Fuji Electric Co Ltd

TSE:6504

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q3

[Junichi Arai, executive]

Good afternoon, everyone. I am Junichi Arai, Corporate General Manager, Corporate Management Planning Headquarters. I will explain consolidated financial results for the third quarter and full year forecast for the fiscal year 2021.

Results for the 9 months were good, partly due to market recovery. In particular, components performed well and 9 months income reached record high. Page 2 shows year-on-year comparison of consolidated financial results for the 9 months. Net sales were JPY 620 billion, up JPY 58.7 billion. Excluding JPY 14 billion of gain on translation and earnings, net sales increased JPY 44.7 billion in real terms as demand increased, slightly less a JPY 9 billion impact of withdrawal from magnetic disk business was included in net sales. Operating income was JPY 32.7 billion, up JPY 18.6 billion.

I will talk about breakdown of changes in operating income on the next page. Nonoperating income and loss includes folding exchange gain. Nonoperating income, net of nonoperating expenses was up JPY 1.6 billion. As a result, ordinary income was JPY 34.1 billion, up JPY 20.2 billion. Extraordinary income, net of extraordinary loss was JPY 7.2 billion, up JPY 23.8 billion. Cost of collective measures for product defects were JPY 16.7 billion in the 9 months in the previous fiscal year and were 0 in this fiscal year. Gain on sales of cross-shareholdings was JPY 8.5 billion.

Due to these factors, extraordinary income net of extraordinary loss was up JPY 23.8 billion. Net income attributable to owners of parent was JPY 25.4 billion, up JPY 29.4 billion.

Page 3 shows breakdown of changes in operating income. Operating income increased JPY 18.6 billion. The biggest factor for the increase was an increase in sales and production volumes, components, semiconductors for industrial and automotive applications, ED&C components and factory automation increased significantly, mainly due to that increase in sales and production volumes pushed up operating income by JPY 19.2 billion.

As for fixed cost, labor cost and depreciation and leases paid increased year-on-year. As a result, increase in fixed cost pushed down income by JPY 5.2 billion. Exchange rate effect pushed up income by JPY 3.7 billion due to the depreciation of the yen. In others, impacts of rising raw materials prices were negative JPY 4.2 billion. On the other hand, effects of higher product selling prices were JPY 3 billion. The difference between the 2 factors was more than JPY 1 billion. The amount was offset by cost reduction, product mix and others. Consequently, others pushed up income by JPY 900 million.

Page 4 shows year-on-year comparison of net sales and operating income by segment. Unfortunately, sales and income in Power Generation decreased. Except for Power Generation segment, sales and income increased in all segments, including Power Electronics Energy, Power Electronics Industry, semiconductor and Food and Beverage Distribution.

On Page 5, I will explain business results by segment. In Power Electronics in total, both sales and income increased significantly. In Power Electronics Energy, net sales were up JPY 25.7 billion, and operating income was up JPY 4.2 billion.

In Energy Management, net sales increased as a result of large-scale projects for power supply equipment for the power distribution and industrial fields, but operating results decreased because of differences in profitability between projects.

In power supply and Facility Systems, net sales and operating results increased as a result of increased demand for projects from data centers and semiconductor manufacturers. In ED&C components, net sales and operating results increased substantially due to significantly higher demand from domestic and overseas manufacturers. In Power Electronics Industry, Automation Systems is a driver. In Automation Systems, net sales and operating results increased significantly due to the higher demand seen centered on low-voltage inverters and factory automation components in Japan and overseas.

Also, in Social Solutions, net sales and operating results increased, thanks to large-scale projects for electrical equipment for railcars. In equipment construction, net sales increased and operating results increased slightly due to higher demand for electrical and air conditioning equipment construction. In IT Solutions, net sales decreased significantly, and operating results also decreased due to the absence of the large-scale public and academic sector projects recorded in the previous equivalent period.

Please go to Page 6. In Semiconductor, net sales were up JPY 17.1 billion, and operating income was up JPY 7.7 billion. As I said earlier, there are the repercussions of withdrawing from magnetic disk operations. Despite that, net sales increased largely year-on-year due to strong demand for automotive applications, including electrified vehicles and for industrial applications. Operating results increased significantly as a large increase in net sales offset the negative factor, the rise in expenses for bolstering power semiconductor production capacity and for conducting research and development.

In semiconductor, we were able to achieve margin of around 15%. In Power Generation, net sales and operating results decreased due to the rebound from a large-scale solar power project recorded in the previous equivalent period. In Food and Beverage Distribution, net sales and operating results in vending machines increased. Net sales and operating results also increased in store distribution. In this segment, operating loss was booked in the previous equivalent period.

By working on structural reform, we achieved significant improvement mainly of fixed cost. As a result, both in vending machines and store distribution, not only net sales but also operating results increased more than we expected.

On Page 7, I will explain net sales of Japan and overseas area separately. In total, net sales were up JPY 58.7 billion. Overseas sales were up JPY 24.9 billion, and sales in Japan were up JPY 33.7 billion. As a result, overseas sales accounted for 29%. As for the breakdown of overseas sales, sales increased JPY 12.5 billion in China and increased JPY 8.3 billion in Asia and others. Sales also increased in Europe and Americas. The increase was mainly from components and results were strong.

Page 8 shows year-on-year comparison of major component sales. As for the breakdown of sales increase of JPY 58.7 billion, increase of JPY 55.4 billion was from major components, including vending machines, semiconductors, factory automation and ED&C components. Major components accounted for 94% to the total increase. In particular, sales of ED&C components increased 35% and semiconductors increased 26%.

On the right, quarterly major component sales trend from the fiscal year 2020 is indicated. In terms of year-on-year comparison, sales increased more than JPY 18 billion in the first, second and third quarter, respectively. Sales increased around 25% year-on-year every quarter.

In the same way, Page 9 shows year-on-year comparison of amount of orders received for major components. Orders received were JPY 736 billion, up JPY 89.5 billion. Major components orders received were up JPY 96.4 billion, which was bigger than the total growth. In particular, order received for factory automation and ED&C components increased more than 50% year-on-year. Orders received increased 40% to 50% year-on-year every quarter.

Page 10 shows balance sheet. In comparison between the end of March and the end of December, one important point is significant progress of collection of notes and account receivables, trade receivables, despite increase in inventories and increase in long-term assets, mainly for semiconductors, total assets decreased JPY 7.9 billion. Total assets stood at JPY 1,056 billion. Interest-bearing debts decreased. Cash and time deposit also decreased. Net interest-bearing debt was JPY 134.1 billion, down JPY 6.7 billion. Net D/E ratio was 0.3x. Equity ratio exceeded 40% and was 41.6%. For reference, free cash flow for the 9 months was JPY 28.5 billion.

Page 11 shows consolidated financial forecast for the full year in comparison with forecast on October 28. Net sales forecast is kept unchanged at JPY 900 billion. We revised up operating income forecast by JPY 5 billion to JPY 72 billion. Operating margin will be 8%. Net income attributable to owners of parent was revised up by JPY 2.5 billion to JPY 52.5 billion. Also, for the full year, operating income, ordinary income and net income attributable to owners of parent will reach record highs. In medium-term management plan targets for the fiscal year 2023, where net sales of JPY 1 trillion and operating margin of 8% or more. The revised forecast indicate the implication that we want to achieve 8% 2 years ahead of the target.

As you see at the bottom of the page, by segment in Power Electronics Energy as ED&C components and power supply and facility systems performed well. We revised up net sales by JPY 8 billion and operating income by JPY 2 billion.

On the other hand, in Power Electronics Industry, IT Solutions decreased significantly year-on-year and was slightly lower than forecast. So we revised down net sales by JPY 8 billion. There is no change to operating income forecast of JPY 25 billion.

In semiconductor, we didn't revise net sales forecast. However, as margin in semiconductor has been quite strong, we revised up operating income forecast by JPY 1 billion. In elimination and corporate, we revised down corporate expenses by JPY 2 billion and revised up operating income by JPY 2 billion. In total, we revised up October forecast of operating income by JPY 5 billion.

You see supplementary materials on Page 12. Year-on-year conversion of amount of orders received for ED&C components, low-voltage inverters, semiconductor and vending machines for the third quarter and for the 9 months is shown.

Page 13 shows comparison between results for the fiscal year 2020 and a revised forecast for the fiscal year 2021. As shown at the bottom, in all the segments, except for in Power Electronics Industry, we forecast increase in net sales. In Power Electronics Industry, due to IT solutions, net sales will decrease slightly more than JPY 20 billion year-on-year. Operating income will increase year-on-year, mainly in Food and Beverage Distribution. Operating income was negative in Food and Beverage Distribution in the last fiscal year and is improving significantly.

As for overall markets, there are issues such as rise in interest rates in the U.S., asset reduction by FRB, real estate issues in China and rise in crude oil prices. Geopolitically, there are uncertainties such as Russia's possible invasion of Ukraine and China's response to Taiwan. In businesses, as I mentioned, I think there is a slight downside to IT solutions. For ED&C components, I personally think we can expect a higher level upside potential in the fourth quarter.

As for downside factors, due to the Omicron variant, market conditions may deteriorate or projects may be postponed. Sales may be boost point due to difficulty in procurement of parts. On the other hand, I think our efforts in business and conservative assumption of exchange rates can be upside factors.

In addition, we've been reducing cross-shareholdings in a planned manner. We halved cross-shareholdings from 102 stocks we had in 2019 in accordance with corporate governance code. I think that will contribute to investment funds in power, semiconductors and others. Under the basic policy of setting cross-shareholdings, we will continue to reduce cross-shareholdings. Of course, we will explain carefully to the other parties and sell cross-shareholdings with mutual agreement.

That concludes my presentation.

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