TOKYO, Aug 24: Brisk sales and cost cuts are likely to enable Japan’s number three automaker Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. to post a 48 per cent rise in group operating profit in the six months to September, a report said on Saturday.

Its consolidated operating profit would reach 280 billion yen (2.3 billion dollars) in the six months, a record high for the first half of the fiscal year, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said.

Interim group sales are likely to total 3.2 trillion yen, up seven percent from a year earlier, the economic daily said without mentioning net or pre-tax profits.

Nissan’s April-July automobile sales at home and abroad were reported to have grown just over nine percent from the year-before level, four percentage points more than initially projected.

It has been enjoying strong sales of the remodeled March subcompact and Elgrand minivan in Japan, while in the United States the Altima sedan continues to sell well, the report said.

Sales in Europe have been slumping, but those in the Middle East and Asia are recovering, it said.

The daily added customer traffic increased at its Japanese showrooms in August after the release of a revamped version of the FairLady Z, the first ever Japanese sports car launched in 1969.

The previous financial year ended in March was a second straight year of record earnings for Nissan, 44.4 percent owned by Renault SA of France.

Its group operating profit soared 68 percent to a record high of 490 billion yen, with net profit rising 12.4 per cent to 372 billion yen. Revenue grew 1.8 per cent to 6.2 trillion yen.

It has pledged further gains this year under a new growth plan.—AFP