On June 30th, according to foreign media reports, Nissan has requested suppliers to accept delayed payments to improve cash flow due to serious financial challenges.
According to reports, Nissan has provided suppliers with two options: one is to pay on time, and the other is to choose to delay payment and receive interest. The plan is to postpone the payment for June to August 15th, and some may even be postponed to September. Nissan claims that it is not mandatory, but internal emails show that this is a "top-down instruction from the CEO" and the finance department is urgently pushing to achieve quarterly cash flow targets. Nissan estimates that extending payment terms can increase free cash flow by up to 59 million euros (approximately 495 million RMB). Nissan has currently made this request mainly to some suppliers in the UK and EU. It is worth mentioning that there have been similar operations before the end of the fiscal year in March, and this is the second extension request within 2025.
It is reported that Nissan is currently facing serious financial difficulties. For the fiscal year ending in March 2025, Nissan reported a net loss of $4.5 billion (approximately RMB 32.6 billion). Newly appointed CEO Ivan Espinosa announced a restructuring plan after taking office in April 2025, including a 15% layoff (approximately 20000 employees) and the closure of 7 factories, with the goal of reducing costs by 500 billion yen over the next two years. Nissan expects to record negative free cash flow of 550 billion yen this quarter (April June 2025), which is more severe than the same period last year. In addition, Nissan also faces approximately 700 billion yen in maturing debt, which has been downgraded to "junk" status by the three major rating agencies.
More seriously, from January to May 2025, Nissan's cumulative sales in China, including passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, were 225500 units, a year-on-year decrease of 21.3%. Among them, Dongfeng Nissan's cumulative sales were 208600 vehicles, a year-on-year decrease of 26.1%.
