Nissan suffers first sales slump since 2009, adding to post-Ghosn woes

[TOKYO] Nissan Motor reported its first slide in auto sales in almost a decade, adding to the challenges the company faces following the arrest of former chairman Carlos Ghosn in Japan for alleged financial misconduct.

Global deliveries fell 2.8 per cent last year to 5.7 million vehicles, the Japan-based carmaker said in statement on Wednesday. The last time Nissan had a slump was in 2009. By comparison, rival Toyota Motor Corp showed a 2 per cent increase and Volkswagen AG reported a 0.9 per cent gain for last year.

While carmakers worldwide have been struggling with China, the largest market, contracting for the first time in more than two decades, Nissan's woes are compounded by the fallout from Ghosn's detention. Both the company and the executive have been indicted for under-reporting his income by prosecutors in Tokyo, threatening to unravel the world's biggest auto alliance - between Nissan, Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp - he helped engineer.

Nissan, which is due to announce its earnings for the quarter through December on Feb 12, is also under probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission in the US, where the regulator is examining whether the carmaker accurately disclosed executive pay.

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