Nissan, facing growing pains, reshuffles management

Nissan Motor Co said chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga would step aside from the no.2 post to a job handling external affairs in a management makeover as the company grapples with quality issues amid an ambitious drive to boost market share.

Japan's second biggest automaker by sales volume said in a statement that Shiga, 60, would become vice chairman. Chief executive officer Carlos Ghosn will stay on.

Ghosn has set aggressive expansion targets for Nissan to boost both global market share and its operating margin to 8 percent by end-March 2017, but multiple recalls and a sales slowdown in China have a cast shadow over the plan.

Nissan cut its net profit outlook for the year ending March 2014 by nearly 20 percent to 355 billion yen, depressed by a sales slowdown in China and Southeast Asia and by a major vehicle recall it announced in September.

Ghosn will attend an earnings briefing at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama from 5:30 p.m. (0830 GMT).

"Our new management line-up and regional organisation will ensure the company has the executive team in place to deliver the profitable growth expected from the Nissan Power 88 mid-term plan," he said in a statement, referring to its expansion goals.

Copyright: Thomson Reuters 2013