Nikon Corp

Dear participants, this is a tokenary present. I would like to thank you for your precious time out of your busy schedule to attend Nikon's financial results briefing. I am pleased to cover the financial results for the previous fiscal year as well as the forecast for the current fiscal year. In the previous fiscal year, revenue was 717.2 billion yen, operating profit was 39.7 billion yen, and profit attributable to owners or parent was 32.5 billion yen. Revenue grew, but profit declined year on year. By segment, except for the components business, we grew in all the businesses in revenue, but the profit went down in all the businesses except for the strong emerging products business. Annual dividend is 50 yen as we had forecasted. The top of the slide shows the revenue and the profit items which I have just explained. As for the free cash flow in the center of the table, the deficit has been improved more than 100 billion yen since last year. Behind this were, first, the improved operating cash flow as well as the sale of the cross-share holdings. Slide 5 shows the actual performance by segment. Far right end. Change from the previous forecast we made in February. Except for the healthcare business and the digital manufacturing business where we had one-time costs, we were able to go above the plan. From now on, I would like to mainly explain year-on-year changes. First, the imaging products business. The market here expanded particularly in China. New mirrorless product Z8 and ZF remained firm in sales. Both camera bodies and lenses grew in sales volume. ASP on average selling price also rose. With the help of exchange rates, both revenue and profit grew substantially. Orbit in profit being 16.6% landed at a high level following the previous year. Slide 7 shows the precision equipment business. Revenue grew in the overall precision equipment business as higher sales volumes in the mainly ARF lithography systems for semiconductors outweighed a decline in FPD lithography system sales volume due to the restrained capital expenditure at the customer side. Operating profit was down due to the big impact coming from the decline in the FPD lithography systems revenue and service revenue. In the healthcare business, life science solutions centered around microscopes and contract cell manufacturing contributed to the growth in revenue. We made progress developing the private sector market and delivering solutions for drug discovery support in life science solutions. Open profit declined, on top of the one-time cost of 4.1 billion yen incurred. Procurement costs increased, and we had to make R&D and other advanced investments. The one-time costs were primarily in eye care and solutions, mainly for retinal cameras. We booked a provision and related serve expenses as well as the disposal and write-down of inventories. Slide 9 shows the components business. EUV-related components and optical parts declined in sales due to the postponed capital expenditures and the lower utilization rates by semiconductor device makers. Encoder sales for robots declined due to the stagnant demand in the factory automation market. Photomask substrates for FPD declined in sales due to the panel market stagnation. Operating profit also went down. The last segment is the digital manufacturing business. This segment consists of the industrial metrology business and the advanced manufacturing business, or ADM. Revenue grew thanks to the fully-energized contribution by SLM Solutions in Germany, which became our consolidated affiliate. For your further information, on a standalone basis, SLM revenue was up by 15% year-on-year. This was a record high number. But operating loss expanded year-on-year. In the ADM business, though SLM made its first operating profit in the fourth quarter, but due to the intangible asset amortization costs for the SLM acquisition and increased costs launching a base of operations in the U.S., the loss grew larger. The industrial metrology business turned out to be bigger negative results. On top of the sluggish sales, we had to bear one-time costs including impairment of development assets and disposal and write-down of inventories due to the rationalization of unprofitable products. Next, allow me to explain our forecast for the current fiscal year. As shown in the bottom of the slide, our assumptions for the exchange rates are 145 yen to the US dollar and 155 yen to the euro. As for the full-year forecast, revenue is 745 billion yen, operating profit is 35 billion yen, and profit attributable to owners or parents being 30 billion yen. We are expecting a growth in revenue but decline in profit. The revenue growth is coming from the firm imaging products business as well as the expansion in the healthcare business and the digital manufacturing business. Whereas we are expecting a drop in the profit in the precision equipment business and the components business due to the postponed investments at some semiconductor customers. Operating profit. Though we are forecasting growth in revenue for the five business segments as a whole in our main business areas, but due to the one-time cost of about 5 billion yen for the relocation of the new headquarters as well as the increased corporate expenses coming from IT related investments, we are forecasting a drop in profit. As for the dividend per share, we can expect a profit larger than the previous fiscal year if we are to exclude the one-time cost of the relocations of the new headquarters, so we are assuming the dividend being 55 yen, up 5 yen. Now please refer to slide 13. This shows the financial highlights forecast for the current fiscal year, including the changes year-on-year basis. Now allow me to explain our shareholder returns policy here on slide 14. We are increasing our dividends step by step, targeting at the annual dividend of 60 yen for the fiscal year ending March 2026, and there is no change as for our plan to execute share buybacks of 30 billion yen or higher during the medium-term management plan. We are working on sales of cross-share holdings, giving us a resource of buybacks. In the previous fiscal year, we sold a total of 22 issues with a total value of 16.6 billion yen. Next, allow me to explain the revision of business segment to be disclosed for the current fiscal year. In the current fiscal year, we have integrated the digital solution business and the industrial metrology business, which are having similar customer segments, into the industrial solutions business we have newly created. It will be disclosed as a part of the components business. Slide 16 shows our forecast for the current fiscal year based on this new segment disclosure. I will explain the five segments one by one using the following slides. First, the imaging products business. As shown on the bottom left, we are forecasting the market size of the digital camera interchangeable lens type being 6.1 million level. While a low-end model market may become smaller, but we believe mid-high-end cameras for professionals and hobbyists are expected to continue to expand. Nikon continues to focus on mid-high-end cameras, and with the mirrorless lineup expanding, will go for 850,000 units of camera bodies, up 50,000 year-on-year, and as for lenses, will go for 1.35 million units, up 100,000 year-on-year. We completed our acquisition of RED on April 8, a major cinema camera manufacturer and highly appreciated in Hollywood. We will co-develop unique products and intend to expand our business opportunities in this fast-growing professional video camera market. We expect to achieve and recover the 300 billion yen level revenue for the current fiscal year. Operating profit is expected to drop due to the rate acquisition cost and the increase around expenses, but we expect to achieve about 15% in operating margin. So the imaging products business is here to enjoy a continuing firm business. Next, I will explain the precision equipment business. As shown in the bottom left, FBD lithography systems are expected to grow dramatically from 16 units in the previous year to 39 units. Investments into new IT panels are increasing, and the demand for lithography systems for high-resolution panels is expanding, where Nikon excels. Expect to overcome reduction in the semiconductor lithography systems by having a strong FPD and services revenue. Operating profit for the entire business is expected to be 15 billion yen, the same level as the previous year. Slide 19 shows the healthcare business. Revenue is expected to grow in all the businesses, life science, eye care, and contract cell manufacturing. Operating profit is expected to be 11 billion yen thanks to the expected increase in sales as well as the reduction of one-time costs we had in the previous year for IKEA solutions related business. Slide 20 shows the components business. We are projecting a decline in sales of EUB related and optical components due to later than expected recovery in demand. We also expect to have a slight decline in revenue for the entire business. As for an operating profit, we expect it to grow due to the disappearance of about 2 billion yen in one-time costs we had in the previous fiscal year, including impairment in the industrial solutions business. Lastly, allow me to explain the digital manufacturing business. Starting from the current fiscal year, we are only disclosing in this segment ADM or advanced manufacturing business. SLM Solutions we have acquired is expected to grow in revenue thanks to firm orders for large-format metal 3D printer NXE series. In the last fiscal year, SLMs and annual orders booked grew 40% year-on-year, a record high. As of the end of March 2024, the order backlog had grown to ¥10 billion level. With these effects of the increased revenue and the one-time costs in the previous fiscal year gone, the size of the operating loss is expected to contract without fail. In the current fiscal year, SLM aims to turn profitable on its own based on full-year EBITDA. For the next fiscal year, SLM will aim to produce its operating profit on its own, and in the following year, FY2027 March will go for a profit for the entire AMD business, so there is no change as for this policy. Now, finally, allow me to make a summary. In the last fiscal year, we grew in revenue but declined in profit. The emerging product business enjoyed a continued good business but due to the slowdown of the markets in other businesses as well as the one-time cost incurred, our profit declined. As for the current fiscal year, we expect to have a firm performance in the emerging products. the healthcare, and the digital manufacturing business, so we expect to grow revenues. As for opening profit, if we exclude the one-time costs related with the new headquarters, it is expected to go above the previous level. And one year later, as the next fiscal year is going to be the last year of the medium-term managing plan, we have our target of 70 billion yen for our operating... profit. In regard to our forecast for the next fiscal year and the progress of the medium-term management plan, Chairman and CEO Umatate will explain after me. I became president in April, and I intend to further expand our shareholder returns as shortly as possible, and I will further improve our management fundamentals so that we Nikon can truly enjoy our sustainable growth moving into 2030 and beyond. So I would like to ask Kiana for your continuing support and understanding with our investors and analysts. This is Umatade CEO. I would like to thank you for your precious time despite your busy schedule. I would like to explain the progress we are making in our medium-time managing plan. Please go to slide 2. The current medium-time advertising plan has a scope of four years, and we have just reached the halfway point. However, as stated in the upper half of the document, there are no changes as for the overall framework, such as Vision 2030, financial targets, and others. However, we have reviewed our revenue structure in light of the changes in our business environment. To be more specific, while we are to go for the upside revenue opportunities in quality of life domains such as the imaging and healthcare, we decided to revise down our revenue plan for the industry domains such as the precision equipment. In our journey to realize Vision 2030, we are reviewing growth investments while constraining M&A investments will expand our investments for organic growth and strengthen the management fundamentals. This is the overall depiction of the progress in the medium-term management plan. Now allow me to go to the following slides to expand on details. As shown on the left-hand side of slide 3, the first two years of the mid-term plan, we continued to grow revenue, and as of FY 2023, we were able to achieve the revenue of 700 billion yen, our target in the final year of the mid-term plan, two years ahead of the plan. Particularly, the imaging products business and the healthcare business and the SLM solutions in Germany, which we made our wholly-owned subsidiary during FY22, contributed to the growth in revenue. The bar graph on the right shows our revised capital allocation. Well, strategic investments including M&A are now down by 110 billion yen compared to the original plan. We now increase R&D to 20 billion yen and capital expenditures to 60 billion yen. We are going to go for our organic growth. At the same time, we will focus on shareholder returns. We are now planning to implement additional share buybacks as much as 30 billion yen or more. Now, please refer to slide 4. This shows the change in operating profit during the mid-term plan. For FI23, operating profit was 39.7 billion yen. For FI24, if we exclude the costs associated with the relocation of the new headquarters, we can expect to have about 40 billion yen in operating profit. From FI24 to FI25, as shown in the right-hand side of the material, we can expect to maintain high earnings in the imaging business with new products and we can also expect to improve earnings in other businesses. In the healthcare business, one-time cost will be eliminated. In the precision equipment business, FBD will expand its share. In the components business, profit will improve, driven by semiconductor market recovery. In the digital manufacturing business, loss is expected to be reduced. So, we are now aiming at 70 billion yen in operating profit for FY25. Slide 5 shows the financial targets in the five businesses. This graph shows revenue horizontally and operating margin vertically. And the size of the inner circle indicates the operating profit in the Japanese yen. The dotted circles are the FY25 targets when the original midterm plan was made. The colored circles show the FY25 target as of today. The two major businesses shown on the right. Precision equipment will stably secure 25 billion yen thanks to the diversified customers. Imagine Products is planning to maintain 40 billion yen level in profit by launching competitive products and acquiring new customers, including young generation. As for the three strategic businesses on the left, healthcare business and components business with its high operating margin will firmly expand its profit. Digital manufacturing business will reduce its loss and aim to generate profit in FY26. Now allow me to expand on the initiatives in order to expand earnings. I will use two more slides to briefly explain business by business how to increase customer acquisition and expand value proposition. In the imaging business, we will make efforts to expand new customers, particularly the young generation. We will also now apply Z9's advanced features to other camera bodies. will make RED in the U.S. to become our fully-owned subsidiary. RED has unique customers and technologies in the professional video domain. We will strengthen our video capabilities. Healthcare. In order to further explore the private sector market, we will expand system microscopes and applications. Now, please go to slide 7. Precision equipment, here the policy is to launch highly productive new products so that we can further grow FPD cells and expand our semiconductor customers. Components, with the integration of the former industrial metrology business, now for collaboration, we will run together with our customers, particularly in overseas, in order to expand earnings opportunities. Digital manufacturing. By expanding the sales of large format metal 3D printers, we plan to fully enter defense and aerospace markets. Now please refer to slide 8. In order to support such business expansion on the mid- to long-term basis, we believe we need to strengthen business fundamentals. Human capital management and sustainability strategy shown in the left will make steady efforts to further improve them. Right side shows investment into DX and manufacturing, as well as our efforts to further improve group management. Details are shown on slide 20. We have asked Mr. Hiruta, independent external director, to be appointed as chairman of the board to further improve our governance capabilities. Slide 9 summarizes the points I talked about today. In our medium-time margin plan, Nikon will actively invest into promotion of sustainability strategy and sustainable growth. We will strengthen human capital management, manufacturing, and DX, and we will deploy our core technologies into promising markets. Where we'll be in 2025, we will try to become an entity providing products and services optimized to meet our customer needs. Furthermore, we, Nikon, have a vision 2030. We'd like to become a key technology solutions company to support the global society where humans and machines co-create seamlessly. Through our business activities, Nikon would like to make its contribution to realize a sustainable society. Nikon would like to realize sustainable corporate values and would like to meet with expectations of the entire stakeholders. Hope we can ask for your continuing support. I would like to thank you for your kind attention.