Mitsubishi Corp

TSE:8058

Earnings Call Transcript 2019-Q1

[Kazuyuki Masu, executive]

Hello. I'm Kazuyuki Masu, CFO of Mitsubishi Corporation. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedules to join us here today for investor meeting for the first quarter fiscal 2018. First, I'll give a general overview, and then Corporate Accounting Department General Manager, Yuzo Nouchi, will give more detail.

So please turn your attention now to the center of the viewing screen. I'll begin by going over Page 2 of the presentation material titled Results for the 3 months ended June 2018. There are 2 main points I would like to highlight today. First, consolidated net income for the 3 months ended June 2018 was up JPY 86.6 billion from the same period of the previous fiscal year to JPY 204.4 billion. Second, as of the end of the first quarter, we reached 34% of the JPY 600 billion in the consolidated net income forecast for the fiscal year. First, consolidated net income for the first quarter of fiscal 2018 came to JPY 204.4 billion, up JPY 86.6 billion year-over-year. This is our highest quarterly consolidated net income ever.

Please take a look at the chart titled Year-Over-Year Changes at the bottom left of the slide and the graph on the right. In the business-related sector, in addition to the rebound from the one-off losses in the same period of the previous fiscal year, performance in the LNG-related businesses and Asia automotive business was favorable. And we began to receive equity income from the -- and other results -- as a result of these and other factors, and income increased JPY 38.4 billion year-over-year in the market-related sector in addition to one-off gains recorded in the Ship businesses and the Australian coal business which was negatively impacted by Cyclone Debbie [indiscernible] increase in the first quarter as a result of these and other factors and income increased JPY 40 billion.

Moving on, let's look at the progress we made in terms of the consolidated net income forecast for the full fiscal 2018. The Australian coal business and the Asia automotive business and other businesses typically record a large portion of annual income in the first quarter and record extraordinary dividends received in the LNG-related business. As a result of these and other factors, we reached 34% of the forecast JPY 600 billion in the full year fiscal -- full fiscal year. This exceeded the benchmark achievement rate of 25%, and it gives a very strong start of the fiscal year. However, given that [indiscernible] prices are currently declining, we cannot be overly optimistic about the economic environment going forward. This concludes my general overview.

Next, I'd like to ask Mr. Nouchi who will give more details mainly on results by segment.

[Yuzo Nouchi, executive]

Hello. I'm Yuzo Nouchi, General Manager of the Corporate Accounting Department. I would like to go into a little more detail.

Let's look at results by segment. Please turn to Page 3. First, in the Global Environmental and Infrastructure business, net income increased JPY 4.4 billion from JPY 6.1 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal year to JPY 10.5 billion. This was due in part to one-off gains from the sale of power generation assets in the early overseas Power Generation business.

In Industrial Finance and Logistics and Development, net income increased by JPY 200 million year-over-year from JPY 9.5 billion to JPY 9.7 billion.

The Energy business achieved their turnaround of JPY 32.6 billion from the JPY 2.8 billion loss in the first quarter of the previous fiscal year to net income of JPY 29.8 billion. This was due in part to income from losses resulting from the replacement of North American exploration and production assets recorded in the first quarter of the last fiscal year as well as increase in [ earnings ] and dividend received in the LNG-related business.

In Metals, net income increased by JPY 25 billion year-on-year from JPY 50.7 billion to JPY 75.7 billion. This was due partially to an interest in equity income, due to increased sales volume in the Australian coal business.

In Machinery, net income increased by JPY 21.7 billion year-over-year from JPY 17.9 billion to JPY 39.1 billion. This was partially due to one-off gains related to tax effect in the Ship business, an increase in equity income in the Asia automotive business and equity income as a result of the third of the application of the equity method to Mitsubishi Motors.

In Chemicals, net income increased JPY 1.6 billion from JPY 10.8 billion in the same period last fiscal year to JPY 12.4 billion. This was due in part to increased trading profit due to sales price increases as well as the rise in equity income.

In Living Essentials, net income decreased JPY 6.6 billion year-over-year from JPY 23.9 billion to JPY 17.3 billion. This was due in part to a rise in SG&A cost in the convenience store business and a decrease in trading profits in the U.S. meat business.

In Other, our net income increased JPY 8.2 billion from JPY 1.7 billion in the first quarter of the previous fiscal year to JPY 9.9 billion. This was due partially to the gain on the sale of shares of SIGMAXYZ.

Please note that details on one-off gains and losses and a breakdown of the consolidated net income by business-related sector and market-related sector [indiscernible] are represented in the Appendix. So please have a look later.

Please turn to page 4. This slide shows our cash flows. Our first -- please look at the cash flow for the 3 months ended June 2018 with the bar graph. [ The green ] cash flow are due to the increase in the working capital and also our increase in the taxable -- of tax payables. The operating cash flow was positive JPY 62.1 billion. The investing activity cash flow was -- had an investment in shale gas, the Australian coal business and convenience stores. However, with the interest of sales of the Australian coal business and the sales of the [indiscernible] current assets in the aircraft lease business was positive JPY 34.9 billion. As a result, free cash flow came to positive JPY 97 billion from the -- for the 3 months ended June 2018.

Next, let's move on to the underlying operating cash flow highlighted in grey. Underlying operating cash flow calculated by removing the effects of working capital from the net operating cash flow remained positive at JPY 258.2 billion. As a result, as shown by the darker blue box on the right, the sum of the underlying operating cash flow and net tax provided by investing activities came to JPY 293.1 billion.

In the second quarter onwards, we'll target continued investment in existing businesses as well as accumulating new investments. [indiscernible] in the copper mine project in Peru.

The next page is a summary of market condition assumptions for your reference, so please have a look at your convenient time. This will be all for me. Thank you very much for your attention.