Nissan Motor woes continue in effort to raise cash

According to several emails and a company document reviewed by Reuters, Nissan is reported to have asked some suppliers in Britain and the European Union to accept delays in payment.

The move would allow it to have more cash on hand at the close of the April–June first quarter and follows similar requests before the end of the last financial year in March, the emails showed.

It is common for companies to request payment extensions from suppliers to help free up cash. In a statement to Reuters, Nissan said it had incentivised some of its suppliers to collaborate under more flexible payment terms, at no cost to them, to support its free cash flow.

“They could choose to be paid immediately or opt for a later payment with interest,” Nissan said in its response.

The correspondence, which has not been previously reported, gives a detailed look at Nissan’s effort to conserve cash in the short term - even if that means paying suppliers more down the line.

According to Reuters, battered by slumping sales and weighed down by an ageing vehicle line-up, the carmaker reported a $4.5 billion net annual loss in the financial year that ended in March and has declined to give a forecast this year.

New CEO Ivan Espinosa, who took over in April, has unveiled plans to shed around 15% of Nissan’s global workforce and close seven plants as he targets 500 billion yen ($3.4 billion) in cost cuts over the next two years.

Bloomberg reported recently that Nissan’s plant in Rosslyn, Pretoria, might be up for sale (also plants in Mexico, Argentina, India and Japan), but Nissan declined to comment on this. There was speculation about Chinese manufacturers buying the Nissan SA plant, but so far these claims have proved to be without substance.

Nissan Motor Corporation said in its reaction to reports on the potential closure of certain plants that it wanted to clarify that this news is speculative and not based on any official company information.

The manufacturer was in talks earlier this year with Honda to join forces, but the talks collapsed. More recently, there was speculation that Toyota might be interested in helping Nissan, but to date, no concrete steps have emerged from the speculation.

The trouble at Nissan certainly has a knock-on effect on Renault, who owns a large stake in Nissan as part of their Global Alliance. Read more about the impact on this alliance here.