Minutes later, Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn took the podium, and announced (with a serious face) that Nissan finished the year with an operating profit of $6.31 billion, and a net income of $4.13 billion. All of this contributing to a cash pile of $9 billion, good to have in these unsettled times. Ghosn promised a net profit of $4.23 billion for the year to March 2014. That was the boring part.
What is much more interesting is what Ghosn and his Lieutenants said later while chatting with reporters. We will hear them talk about Europe, China, America, about Leaf sales, about the foreign exchange, and even about Carlos Ghosn’s career. Some of it is good, some bad, some awful. We will cover all this in the course of this Nissan Friday. Because we don’t want Dodge to lie.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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He's smiling because his forehead extension surgery was a complete success?
He may be smiling but he sure could use Crest Whitestrips!