IHI Corp

TSE:7013

Earnings Call Transcript 2023-Q2

[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 half of fiscal year 2022. Based on the PowerPoint presentation materials disclosed at 3:00 p.m. today. This page shows the contents of today's presentation.

Please turn to Page 4. This slide shows an overview of the results. Despite recent signs of economic recovery, the outlook of the economy has become increasingly challenging due to various factors such as global shortage of materials and inflation, monetary tightening in each country in response to the situation and rapid yen depreciation. Under such business environment, as with the first quarter, IHI Group steadily secured operating profit in all the reportable segments.

In Civil Aero Engines, the overall recovery trend remains unchanged despite the impact from sluggish operations caused by labor shortage in the airline industry. In addition, profits further increased due to improved profitability and depreciation of the yen. In the Vehicular Turbochargers Business, despite the impact of soaring raw material prices, there has been steady recovery in unit sales from extended production adjustment by automobile companies due mainly to shortage of semiconductors. Other businesses also remained steady, although some of our businesses were affected somewhat by recent changes in business environment. I will explain details in the following pages.

Please turn to Page 5. This slide shows the consolidated results, including orders received and the income statement. Orders received increased by JPY 134.4 billion or up 26.4% year-on-year. Revenue increased by JPY 77.9 billion or up 15.1% year-on-year. As shown at the bottom left of the page, the average exchange rate for revenue was JPY 131.56 to the U.S. dollar. There was significant yen depreciation by JPY 21.22 from the same period of the previous fiscal year. Operating profit increased by JPY 7.1 billion year-on-year, up to JPY 33.5 billion. Excluding the JPY 21.7 billion impact from large-scale asset sales recorded in the same period of the previous fiscal year. The group's earnings capacity realized profit growth of roughly JPY 30 billion. Profit attributable to owners of parent was JPY 21.1 billion.

Please turn to Page 6 for orders received and order backlog by segment. Orders increased substantially, except for social infrastructure and offshore facilities. The decrease in orders for the segment was attributable to multiple large-scale orders recorded in the same period of the previous fiscal year in bridges and water gates.

In Resources, Energy and Environment, orders increased due to winning orders for projects to construct large-scale environmentally friendly power generation facilities in Southeast Asia with strong demand for electric power. In Industrial Systems and General Purpose Machinery, orders increased in many businesses centered on Vehicular Turbochargers, which is recovering from production adjustments. In Aero Engine, Space and Defense, orders increased mainly in Civil Aero Engines, among others. As shown on the right, order backlog at the end of September was JPY 1.344 billion, up JPY 78.9 billion from the end of the previous fiscal year.

Please turn to Page 7 for revenue and operating profit by segment. Revenue increased in all the reportable segments and operating profit was positive in all the reportable segments. In Resources, Energy & Environment, revenue and operating profit increased mainly due to the progress in construction in nuclear energy. In social infrastructure and offshore facilities as well as Industrial Systems and General Purpose Machinery, operating profit was almost at the same level with the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.

Operating profit of Aero Engine, Space and Defense increased significantly up to JPY 18.8 billion due to recovery in sales of spare parts for Civil Aero Engines, yen depreciation and also due to the progress in the initiatives aimed at strengthening the cost structure. Adjustment for the same period of the previous fiscal year includes the impact from asset sales. I will explain the situation regarding Civil Aero Engines and Vehicular Turbochargers using Pages 9 and 10, respectively.

Please turn to Page 8. This is the breakdown by segment of the JPY 7.1 billion year-on-year increase in operating profit. Change in revenue had JPY 11.8 billion positive impact on operating profit. Increased sales of spare parts for Civil Aero Engines, the progress in construction in nuclear energy and recovery in sales of Vehicular Turbochargers were factors for the profit growth. Change in construction profitability pushed up operating profit by JPY 6.9 billion.

Although there was a negative impact on operating profit in Industrial Systems and General Purpose Machinery, including soaring raw material prices centered on Vehicular Turbochargers and the decrease in highly profitable projects in logistics and industrial systems as well as parking. Overall, there was positive impact on profit due to a decrease in burden of the program-related costs associated with the progress in performance improvement of engines in the early phase of mass production, in addition to the effect from ongoing cost reduction efforts in Civil Aero Engines. The positive impact from the change in foreign exchange rate was JPY 14.9 billion centered on Civil Aero Engines. Changing SG&A pushed down operating profit by JPY 5.8 billion due to an increase in cost along with the reopening of economic activities. Change in other income and expenses reflects the impact from sale of assets in the previous fiscal year.

Please turn to Page 9. The upper bar chart shows the revenue of Civil Aero Engines, and the line chart shows changes in the transaction volume of spare parts. The changes in the spare parts transaction volume are based on U.S. dollars from this quarter to eliminate the impact of foreign exchange rates, that has become drastic with the recent depreciation of yen. The lower chart shows the changes in the transaction volume of spare parts of regional jet engines, again, based on U.S. dollars. Overall, with the recovery of airline demand, the recovery trend of our spare parts sales remain unchanged.

The spare parts for regional jet engines have driven our business recovery from early on with the recovery of air demand in North America. And we are continually expecting a strong recovery act by the robust demand. On the other hand, the labor shortage in the airline industry has been prolonged, and it is likely to take much longer until it is resolved. Under such circumstances, the spare parts transaction volume in the second quarter has improved from the first quarter, but still yet lower than the initially expected level. Including the business impact of the regional jet engine spare parts and some other relevant models, we analyzed and reflected them in the full year forecast.

Please refer to Page 10 for the Vehicular Turbochargers, changes in the number of delivery and the revenue by region. As you can see from the chart below showing the changes in the number of delivery per month, this April was the bottom as we had the great impact of lockdowns in China. It recovered rapidly thereafter and stayed at the high level since June. As we saw gradual recovery from the impact of automobile production adjustment caused by the semiconductor supply shortages and the supply chain disruption, the delivery volume during the second quarter has almost returned to the pre-COVID level. And regarding the impact of soaring raw material prices that has become apparent recently, we would like to continue to negotiate with the customers to pass this on to the contract selling price.

Please turn to Page 11 for the finance income costs and others. Due to the depreciation of yen, which you can see from the change of FX rates shown below, we booked the foreign exchange gains of JPY 11.3 billion. The performance of Japan Marine United, JMU, which is included in the share of profit and loss of investments accounted for using equity method resulted in a big loss exceeding JPY 10 billion due to the impact of the new steel price determined for the first half and the storing materials and equipment price. Our ownership ratio of JMU was reflected on the loss before it was included in this investment loss on equity method.

Please refer to Page 12 for the consolidated financial position, mainly due to the increase of inventories with the expansion of sales toward the fiscal year-end, the total assets increased a little. On the other hand, the balance of interest-bearing liabilities shown in the middle was JPY 507.6 billion, which was equivalent to the end of previous fiscal year. The total equity increased by JPY 30.6 billion to JPY 437.7 billion. As a result, the debt equity ratio became 1.16x, and the ratio of equity attributable to owners of the parent became 21.6%.

Please move on to Page 13 for the consolidated cash flows. The cash flow from operating activities was affected by the increase of working capital and tax payment, such as the corporate tax for the income of the previous fiscal year and turn out to be negative JPY 9.9 billion, unfortunately. We would continue to like to make greater efforts to minimize the increase of working capital, while the sales are expanding and also accelerate initiatives to enhance the cash generation capability. The cash flows from investing activities was negative JPY 21.6 billion, mainly due to the capital expenditures. And as a result, the free cash flow was negative JPY 31.6 billion.

Page 14 shows the actuals of R&D, CapEx and depreciation. And Page 15 shows the revenue by region. Next, I'd like to explain the FY 2022 consolidated forecast. Please turn to Page 17. No changes were made to the forecast that we announced on August 9. The expected orders to be received is JPY 1.33 trillion. The revenue is JPY 1.35 trillion, and the operating profit is JPY 85 billion. The FX rate assumption in the second half is JPY 130 to USD 1, as shown there. The FX rate sensitivity is estimated to be JPY 0.6 billion per change of JPY 1 to the U.S. dollar. There are no changes to the full year dividend forecast too.

Please turn to Page 18 for the forecast of orders to be received in each segment. No changes were made to the segment orders, too. Moving on to Page 19. Here are the projected revenue and operating profit per segment. No changes were made to the segment revenue and operating profit, too, but we have reviewed the contributing factors based on the recent situations. So let me explain that using the next slide.

Page 20 shows the revised analysis of the factors that are expected to affect the operating profit. In the Resources, Energy & Environment segment, we recorded the restructuring expenses in the Power Systems. But since we are expecting an improvement of construction profitability in the nuclear energy, the forecasted operating profit remains unchanged. In the Aero Engine, Space and Defense segment, the spare parts sales of the Civil Aero Engines are not growing as much as we expected due to the labor shortage. So we reflected the impact in the second quarter and on.

Meanwhile, since our cost burden in the program for the improvement of performances has become lower. And since the foreign exchange rate had a favorable impact on our second quarter results, we are aiming to achieve JPY 40 billion operating profit for the full year. Moreover, we decided to keep a contingency buffer of JPY 10 billion included in the adjustment as there are still ongoing uncertainties in the business environment.

Please move on to Page 21. There are no changes to cash flow forecast too. Toward the achievement of JPY 130 billion cash flow from operating activities, we shall strive to enhance the cash generation capability. The rest of the slides are the financial results by segment, as usual, and the appendix, including the topics in the second quarter for your reference. Last but not least, we are determined to achieve the operating profit of JPY 85 billion and the operating cash flow of JPY 130 billion. To the extent we shall boost the performance recovery drivers for the project change and accelerate the initiatives to enhance the cash generation capability so as to capture the good results in the second half without fail.

With the prolonged labor shortage in the airline industry and the soaring raw material prices, the business environment is becoming even more severe for us. The total the enhancement of the revenue base we have several scenarios prepared to mitigate risk. By executing right measures, flexibly, we will endeavor to return to the growth trajectory. That is all. Thank you.

[Hiroshi Ide, executive]

This is Ide, CEO of IHI Group. I will present management review and explain progress with project change. This page shows contents of the presentation. I will mainly go through the overview and the progress. First of all, the overview project change, as I have explained every time, project change covers from FY 2020 to FY 2022, positioned as a period to reform businesses in response to operating climate changes, including the spread of COVID-19.

We have made preparations steadily to start the next medium-term management plan from FY 2023. FY 2022 is the final year of project change and the progress made in the period will lead to the next medium-term management plan. I will not touch on details on the next medium-term management plan today. But to give you some color, we will aim at completing business portfolio optimization and fostering strong businesses on par with aero engine businesses by FY 2025.

This page is on the second quarter results review. As explained earlier by General Manager of Finance and Accounting, looking at the business situation through to the second quarter, the recovery trend continued in the Aero Engine, Space and Defense business. Revenue and profits increased year-on-year on life cycle business expansion, which is one of the main strategies and project change and also due to progress in strengthening the cost structure. As a result, all the reportable segments were back in black, restoring profitability. Green bars in the graph are results recovery drivers consisting of 3 elements.

The bars for expansion of life cycle businesses and forecast structure reinforcement are made up of light green and dark green portions. The dark green bars represent results, recovery driving factors with increased certainty by the second quarter. In addition to those various initiatives are underway, including the increasing contract amount, productivity improvement, which we are making progress, but are yet to deliver actual results to be reflected on the profit and loss statements. Those factors are indicated in light green bars. Therefore, after the second quarter, in the third and the fourth quarters, we will strive steadily to realize results from those initiatives currently included in the light green bars.

We are aiming at achieving the record high operating profit by expanding life cycle businesses and by strengthening revenue bases of all businesses in response to changing operating climate and various risks. This page is on returning to a growth trajectory. Even though it's not written on the page, as a precondition for us to grow aftersales service or life cycle business and reinforce the cost structure, what matters a lot for IHI is to control profitability downturn for large-scale projects.

As we work on large-scale projects, we are now able to control profitability downturn recorded in the past. As for future large-scale projects, which we are making progress in winning orders through our overseas subsidiaries, we will strengthen our effort to prevent downturn, but rather achieve upturn in profitability for such projects through rigorous risk control and project management. As regards expanding life cycle businesses, particularly in 3 onshore or non-aero businesses, we have expanded them quite significantly. In project change, we have been targeting to increase revenue from aftersales service by 30% against FY '19. We already expect to achieve 30% increase, so we will strive to achieve further upside in the remaining period of FY 2022.

Some examples, including nuclear power, bridges and industrial machinery are described on the page. We are making steady progress in each of those examples in winning orders and turning them into profits. Another interesting example presented on the page is Furnace I, a remote monitoring system for furnace operations. This system is provided by the industrial machinery business, enabling smartphone-based monitoring situations at plans for workers.

This is one of the examples of our initiatives to expand life cycle businesses, not only in large-scale projects, but also in others. As for reinforcing the cost structure, we have made steady progress in enhancing productivity in aero engines. In 3 onshore or non-aero businesses, although results are not yet sufficient, we have been making solid progress such as shortening lead times, visualizing and streamlining overall production processes.

We will continue to work on expanding life cycle businesses in our existing businesses. To further advance life cycle businesses, we will target life cycle business to enter a new phase by promoting initiatives aimed at lowering environmental impact and increasing environmental value. We have also worked on reinforcing the cost structure by cutting and streamlining variable and fixed costs. We remain committed in continuing this effort in the period covered by the next medium-term management plan.

Next, on creating growth businesses. Creating growth businesses in the area of Carbon Solutions is one of the pillars of project change. IHI particularly pays attention to ammonia. This page with the world map show major projects, not all that we have engaged in for the last 1 year. As you can see, we have promoted projects in various countries and regions, including Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Australia and Japan, not to mention.

For the last 6 months, fuel ammonia is drawing a lot of attention. On October 25, International Energy Week was held in Singapore, which I also attended and MoU was signed with Sembcorp, as you can see in the page. That morning, when the MoU signed Singapore Government commented for the first time on fuel ammonia with an eye on building a hydrogen oriented society in the world. IHI Group has commenced ammonia firing at thermal power plants.

In addition to ammonia firing, we are also engaged in various projects as listed on the page. We would like to promote these projects steadily together with our partners to establish global value chain covering production through to utilization of ammonia as clean fuel. I think it's fair to say that we have finally been able to sources. Next year onwards, we expect to make solid investment into this area.

The second topic of the Carbon Solutions is the so-called carbon cycle, which is to reuse and recycle carbon dioxide. Together with the Singaporean Government Affiliated Research Institute, ISCE, IHI has been engaged in the studies on catalysts for about a decade. And first, we have been working on the development of catalyst, which can be used for the production of synthetic methane. Beyond that, we are thinking about olefin and SAS. So in the mid and long run, we'd like to continually develop carbon cycle with the partner.

With regards to the production of synthetic methane, together with Tokyo Gas and JAXA as a part of the Green Innovation Fund project, we have started the development of innovative methane production technology. Moreover, recently, even though it's still small, we have started to receive orders for the methanation equipment to synthesize 12.5 normal cubic meters per hour of methane. So we are going to continually invest in such projects.

But we would like to enhance the scale and speed to make them new big pillars of business in the next fiscal year and on. As for the air transportation systems, which I have mentioned many times from before, in the transition area, we are working on the weight saving of aero engines, so as to reduce the CO2 emission.

In addition to the usage of new materials such as CFRP and CMC, IHI is hoping to apply these new materials to the airframe of aircraft in the future. Moreover, in the longer run, we'd like to contribute to the realization of electric aircraft and hybrid aircraft. For that, we are developing the large-sized jet engine embedded electric machines. For us, for this matter, we have also been thinking about how we can realize sustainable development of the Civil Aero Engines business, which is one of the core businesses at IHI.

So for that as well, this is going to be a very important technology development. Therefore, we'd like to invest in the R&D well enough to show our presence and leadership in the future of aero-engine industry. The third topic is the maintenance disaster prevention and mitigation. I'll be referring to this matter every time as well, but in the so-called social infrastructure, protective technologies are directly linked to the strengthening of the infrastructure. So we have been developing the remote monitoring systems to strengthen the infrastructure and the support is symptom for such inspection.

Moreover, together with Meisei Electric and others, we are trying to find opportunities to apply the measurement technologies such as in the weather observation and groundwater level observation as well as in the forest management, which we are working on with Sumitomo Forestry, we'd like to utilize the measurement technologies to prevent and mitigate natural disasters.

Also, not only on the surface of the earth, but also to monitor the earth from the outer space, we'd like to utilize the rockets and satellites as we are the core strength of IHI that could contribute to the prevention and mitigation of disasters, and they are expected to become a promising businesses in the future. So these 3 protective technologies, measurement technology and rocket and satellite usage are expected to develop not separately, but to develop in an integrated manner to offer new solutions in the future. Of course, such development may take much longer time, but that would be one of the key initiatives in creating growth businesses.

To maintain a resilient business structure, we announced the ESG management last November, namely, we have been focused on the respect of human rights and the promotion of diversity and inclusion. But especially the human rights initiatives have only begun, and we need to think about how we can accelerate this. Moreover, to promote diversity. We have been promoting in-house side shop programs as it was featured in an NHK BS show called Night of the Makoto Sasaki. The team engaged in an interesting experiment to use electric kettle to generate steam as the source of power, and that was aired on TV.

The team comprising cross-function of 40 young employees seem to have really enjoyed this experiment, even cutting back their sleeping hours. This was one of the examples. It may not be necessarily linked to the actual business yet, but such a program would encourage autonomous participation and proactive generation of new ideas among employees. So we believe it is useful in raising the motivation of many employees. The third point is our selection as one of the digital transformation, DX Stocks 2022.

IHI has been keenly engaged in various initiatives to reform the business model and business process and to develop the human resources. The DX initiatives may not be fully in place yet, but the third party has recognized our efforts in such areas. So this is a great encouragement for us going forward. Also, in the next midterm plan, along with the promotion of DX, we'd like to especially develop and hire innovators and work on further diversification of the employees.

This is the final slide. Towards the next midterm management policies, I have been talking about various things. But since we launched the project change, we steadily improved our performances. And this year, we are expected to achieve a record high operating profit. Also, we are trying to improve the cash flow and by generating good results in FY 2022, we'd like to step up to the next midterm plan. From the proprietary transition phase, we are now about to move on to the investment phase. So as to focus on investments on the growth businesses, we would like to review the business portfolio during the next midterm period.

Naturally, to invest in growth businesses, we need to solidify our business foundation. In that regard, as I have been saying from before, we need to enhance our cash generation capability. And so as to create such a foundation, we need to focus much more on the digital transformation and the development of innovators.

With that, we'd like to show good management policies toward the next mid term. That's what we are thinking. That is all. Thank you.

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