Nissan today posted a small increase in quarterly operating profit and forecast a modest 3 per cent profit rise this year.
For the year to end-March 2008, Nissan forecast a 3 per cent rise in operating profit to 800 billion yen, against an average forecast of 842.5 billion yen in a survey of 18 brokers by Reuters Estimates.
It expects net profit to grow by a little over 4 per cent to 480 billion yen.
January-March operating profit rose 1.9 per cent to 245.3 billion yen ($2.07 billion), just beating a consensus market estimate for 244.8 billion yen.
Last year, Japan's third-biggest car maker was overtaken as Japan's second-biggest automaker by Honda Motor and it lags its bigger domestic rivals in brand image, having lost years of aggressive research and development in the late 1990s while it scrambled to stay afloat.
Nissan is 44 per cent-owned by Renault, into one of the sector's most profitable car makers, and chief executive Carlos Ghosn is under pressure to show he can steer the company to sustainable and steady growth to rival Toyota and Honda.