IHI Corp

TSE:7013

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q1

[Yasuaki Fukumoto, executive]

This is Fukumoto, General Manager of Finance and Accounting of IHI Group. I will explain IHI Group's financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2021 based on the PowerPoint presentation materials disclosed at 03:00 p.m. today. From the end of the fiscal year 2020, we have voluntarily adopted International Financial Reporting Standards or IFRS. And the figures for the previous year for the purpose of year-on-year comparison restated from JGAAP to IFRS.

This page shows the contents of the presentation. Please turn to Page 4. This slide shows an overview of the results for the first quarter of the fiscal year 2021. Overall, every profit line, including the operating profit turned positive in the first quarter. 3 non-aero businesses, namely Resources, Energy & Environment, Social Infrastructure and Offshore Facilities, and Industrial Systems and General-Purpose Machinery achieved business recovery to be on par with or higher than the level before the spread of COVID-19.

On the other hand, in Aero Engine, Space and Defense, sales of spare parts are on a moderate recovery trend. Although the impact from the downturn in demand for aero transportation remains in civil aero engines due to the spread of COVID-19. The assets held by the group were partially sold in May, aiming at securing investment resources for creating gross businesses based on project change. Cash flows, including the working capital are trending favorably to the forecast. I will explain details in the pages that follow.

Please turn to Page 5. This slide shows the consolidated results, including orders received and the income statement. Orders received increased by JPY 55.2 billion or up 29.7%. Revenue was up by JPY 27.6 billion, an increase of 12.7%. Both orders and revenue increased substantially from the same quarter of the previous year when the group's results were affected by the spread of COVID-19. As shown at the left bottom, the average exchange rate for revenue in the quarter was JPY 110.44 to the U.S. dollar. There was JPY 3.07 depreciation from the previous corresponding period. Operating profit was JPY 20.2 billion, up JPY 28.1 billion year-on-year due to higher revenue and the impact from the sale of assets and also as a result of reinforcing the cost structure through stricter management of projects and lowering the breakeven point among others. Profit attributable to owners of parent was JPY 14.1 billion.

Please turn to Page 6 for orders received and the order backlog by segment. Orders received increased year-on-year in all the reportable segments. Although the recovery of orders in Aero Engine, Space and Defense was limited, due to the recovery in demand for aero transportation remaining moderate. Overseas orders received was JPY 97.2 billion, representing 40% of total orders. Order backlog at the end of June was JPY 1,156.8 billion, which was almost at the same level with the end of the last fiscal year, as shown on the right.

Please turn to Page 7 for revenue and operating profit by segment. In addition to the table showing the year-on-year comparison, revenue and operating profit for Q1 of fiscal 2019, prior to the spread of COVID-19 are also presented on the right for reference. 3 non-aero businesses achieved year-on-year increase in revenue and operating profit, recording on par or higher compared to the level achieved before the spread of COVID-19. In Resources, Energy and Environment, revenue increased in Carbon Solutions and Nuclear Energy.

Operating loss decreased due to higher revenue and improved profitability in carbon solutions and power systems. In social infrastructure and offshore facility, revenue increased in bridges and water gates among others, despite a decrease in real estate sales in urban development. Operating profit increased due to higher revenue and improved profitability in bridges and water gates and so forth, despite recording lower profit in urban development owing to lower sales. Revenue in Industrial Systems and General-Purpose Machinery increased in vehicular turbochargers and heat treatment and surface engineering due mainly to the recovery from the impact of the spread of COVID-19. Operating profit turned positive due to higher revenue as well as the impact from reinforcing the cost structure, such as lowering the breakeven point. On the other hand, in Aero Engine, Space and Defense, COVID-19 impact remained in civil aero engines. Revenue increased year-on-year due to sales increase of new engines as well as moderate recovery in the transaction volume of spare parts.

The segment continued to incur operating loss, owing to an increase in sales of newly made engines with heavy burden in early stage.

I will explain the situation regarding civil aero engines using Page 9. Overseas sales were JPY 117.1 billion, up 10 points to account for 48% of total sales.

Please turn to Page 8. This is the breakdown by segment of the JPY 28.1 billion increase in operating profit. Change in revenue had a JPY 2.3 billion positive impact. Industrial systems and General-Purpose Machinery recovered from the negative impact caused by COVID-19, especially on vehicular turbocharger business and the heat treatment and surface engineering business, while operating profit generated by Aero Engine, Space and Defense segment decreased due to mixed deterioration, i.e., more sales in newly made engines in the civil aero engines business. Change in construction profitability had a JPY 6.5 billion positive impact. We believe that the cost structure reinforcement effort made by each segment under project change has been achieving steady progress, although little by little.

Change in foreign exchange had JPY 1.0 billion positive impact on the profit. Change in SG&A had JPY 3.2 billion negative impact on the profit because of the increase in expense following the recovery in sales and in the R&D expenses. Change in others had JPY 21.5 billion positive impact on the operating profit. Capital gain on sales of fixed assets is included in adjustment.

Please turn to Page 9. Civil aero engine changes in revenue and spare parts transaction volume on a quarterly basis. For your reference, graph in the upper right shows ASK available kilometer using data provided by IATA. As shown by IATA data, ASK hit the bottom in Q1 2020 and since then has been able to achieve a gradual recovery as shown in the blue line. ASK for domestic routes, which is shown in the green line, especially in North America where the vaccination penetration has gotten higher has been the driving force to achieve the recovery. IHI civil aero engine spare parts business has been following the same trend. Its transaction volume has been recovering gradually.

Please turn to Page 10. Finance income and costs. No major changes in each item. Share in profit and equity method affiliates was roughly the same as the previous year. Share in profit in Japan Marine United, one of the equity method affiliates was also roughly the same as the previous year.

Please turn to Page 11. Consolidated balance sheet. Total assets decreased by JPY 61 billion. Although inventories slightly increased, good progress in trade receivable collection was made and cash on hand was used to repay interest-bearing liabilities. Interest-bearing liabilities, as shown in the middle, was JPY 564.8 billion decreased by JPY 41 billion from the end of the previous fiscal year.

Total equity was JPY 341.5 billion, increased by JPY 13.8 billion from the end of the previous fiscal year. All in all, debt-to-equity ratio was 1.65x and ratio of equity attributable to owners of parent was 17.7%.

Please turn to Page 12. Consolidated cash flows. Cash flow from the operating activities was positive JPY 1.6 billion, improved by JPY 28.3 billion on a year-on-year basis following the improvement in working capital mainly by making progress in trade receivable collection. Cash flows from investing activities was positive JPY 9.1 billion, although CapEx increased on a year-on-year basis. There were proceeds from sales of assets to make investment in creating growth business.

Free cash flow, combining the cash flows generated by operating and investing activities was JPY 10.7 billion, increased by JPY 62 billion from the same period in the previous fiscal year.

Please turn to Page 13. Upper half on this page are the actual results of R&D, capital expenditure and depreciation and amortization. Lower half of this page shows overseas sales by region.

Now let us share our forecast of the consolidated results for fiscal 2021. Please turn to Page 15. No change with assumed foreign exchange rate from Q2 onwards, we are assuming USD 1 to be JPY 105. We are expecting orders received to be JPY 1.16 trillion, revenue to be JPY 1.18 trillion; operating profit, JPY 70 billion and profit attributable to owners of parents, JPY 35 billion. No change in our forecast from what we shared 3 months ago, including the breakdown by segment, whose details are available from Page 16 onward.

Forecast on cash flows are remaining the same. Foreign exchange rate sensitivity for U.S. dollar, JPY 1 move will have JPY 600 million impact on our operating profit. All in all, we could make fairly good start in Q1, thanks mainly to the following 2 reasons: one, momentum in the 3 non-aero businesses are recovering to the pre-COVID-19 level; two, recovery trend, although gradually has been confirmed in the spare parts business under Aero Engine, Space and Defense segment.

Especially, Civil Aero Engine business has been trending better than our business plan under which we were expecting the recovery to take place during the latter half of the current fiscal year, but we are not to revise the full year forecast at this moment since there is still uncertainty on the speed of recovery in COVID-19 based on the fact that we are now seeing increasing penetration of variance. And because the effect of the initiatives to reinforce cost structure, we'll bear more fruit from now on. IHI as a whole group will continuously work on and will further accelerate the speed of life cycle business expansion and breakeven point improvement, which are the main performance recovery drivers.

As for sales of assets to finance growth business creation, there is no change in the size we are expecting to dispose during the current fiscal year, including the ones we have already disposed in Q1 and the ones currently under consideration.

From Page 27 onward are appendices. Information related to growth business development under Project Change is also available in the appendices. So please take a look later.

This concludes my presentation.

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