Sysmex Corp

TSE:6869

Earnings Call Transcript 2018-Q3

[Yukio Nakajima, executive]

This is Nakajima from Sysmex. Thank you very much for coming to this financial results briefing meeting. So let me start to go over business results for the first 9 months of fiscal year ended March 31, 2018.

Please turn to Page 1, Financial Highlights. Net sales were JPY 202.5 billion. The growth was 12%. Operating income was JPY 44.5 billion. It went up by 13.8%. Profit attributable to owners of the parent were JPY 30.5 billion. It went down by 4.4%. Net sales increased in all regions both on the local currency and yen basis. Operating income increased due to the profit -- gross profit growth by the sales increase and the yen depreciation.

Please turn to the table on the left bottom. FX trended to a weaker yen by JPY 5.1 to a dollar, JPY 10.5 to a euro and JPY 0.6 to a Chinese yuan compared to the previous year. The FX impact was JPY 9.09 billion on the sales on positive, and operating income positive impact was JPY 1.62 billion, and net income went down due to the tax treaty revision with Germany last year.

Tax rate was 32.7%. It went up by 18.3% year-on-year due to an impact of tax treaty revision with Germany previous year and a [ burst in ] tax expense because of a temporary reversal of deferred tax assets under the U.S. tax system revision, we saw the increase in tax rate.

Please go to the next page, breakdown of net sales and operating income. The external sales by regions, even by excluding FX impact, we saw increases in all regions. FX impact on sales was positive by JPY 9.09 billion due to yen depreciation, JPY 2.2 billion positive impact in the Americas, EMEA had JPY 3.8 billion positive impact and China had a JPY 2.25 billion positive impact. AP had JPY 810 billion positive impact.

Operating income. Income increased due to the gross profit increase by the sales growth, and the weaker yen absorbed the worsened cost of sales ratio and SG&A increases. The major reason for the worsened cost of sales ratio was due to the sales increase in immunochemistry and urinalysis in life science business and clearing out the new products by introducing new products in the urinalysis area and the cost increases of the foreign currency denominated procurement due to the yen depreciation. The major reason for the increase in SG&A was due to business expansion such as the consolidation of OGT and direct sales of urinalysis and hemostasis business in France and the shift to direct services in China.

Please turn to the next page, net sales by geographic regions. Please take a look at the right top showing the year-on-year comparison. In all areas, on a local currency basis, we achieved increases in net sales. Affected by the weaker yen, we achieved double-digit growth in the net sales in yen terms.

Please turn to the next page, sales by business. The core business grew due to the impact of yen depreciation and the growth of hematology and urinalysis. It went up by 11%. Hematology sales increased, supported by a strong sales of reagent sales. Urinalysis increased due to the growth in instrument sales by introducing new products into China. Immunology increased by growing the reagent sales by adding installments in China. Hemostasis stayed flat due to the FX impact despite the weakness in instrument in sales. Next, core business grew by 61.9%. Life science business grew by consolidating OGT and other elements.

Please turn to the next page. Geographic segment information, starting with the Americas. Net sales were JPY 44.1 billion. It grew by 8.7%. In the United States, hematology reagent service sales grew. And in Canada, we won a large commercial lab project. These offset the sales drop in the Central and Southern Americas to see the increase in net sales.

Operating income were JPY 3.8 billion, up by [ 53.1% ]. In addition to the sales increase impact, we had reagent service sales increased and intragroup transaction pricing revision, which helped to see substantial growth in the profit. On a local currency basis, net sales went up by 3.7%, operating income went up by 46.2%.

The sales growth by regions. The United States went up by 6.1%. At some facilities, we did see delays in deliveries of the instruments. But with -- our hematology reagent service sales grew along with the increased number of installments, resulting in sales increase. Central and South Americas went down by 9.9%. In Brazil and other countries, the region is on a recovery trend. However, sales went down because of the winning of a large project in Mexico previous year.

Please take a look at the next page, EMEA. Net sales of JPY 54.5 billion. It went up by 15.5%. Businesses in France, Russia and Turkey went up, and the sales increased by consolidating OGT, offsetting the impact of delays of a project in the U.K. due to Brexit.

Operating profit were JPY 4.35 billion, went up by 17.8%. The SG&A increased by consolidating OGA (sic) [ OGT ], and we also revised intracompany transaction prices, but these were offset by the reagent sales growth to see the growth in profit. On a local currency basis, net sales increased by 6.1%. Operating income went up by 8.2%.

The sales growth by regions. In 5 major countries, it went up by 4.4%. Despite the ongoing impact of sales delays in the U.K., sales were up due to direct sales in France in urinalysis and hemostasis. Eastern Europe and Russia, up by 18.8%. Sales rose due to a higher reagent sales in hematology, urinalysis, hemostasis in Russia. Middle East, up by 0.4%. Despite a large project impact from last year in Saudi Arabia, sales were flat by winning reagent project this year. Africa, down by 28.7%. Sales decreased due to the impact of large tenders last year for global funds.

Please turn to our next page, China. Net sales were JPY 52.2 billion. Growth was 15.1%. In all categories, reagent sales trended strongly. With the shift to direct services, the reagent price increased to see -- operating income was JPY 6.06 billion, up by 135%. With the introduction of the direct services, the SG&A increased. But revising the intragroup transaction prices and growth of the reagent sales helped to see the increased profits. On a local currency basis, net sales increased by 10.3%. Operating income went up by 125.3%.

The sales growth by categories. In hematology, it went up by 13.2%. Despite a smaller increase in instrument business, reagent growth contributed to sales growth. Hemostasis went down by 4.4%. Despite sales growth of the reagent business, we saw weakness in instrument business to see a drop in our sales. Urinalysis business went up by 27%. We had strong sales of new products, and we saw substantial growth, mainly driven by instrument sales. Immunochemistry went up by 59.1%. Along with the increased installation of instruments, we saw the growth in reagent business to see the overall sales growth.

Please turn to our next page. The net sales for AP was JPY 17.9 billion. The growth was 21.4%. We won large project in India and Bangladesh. We started direct sales in Taiwan to see the increased sales. Even by excluding EMEA region currency impacts, sales grew by 16%. Operating income was JPY 2.2 billion, up by 38.2%. With direct sales in Taiwan, we saw the increased SG&A, but revising intragroup transaction prices and growth in the reagent sales helped to see the growth in profit.

Sales growth by region. South Asia grew by 18% -- 89.7%. Winning government tenders in India and Bangladesh, growing hematology instrument sales, resulting a substantial sales growth. South Korea and Taiwan went up by 37.3%. Direct sales in Taiwan and instrument sales in South Korea was strong to see the growth in net sales. Oceania went down by 23.7%. Although we saw growth in hemostasis sales, we saw a decrease in sales due to the impact of large tender in Australia that happened last year.

Please turn to next page, Japan. By combining external and internal sales for overall Japan, net sales were JPY 106.2 billion. The growth was 3.1%. So in Japan, hemostasis immunochemistry reagent business was strong to see the growth in net sales, whereas exports sales for IDEXX decreased. The exports for overseas group companies saw the increased sales due to the yen depreciation. Operating income was JPY 29.8 billion, up by 9.5%. Despite an impact of intragroup transaction price revision, we saw an increase in [ net ] profit by restraining SG&A spending.

Please turn to our next page. Full year earnings forecast. Despite uncertain currency elements, business is trending almost as expected. Therefore, no changes were made to November forecasts.

This concludes my presentation.