Showa Denko KK

TSE:4004

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q3

[Motohiro Takeuchi, executive]

Good evening, everyone. I am Motohiro Takeuchi, CFO of Showa Denko. Thank you for your continued interest in the business performance of our company. I will explain the results of the third quarter in fiscal year ending in December 2021.

Please turn to Page 2. Let me start with the overview of the third quarter 2021 financial results with the overall initiatives, business environment and the results in July to September period.

First, sales and operating income in the third quarter, excluding the Aluminum segment affected by the business transfer, increased by JPY 15.9 billion and JPY 0.1 billion from the second quarter, respectively.

Second, while shares of semiconductor-related products in the third quarter continue to be strong, soaring raw material prices and a decrease in automobile production due to a shortage of semiconductor supply were factors to push down our business performance. For the fear of these negative factors to continue in the fourth quarter, we did not change the full year forecast, which was announced in August.

Third, in September, we executed the issuance of new shares and the secondary offering to accelerate investment in our growing businesses. And at the same time, we improved the financial condition and balance between liability and equity notably.

Let me present the details. Please turn to Page 3. Summary of consolidated results. Comparison with the previous quarter is shown this time again. Net sales were JPY 358.3 billion, up JPY 4.7 billion or 1.3% quarter-on-quarter. Operating income was JPY 24.4 billion, down JPY 2.4 billion or 8.9% quarter-on-quarter.

I will explain net sales and operating income in detail on Page 5 and onwards. Ordinary income was JPY 23.1 billion, down JPY 2 billion or 8.1% quarter-on-quarter. Operating income and expenses and extraordinary profit and loss will be explained on Page 8.

As for the net income attributable to owners of the parent, compared to the previous quarter when business restructuring expenses related to the transfer of energy storage device system business for posted an extra order in loss, it increased substantially by JPY 21.7 billion to JPY 3.1 billion. EBITDA was down JPY 3.4 billion quarter-on-quarter to JPY 52.9 billion. And EBITDA margin was down by 1.1 points to 14.8%.

Please turn to Page 4. This is a summary of consolidated sales and operating income by segment and the quarter-on-quarter comparison. As for the Aluminum segment, due to the deconsolidation of aluminum can business in the previous quarter and the aluminum rolled products business in this quarter, sales and profit decreased. Petrochemicals segment profit decreased due to the reduced factor of raw material naphtha compared to the previous quarter. But in all other segments, mostly sales and profit growth were achieved.

I will explain details on Page 5 and onwards. Please turn to Page 5. Sales in Petrochemicals segment was JPY 74.4 billion, up JPY 5 billion quarter-on-quarter, and operating income was down by JPY 0.7 billion to JPY 5.5 billion.

In olefins, full operation has been continuing since July last year, and market price of main products went up, including ethylene due to price increase of raw material naphtha and sales and profit increased.

In organic chemicals, due to market price increase mainstay vinyl acetate and ethyl acetate, sales increased. But due to a rise in raw material prices, profit decreased. In SunAllomer , sales increased due to demand recovery, but profit decreased due to time lag between a rise in product prices and a rise in naphtha price.

In Chemicals segment, sales increased by JPY 3.5 billion quarter-on-quarter to JPY 48.9 billion, and operating income was JPY 5.8 billion, almost unchanged from the previous quarter. In basic chemicals, sales increased due to volume increase in acrylonitrile and ammonia compared to the second quarter. But due to rising feedstock cost for ammonia, profit decreased.

In electronic chemicals, strong demand for semiconductor industry continued and sales and profit increased. In functional chemicals, affected by the decrease in automotive production unit, sales and profit decreased. Industrial gases sales and profit increased due to seasonality.

Please turn to Page 6. Sales in electronics segment were up JPY 6.2 billion quarter-on-quarter to JPY 33.9 billion, and operating income was up by JPY 0.5 billion to JPY 4.3 billion. In hard disks, sales increased due to volume growth supported by the steady demand for data center. But profit decreased slightly due to feedstock adjustment.

In lithium-ion battery materials, sales were almost flat quarter-on-quarter, but profit decreased slightly. Compound semiconductors and SiC epitaxial wafers sales and profit increased due to volume increase. Sales in inorganic segment were up JPY 0.6 billion quarter-on-quarter to JPY 25.8 billion, and operating income was up JPY 0.3 billion to JPY 5.6 billion.

In ceramics, volume were fine ceramics for electronic materials and volume for steels increased. But those for automotive were slightly adjusted and sales decreased but profit increased.

In graphite electrodes, sales and profit increased with volume growth supported by demand recovery. Sales volume in the third quarter was about 40,000 tons against 70,000 tons in the first half.

Please turn to Page 7. Aluminum segment was affected by divestments of aluminum can business and aluminum rolled products business in the second and the third quarter. And its sales decreased quarter-on-quarter by JPY 11.3 billion to JPY 13.9 billion. And operating income decreased by JPY 2.5 billion to JPY 0.8 billion.

In aluminum specialty components, auto parts were affected by emerging impact of auto production unit declines, but demand for machine tools and OA industry increased. And sales increased. But operating income decreased partly due to the metal material cost surge for alloy except aluminum.

Sales of Showa Denko Materials segment increased JPY 0.8 billion quarter-on-quarter to JPY 161.4 billion. And operating income increased JPY 0.9 billion to JPY 6 billion. In information and communications, sales and profit increased due to strong demand for semiconductors. But in mobility components and energy storage devices and systems, sales and profit were mostly flat quarter-on-quarter due to sluggish automobile production caused by semiconductor supply shortage.

Excluding amortization of goodwill with consolidation, operating income increased JPY 0.6 billion to JPY 14.2 billion. In other segments, both of sales and profit were almost flat quarter-on-quarter.

Bar chart on the right bottom shows quarterly operating income of Showa Denko Materials segment before amortization of goodwill.

Please turn to Page 8, operating income and expenses and extraordinary profit and loss from January to September and their year-on-year comparison. As for nonoperating income and expenses, in the previous year, financial expenses for shares acquisition from Hitachi Chemical were posted. But in the third quarter of this year, interest expenses increased with the increase in interest-bearing debt.

But due to the full year contribution of Showa Denko Materials and others increased in equity in earnings of our [ theories ] and with the improvement in foreign exchange gains or losses, net increase of JPY 23.3 billion was recorded.

As for extraordinary profit and loss, expenses increased by JPY 48.7 billion net. As shown here, in addition to the environmental expenses of JPY 9 billion in the first quarter, loss on aluminum-related business divestment was JPY 23 billion. And for business restructuring expenses with transfer of energy storage devices and the systems business, JPY 301 billion were posted.

Please turn to Page 9. Consolidated balance sheet. As for the total asset as of the end of the third quarter, tangible fixed assets and intangible fixed assets, including goodwill, decreased. But cash and deposit and inventories increased. And the total assets increased by JPY 8.7 billion from the end of the previous fiscal year to JPY 2,212.3 trillion.

As for total liabilities, despite notes and accounts payable increase, interest-bearing debt decreased substantially and liabilities decreased by JPY 65.9 billion to JPY 1,419.7 trillion. Interest-bearing debt decreased substantially by JPY 90.9 billion from the previous year-end to JPY 969.3 billion.

As for net sales, retained earnings decreased due to the quarterly net loss attributable to owners of the parent and the previous year's dividend payment. But capital and capital reserves increased with offering. And foreign currency translation adjustment also increased. And total net assets increased JPY 74.6 billion from the end of the previous fiscal year to JPY 792.6 billion.

As for major indicators, net D/E ratio steadily improved by 0.47 points to 1.36x and the equity ratio improved by 3.8 points to 22.3%.

From Page 10, year-on-year comparisons for January to September are shown as reference.

Skipping some pages, Page 16 shows selected data. Page 17 shows capital expenditures and depreciation and due to 9 months contribution of Showa Denko Materials segment in this fiscal year, both increased substantially.

Page 18. Cost of integration with Showa Denko Materials. Full year forecast remains unchanged from the second quarter results announcement.

Page 19. Amortization of goodwill and intangible fixed assets resulting from PPA at Showa Denko Materials also remains unchanged from the second quarter results announcement. Please refer to them later.

Please turn to Page 20. I will explain the corporate bond issuance plan. At the time of acquisition of former Hitachi Chemical, which was announced in December 2019, to control the financial risk by a large-scale acquisition, we used preferred shares of JPY 275 billion and nonrecourse loans of JPY 400 billion. And direct investment by the company was controlled to JPY 295 billion.

Interest rate of nonrecourse loans were favorable compared to the market. But compared to the usual corporate loan and the straight bond, it was relatively high. Integration between our company and Showa Denko Materials has been proceeding steadily. And in January 2022, actual integration will be completed 1 year earlier than the schedule.

With the completion of actual integration, the initial purpose of nonrecourse loan to control the financial risk until the integration will be fulfilled. And also considering the financial environment, we set a policy for the partial repayment of nonrecourse loan. We consider issuing corporate bond up to JPY 100 billion in late November and onward, and the raised funds will be spent for the repayment of nonrecourse loan.

As shown in the table below, JPY 15.6 billion of nonrecourse loans were already repaid. And with a closing business divestment of energy storage device and system business, among others, the proceeds from transfer will also be spent for the repayment of nonrecourse loan. As for the senior loan that Showa Denko raised, 30% of the total is already repaid.

Please turn to Page 21. This slide shows our results of the public offering in September and secondary offering in October. Purpose of this transaction was to raise capital to accelerate our growth investment in 3 areas where demand has been expanding drastically, i.e., electronics, mobility and life science.

Financial impact of this transaction includes those by third-party allotment of shares paid in October. Net proceeds paid in capital minus commission was approximately JPY 82.4 billion. Number of shares increased by 35.19 million shares. And the amount of stated capital and additional capital reserves were JPY 83 billion, JPY 165 million. As a result, net D/E ratio as of the end of December will improve to 1.31x from 1.67x which was presented in the full year forecast in August.

We made a major step towards the target in the long-term vision, 1.0x by 2025. Finally, we have been achieving the steady progress. As of the third quarter, 75% of the full year sales target is achieved. And in operating income and ordinary income, over 80% was already achieved. Semiconductor-related business continued to be robust. Graphite electrode market has been tightening and its business environment has been steadily improving.

On the other hand, there are some concerns, including latest feedstock cost surge, semiconductor supply shortage and a decrease in automotive production. And they may affect, in particular, petrochemicals and the mobility and energy storage device business of Showa Denko Material. We will continue to monitor risks closely and make utmost effort to increase earnings.

This concludes my presentation. Thank you very much for your attention.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]