Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (NML) announced the establishment of Nissan Philippines, Inc. (NPI), a new joint venture formed with long time partners Universal Motors Corporation (UMC) and Nissan Motor Philippines, Inc. (NMPI).

NPI, to be headquartered in Manila, will start operations as the new national sales company for the Philippines from early 2014 and will be responsible for strengthening branding, marketing and sales strategy, and dealer operations in the Filipino market. NPI intends to reinforce brand and sales power by broadening the product lineup and strengthening sales and services across the nation.

“With the establishment of NPI, Nissan will proactively improve and enhance Nissan's brand awareness in the Philippines. We will introduce new and exciting products into the market and strive to improve total customer experience," said Kenji Naito, the newly-assigned president of NPI.

Naito joined Nissan in 1985 and has held key positions in various markets including Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. From 2005 to 2008, he was vice president, corporate planning, at Nissan Motor (Thailand) Co., Ltd. and most recently, served as CEO of Nissan Korea Co., Ltd.

The new company is capitalized at 1.0 billion yen (US $9.8 million), with Nissan holding a 51% stake in the company, while UMC and NMPI own 24.5% each. UMC and NMPI will remain as production sources of Nissan vehicles in the Philippines.

Nissan is committed driving growth across the ASEAN region. A key target of the ASEAN mid-term plan is to more than triple sales across the region to 500,000 units and achieve 15% market share by the end of 2016. Nissan considers the Filipino market as an important component of this plan, and the establishment of NPI is an illustration of the company's commitment to the Philippines.

“This is an important milestone for Nissan," said Takayuki Kimura, regional vice president, NML. “With NPI now as the unified voice of Nissan in the Philippines, we will be bolder and more proactive in expanding our business in this market. I would like to thank UMC and NMPI for their accomplishments to date, and we look forward to continuing to build our presence in the Philippines through this new partnership."