2/5/2026

speaker
Unknown
Moderator/Host

みなさま、おはようございます。 Good morning. Good morning, everyone. If you'd like to listen to this session in English, please click the interpretation icon at the bottom of the screen and select English channel.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

ほんじつは、 Thank you very much for attending the ONSUS Electronics Quarter and Full Year 2025 Learning School. Today, we offer you simultaneous interpretation service. Please utilize the interpretation icon and choose the language of your preference. For speakers, please turn your video on. Today's presentation, we have Representative Executive President and CEO Shibata Hidetoshi, Executive Officer CFO Shinkai Shuhei, and other staffs present. After Shibata has given his words, Shinkai will explain about the fourth quarter and full year earnings. And then we'll go into a Q&A session. We're planning for 60 minutes for this earnings poll. The presentation material that we're using today is available on our website, on our IR site.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

Mr. Shibata, the floor is yours.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

Good morning. This is Shibata speaking. So the fourth quarter, I think it was better than our expectations. The end demand, not large, but it has grown.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

And AI is strong.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

I think that goes without saying. And on top of that, the industrial applications. It has been slightly moderate than expected, but we have seen a good, strong and robust growth. Towards the first quarter of next fiscal year, I would like to give you an outlook about that. So our revenue outlook, it is as shown in the presentation, but beyond that, the end demand outlook. So automotive, IIoT, we are expecting a moderate growth. Specifically for IIoT, And of course, AI is going to be very strong.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

And for the industrial, we are expecting solid growth first quarter.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

Mobile consumer applications due to seasonality will go down. But IIoT, overall, will show a moderate and solid growth. And as a result, for the whole company, this is a repetition, but although moderate, we think we'll be able to show some solid growth. This fiscal year, for the whole year, we haven't shown you any guidance in terms of the numbers because we have not been able to decide of the details. But with the previous presentation, I think we have started to see a better momentum for automotive. Basically, sometimes it goes up, sometimes it goes down, but in industrial, we think we were able to expect a solid growth. So the AI, data center, AI, those areas, I think we'll be able to see robust growth. And for AI infrastructure, for this year, I think, same for the other companies, we are expecting a very good growth year-on-year basis.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

So we have transferred the timing business.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

So towards the capital pay that we're going to hold in June, we want to update our AI business, but roughly speaking, maybe double and grow by double. I think that is our outlook. In terms of IoT, A very moderate growth is what we are expecting, specifically towards the second half. For the D-RAM shortage, it may have an impact on the business, so that is the reason why we are a little subdued in our outlook. So compared to the previous earnings call, I think we have a more positive view. So then, let me pull up a slide and talk about the transfer of the timing business. So this is a brief summary, and after that, I will hand it over to Shinkai for more detailed numbers. So, broadly speaking, the timing business, so mainly this is a clock business, we have decided to transfer this business. So, half and half cash and common stock, in total, $3 billion transaction value. So from our point of view, our timing clock business, we think we can grow this business. But for the technological trend, it is high importance for the MEMS timing. So if that is the case, SciTime is a better owner. And it is better for us to integrate this business and seek for growth. It's not the case that we just sell it and then that's it. We will acquire some stock from site times. And from our point of view, we would like to enjoy some of the food that will be coming from the growth of the women's timing. So there's a reason of the partnership. The timing business transfer that we're going is the size of the scales on the top right. So this is for FY2024 because we have not closed books yet. For 2025, the full year, revenue won't change that much from this level so 207 to 8 million dollar business is what we're going to looking about so I think for sight time this is a very complimentary business so we focus on clock sight time as basically focusing oscillators so if you combine both this will be a kind of end-to-end technological coverage So we do not assume any roadblocks, but of course we have to clear some regulation hurdles. So by the end of this year at the latest, we think we'll be able to close this deal. So in terms of use of this cash, so whether we're going to hold all this cash or are we going to sell at early timing, we're still considering, but in any case, This is growth for investment or for the shareholder return. We will look at both ways to allocate the cash. So that has been the summary about the transfer of the timing business. Then I will hand it over to Shinkai and talk about the details of the numbers, and then go to Karen afterwards.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

Shinkai-san, please.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

So this is Shinkai. I would like to talk about our fourth quarter whole year results based on presentation. For the fourth quarter, Please look at the left-hand side. From the left to the middle, so the revenue, 350.9 billion yen, gross profit margin 59.3%, operating profit 1,008 billion, operating margin 30.8%, EBITDA 127.8 billion yen, net profit 90 billion yen. The forex, 152 yen to the dollar, 1 euro, 176 yen. So for the full year, please look at the blue column on the right, blue one. So the revenue, 1 trillion, 318.5 billion yen. Cross-profit ratio, 57.6%. Operating profit, 586.9 billion yen. Operating margin 29.3%. Evita, ¥164.1 billion. Net profit, ¥329.3 billion. Works assumptions, ¥150 to the dollar, ¥167 to the euro. So for your outlook, I would like to give you some brief comments. So this is on the year-over-year comparison is shown. In terms of the revenue, it's 2.2% of decline. So automotive, due to minus, and in the field of IIoT, it's plus, so net net was a minus. In terms of the gross margin, year over year, 1.6% of improvement. This is due to the manufacturing cost reduction based mainly on the fixed cost. And last year, from last year, from FY25, we have been changing the depreciation period. So this is not one of this will contribute to us going forward. In terms of the operating profit margin, So 0.2% worsened. Because the cost reduction, we have been able to reduce costs, but basically this was offset by the demerits. So the sales volume decreased. There has been a backlash coming from a 1.24, so net 2.2% recently. So let's go to the next slide.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

So going back to the fourth quarter, so let's look at the columns on the right.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

Revenue 3.2% plus. So half is through the weaker yen, half is through the actual demand. Due to demand, so automotive, industrial, IOT, this has been over expectations. And in terms of the gross margin, it's plus 2.3% improvement. So this is due to the mix improvement and the reduction of the manufacturing expenses. In terms of the mix, we were anticipating that this would worsen, but it has not been bad as such. So the high gross margin products, for instance, memory, time, etc., has increased, and that led to improvement of the gross margin. In terms of the manufacturing cost, so there are a lot of one-offs. For instance, the project, manufacturing-related projects, the cost has been less than expected due to this. The gross margin improvement, this is my contribution to improvement of the gross margin, but operating margin plus 3.3% improvement against the target cost. So the volume growth, the gross margin improvement, there's some contribution for the operating cost. Expenses have been in line. In terms of the expenses, it was basically in line with our expectations. So the quarter-on-quarter compares, and please look at this chart, in terms of the revenue, plus positive gross margin, plus 1.7 percentage points. On a quarter-to-quarter basis, the manufacturing cost has gone down, the utilization has improved. In terms of operating expenses, it's minus, so the OPEX has increased for the main reason, and this is due to the seasonality because it's more concentrated at the year-end.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

For each segment, it's on the right-hand side for automotive and industrial infrastructure and IoT. There's nothing that's notable this time around. But when you look at OP Martins, for industrial infrastructure and IoT, it has deteriorated Q1Q by 3.4 points. This is due to development items and loss recognition that happened in the fourth quarter. Also, regarding segment performance for this fiscal year from fiscal 26, non-GAAP segment performance definition is scheduled to change.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

Up until 2025, as shown here, out of total company non-GAAP adjustments, items, if they are inherent to the segment, we were adding it back, or if it's a loss, we were deducting it by segment.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

However, from this fiscal year, in principle, we will be adjusting it together with company-wide non-GAAP performance. So that is the way we intend to report going forward.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

Please turn the page.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

So this page is about revenue. We changed the format a little. For industrial infrastructure and IoT, we made it more visible. And on the right-hand side, for revenue, this is year-on-year and G1Q numbers that are shown. Inclusive of FX, as well as in parentheses, it's excluding FX impact.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

We have added that.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

Because FX is fluctuating quite a lot, so we wanted to make things more visible and easier to understand. Please turn the page. This page is about inventory. First, on the left-hand side, for in-house inventory, for Q4, Q1Q, Inventory amount and DOI both increased in line with expectations, and it was at 117 days of DOI as of end of Q4. For Q1, we are expecting an increase in amount Q1Q. Due to demand recovery, we will be expanding the die bank. in anticipation and also in Q2, the IT system or the ERP system integration is scheduled to happen.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

Therefore, at the time of integration,

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

We will need to build up towards this space, and due to this impact in Q1, we expect a little higher work in progress inventory.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

And under the third bullet, as shown, for the DOI target, it used to be 120 days.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

have updated it and are thinking about raising it to 150 days. It's because demand is increasing, especially around AI and data centers and also supply chain risk-wise.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

We believe that we need to have some more buffer stock

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

or finished products and dye banks on top of that to secure raw materials that may be subject to risk. In consideration of these factors, we have decided to raise DOI targets from 120 to 150 days. in managing our in-house inventory.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

Looking at the right-hand side, it's channel inventory for Q4.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

Q1Q, channel inventory declined.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

Overall, it was 7.5 weeks of inventory, WOI.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

For automotive, we were planning to do shipments in line with sell-through, but sell-through went higher than expectations, so channel inventory went down. For industrial infrastructure IoT, inventory went up slightly, but this was due to power for data centers and AI, where demand is strong. So we were shipping as soon as it was completed, and therefore, sell-through was a little bit higher than expected. And for Q1Q, we are planning to expand sales channel inventory. Orders have been brisk, and up until the end of Q4, WOI was trending at low levels. So for sales channel inventory, we would like to strive to have higher levels of inventory. That is why we intend to expand inventory levels. Turning the page, we talk about utilization rates on the left-hand side. First of all, for Q4, compared to our forecast, it was a little bit higher at close to 50%, 5-0. And also for Q1,

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

We are expecting a slight increase in trend at around 50% plus utilization.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

Regarding capital expenditures on the right-hand side, Q4, there is no items that were notable, but for Q1, towards capacity expansion, we are planning to make investments which we will share with you on a later date. Please turn the page.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

So this is our forecast for Q1-26. Please look at the shaded area in the middle.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

For revenue and the midpoint forecast, it's $375 billion.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

Gross margins, 58.5%. Operating profit margin, 32%.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

NFX, 154 yen against the dollar, and 182 yen against the euro.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

For revenue, Q1Q, we're expecting growth of 6.9%, as you can see on the right column.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

FX-wise, inclusive, we're expecting revenue growth of 1.9%, and excluding FX impact, 4.9% growth. And we're expecting gross margins to go down by 0.8 points to 58.5%. The weekend is a tailwind, but due to mix, we're expecting a reactionary fall Q1Q.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

And due to...

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

the price increases, we are expecting a minus 8 point decline. For operating margin, we are expecting 1.2 points higher operating margins, Q1Q to 32%, due to volume growth, due to revenue growth.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

That is the main factor.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

And for OPEX, overall, we are expecting flattest trends Q on Q, expenditure-wise. For FX sensitivity, you could see the sensitivity analysis at the bottom. Based off the sensitivity, the forecast for Q1 and OP margins of 32%, At 100 yen against the dollar and 120 yen against the euro, OP margins will be 25.7%. So I would like to also pick up some slides from the appendix as well. Please turn to page 18.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

These are the GAAP numbers. On a full year basis, the second from the right, Please refer to this column.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

On a GAAP basis, for net income, 51.8 billion of losses were generated. This is related to wolf speed and pyramid losses worth 237.6 billion.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

That has led to the loss. So this is the big difference between GAAP as well as non-GAAP.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

And please also turn to the next page.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

These are highlights from the fiscal year under Revihub.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

We will continue to pay dividends worth 28 yen a share.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

And for Wolfspeed transactions, CFIUS approval came through.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

Common stock and convertible notes, the rights will be acquired.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

Looking at the next page, this is a continuous update on Altum.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

Left hand side shows ARI steadily increasing.

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

And for the KPIs, concepts, we are continuing to work on it.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

For comprehensive updates, we will do it in June when we have Capital Market Day. That concludes my explanation. Thank you for your kind attention.

speaker
Unknown
Moderator/Host

Thank you very much.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

Let's go to Q&A. Shibata-san, please turn on your video. I would like to explain how to ask questions. For those who have questions, please use the raise hand button on your screen. We will assign you an intern, and please state your company name and your name. If the moderator assigns you, you can ask a question. Please unmute yourself and ask your question. Due to time constraints, please, for one person, two questions are allowed. UBS securities, please unmute yourself and then speak.

speaker
Unknown
Moderator/Host

Thank you very much. So I have two questions.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

The first question is that the comment Shibata-san at the beginning, the AEI said that it may double for this year. Basically it will be interface PMIC that will be the major applications. Can you explain in more detail? What are the types of things that will drive the growth in these applications? The second question, This is not related to the earnings, but in Japan, there is a lot of realignment or integration with the domestic power SME contractors. A president has said that maybe they would like to consider that for this fiscal year. So maybe for the second COVID again, maybe for the demand, maybe it will improve again. So are you going to be engaged in this type of realignment industry for the domestic business? The AI-related business, as I said in the beginning, Well, our definition, so we are going to transfer to timing business, and we are considering how to update a business. So in June, what we are going to present is based on updated information. But as of today, basically, we are talking based on the existing definition. In terms of the digital power, this will drive the growth. In terms of the absolute amount, in terms of the growth rate, I think this will be the driver. Last year, so GPU has grown strongly. For this year, ASIC, I think application for ASIC is going to grow a lot. So going to the first quarter numbers, I think that's what I'm anticipating for the hyperscalers. ASICs for hyperscalers by phases, they are being ramped up. So I think that will be the main driver for this business. But the memory interface, again, the same story, I think it's going to grow.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

But the baseline has been bigger.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

So I think the growth rate in itself will be more moderate. But overall, maybe if we include all these factors, maybe double around that level will be the level of growth that we're anticipating. So power. will be the driver, and memory will grow as well.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

So we have to understand this more deeply.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

The AI computing, when it is growing, it used to be the case that the GPU drew a lot of attention, but the CPU, I think, will grow as well. So ARM is showing a greater, stronger position. social cam so i think um it will be also camera etc maybe a lot of our directions but if you look at one year timeline i think traditional based architecture would be the mainstay memory interface will be used in various uh contents so that is what we are anticipating about what the power of semiconductors Gyan, as you know, we have already our own, do it internally. So, of course, we need some time, but you're going to internalize our manufacturing. So, I think I had talked about the utilization rate at our plants continue to be slightly higher than 50%. matter which sum is going to be twice per GAN and what we have to be more conservative is about the silicon-based MOSFET because in terms of volume is going to be used a lot and BCD process We want to bring this internally as well, so the utilization rate of the plant with CAPEX, I think, including CAPEX, I think this will be going up. So SIC, what we're going to do about SIC, all this is, I think, that you have been pondering a lot currently. ourselves well we are not anticipating that we will be doing the development and will speed is one of the partners that we are looking at and with other partners by having these partnerships we will procure the SIC and then embed it into our solutions. I think that is the direction that we are considering. So in terms of the realignment with the power semiconductor industry, us taking the lead and being proactive, I don't think that matches our direction right now. But depending on how things go, we'll consider it case by case. That's all.

speaker
Unknown
Moderator/Host

Thank you.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

The next question is from Takayama-san from Goldman Sachs Securities.

speaker
Takayama
Analyst, Goldman Sachs Securities

Please unmute and go ahead. Thank you for taking my question. My first question is about, you talked about digital power, and it's a follow-up question about it.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

Regarding your share positioning, it's about a third to 50% for GPU, and for ASIC-related, it's likely to grow this year.

speaker
Takayama
Analyst, Goldman Sachs Securities

And in November, you were saying that it's really high, but for this year and your positioning, what are you going to target, or what do you already see?

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

Also, related to profitability, I think you were saying that it's relatively low, but when volume goes up this much, are you going to be able to secure better profitability? Can you give us some implication on that?

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

Well, actually, it's really hard. For us, having one-third or 50%, we have it as milestones.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

And of course, it would be better to be on the better side of things. And at minimum, we would like to exceed a third. But then on the other hand, I think other companies are the same, but when you look at the demand coming from customers, supply is not keeping up. Therefore, it's always the case in these circumstances. So what is the... the inflated demand piece and what is the underlying demand when demand is strong everybody always talks about this and we are not able to figure it out but if it's real demand obviously we won't be able to catch up therefore

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

qualifying multiple suppliers will happen on a constant basis. So the one-third or 50% numbers, we do not feel that it's going to be steady depending on generation or

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

because of a supply pickup i think we're going to see our positioning dramatically change and possibly it will go up or down for power interfaces right now we need to ensure that we supply steadily as a supplier so as mr shinkai said in his part We would like to ensure we have sufficient inventory as well as sales channel inventory or else it's going to be dangerous. Therefore, even if we have to put a further load on our balance sheet, we would like to have greater levels of inventory so that we won't have to sacrifice our share or positioning. How about profitability? For gross margins, depending on the product or the customer, it differs and varies. But for gross margin itself, compared to the company-wide average, it's not that greater. But if volume goes higher, operating margins should improve, as you rightly said, Takayama-san. So if volume increases... It should be a positive incremental impact on the OOP margins.

speaker
Takayama
Analyst, Goldman Sachs Securities

Thank you very much.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

My second question is about managing company-wide profitability.

speaker
Takayama
Analyst, Goldman Sachs Securities

At 100 yen, it's 25 to 30.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

Well, 30 to 35 based off current FX levels. So you're at around 32% right now. So you were saying that, were you trying to say and imply that the improvement is going to be moderate this year? But because you were also talking about advanced investments and R&D spend. So if profitability is going to steadily improve, there may be a chance that you will be able to exceed 35%, right?

speaker
Takayama
Analyst, Goldman Sachs Securities

Or...

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

there are some companies who decide to invest more because profits are increasing. So are you going to allow profitability to improve, or are you going to allocate the excess profits to fund your future growth and make investments? Just because profits are higher, we are not thinking about simply allocating that for investment purposes. And when you think about increasing R&D on a quarter-by-quarter basis, the nature of it is not one where you could increase it significantly all of a sudden. As we said, operating margins in the first quarter My personal view is that we are facing challenges because when we show these numbers, we will get questions like the one you asked, Takayama-san. So we would like to increase R&D spend steadily in the future. So for this fiscal year, for top line...

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

Our forecast looks good at this moment.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

So if operating margins become higher as a result, of course, that may be possible. However, we don't want to be reactive to a top line and would like to ensure that we make R&D spends to areas that we need to invest into.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

Of course, for digital power, investments are necessary and we would like to go ahead with our investments, but I would say recently, when it comes to AI, in the edge or embedded world of things, regarding adoption, it has been spreading nowadays.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

And when it comes to automotive and robotics, mainly for inference, AI, the role of AI is becoming greater and it's likely to become even greater in the future. So we are reviewing where we stand and we are thinking that towards AI,

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

We need to be more proactive in our efforts, meaning understanding AI applications better and showing our capabilities, developing capabilities internally if needed.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

So regarding power and AI, those are some big R&D targets. Another area would be AI inference, especially for automotive and robotics. We do believe we will need to make some big AI-related investments there. So is this going to be through an M&A, or is this going to be organic? Of course, we are thinking about options constantly with an open stance, and we will accordingly give you updates. But compared to before, we do believe we need to do more in a proactive manner. That's all from me.

speaker
Takayama
Analyst, Goldman Sachs Securities

So if that's the case, just to confirm,

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

you're not going to control profitability intentionally, but you will also be making necessary spending in areas like AI for R&D. But as a result, if top line goes up because of marginal profitability, you should see naturally

speaker
Takayama
Analyst, Goldman Sachs Securities

profitability increase. Is that all right?

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

Do you feel comfortable with that? Because that was my view in hearing your comment.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

Yes. For OP margins, naturally, it should go up and down. Right now, in this case, it should be increasing.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

Just because of increasing profitability, it's not like we're going to open or shut R&D spend. Thank you very much.

speaker
Unknown
Moderator/Host

Thank you very much.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

Let's go to the next question. BOA Securities, Hirakawa-san, please. Please unmute yourself and speak. Thank you. This is Hirakawa from BOA Securities. My first question is at the beginning you have explained about the timing business transition.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

So I think basically you're going to allocate it to the growth investment or the shareholder returns.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

What we have been understood in terms of the cash usage, so paying the debt, So in growth and investment, and then I think basically you've given us in terms of your priority of usage of cash. What is your idea right now? My second question. So in terms of the automotive business, so I think basically you said that it goes up and down, and I understand it's very difficult to have a visibility, but what's your take on the first quarter, for the full year of FY2026, what are the positive and negative factors for the automotive business? So in terms of the AI-related... In terms of cash uses, AI-related investment, well, we're not being coy. Nothing is decided, so we have been very frank about that. So depending on how we're going to look at this matter, I think the use of cash allocation will be different. So that's the reason why, in terms of use of proceeds, I gave you all these factors. If there are no major acquisitions and no major M&A, if you assume that way, I think you're right. So paying the debt, shareholder return, I think that will end. I think that will be our focus. So internally, I discussed this with Shinkai-san. Maybe at this point, we will show this and say that we paid the debt and then make it, use it to shareholder return. So if it's a growth investment, if that happens, we'll be acting that way. But we didn't want to mislead you, so we decided that this would be the right expression. So if there's no specific investment target, then we will use it for repaying debt and shareholder return. So if there is a specific candidate, then we will invest for growth. I think that is the idea behind this. For the automotive business, So if you talk about the quarter-on-quarter and compare the quarter-on-quarter, there are individual reasons that have an impact on the business. So I do not want to mislead you. If you look at the first quarter, Nikki has written about this in China. So we have a major client there, and they are slowing down right now. So for overall automotive business, it is not a positive. So China as a whole slowing down, I think that is what we're looking. So Japan, I think flat. So for better or for worse, it's stable.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

Europe, mainly Europe.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

Maybe the same situation as us, but I think that maybe they're trying to build up the inventory more. The end demand is not that strong, but maybe they're feeling that they reduced the inventory too far. So Europe, maybe we think the revenue is going to go up. So all in all, a slight growth. So as a momentum for the trend, we do not feel that this is the beginning of the, you know, higher growth. I think for individual reasons, things, the business will go up and down. So things are very fluid right now, and there is a possibility that I may change what I am going to say. But as we have been considering this situation for a long period of time, for geopolitics-related supply situations, and we have to consider the supply chain and the way to hold inventory, Will the dramatic change? happening, and then things will not, we will be driven to a corner. I do not think that it's going to happen. In the short term, there will be some SPACs or, you know, some SPACs, etc., but depending on that, the inventory or the supply chain will be disrupted. Maybe that's the nature of the thing that is happening right now. So that is the way I'm thinking right now.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

From that perspective,

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

So trying to dramatically change the direction of the supply chain, no, we're not thinking about that. We will, of course, look at the supply chain, but actually, looking at the inventory, by looking at the way to hold inventory, how to absorb this for short-time stocks, I think that is the most effective way to operate the business. I think I have the feeling the customers are going to that direction. So with the change of geopolitics and the impact that has on the business, it will lead to a drastic change of the supply chain. I think having the inventory in strategic matter will be the way the people will be responding to the situation. Thank you.

speaker
Unknown
Moderator/Host

Thank you for your question.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

The next person is Okawa-san from Daiwa Securities. Please unmute and go ahead. This is Okawa from Daiwa Securities. I have two questions. First, regarding gross margins for Q4,

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

You talked about you were expecting deterioration, but it didn't.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

So can you give us more flavor on that? Q4Y, Q1Q, automotive and IoT improved by one point plus. Therefore, can you sort things out for us?

speaker
Unknown
IR Support

So Mr. Shinkai will explain. For automotive, There were price negotiations for certain yields, and we were anticipating price decline Q1Q, but that didn't happen as a result of the negotiations. Also, regarding mix, low gross margin sales were expected to rise, but it didn't grow as much.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

So these products are new products related to digital power, as well as automotive, old products for mix signal. That's all from me. Thank you. For automotive, and that prices didn't go down as much, is that because of positive impact from demand and supply, or is that because positive impact from share, or was it by chance? So are there any reasons why things are working out well? It's more of a specific factor, actually. So it's not notable. But from Q1, actually, it's going to deteriorate. So it's just a timing thing. A second question is about automotive and IIoT regarding share or product. When you look at other company results, Europe, automotive, they have a cautious outlook and a cautious outlook on automotive overall. But when you look at your forecast as well as hear your comments, it's not that bad. It seems that your share is also rising in Europe, apparently. So for automotive and share, are you getting good response in business? Are there any unique reasons why you're feeling that way? And for IIoT, physical AI has now come into the picture. It may be too early to say, but have you been able to capture any opportunities? So can I have a comment on both automotive and IOT? Unfortunately, we won't be able to meet your expectations, Okawa-san, in automotive. Video-syncratically, there's nothing that we're seeing that is amazing that's underway. It was last year or the year before last, our MCU share went down, and when we were talking about what we're going to do about it, we were saying that it may take time, but we do have various countermeasures underway, so we're not that concerned about the longer future. And that was true, actually.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

It's not that bad.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

It's not as if we're going to see big impacts this year or next year. Over the short term, we're at 28 MCUs. We do believe steady growth this year.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

and for Gen 4 Alcon, will start to pick up as well, which are likely to become growth drivers. But as you rightly know, probably, since last year, traditional auto OEMs, technology updates, in a sense, have started to slow down.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

It's probably because it's under review.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

And 47 MCU and Gen 4 Alcon is likely to sell. But it was more moderate than expected. For 26, I think we'll go back and forth.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

But hopefully we'll move forward and move backwards less. For IIoT,

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

I would say the DRAM impact is the uncertainty, so impact from memory.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

Of course, we have accounted for this uncertainty when looking at the second half of the year. If we're able to well manage this, for IIoT, I think business will be strong.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

Because AI is strong. And military and aero is strong and industrial. And for mobile IoT, I don't know if I should put it as a share game, but the number of sockets we were able to win have increased in number.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

So due to inherent reasons, we are expecting growth. However, because of lack of DRAM, it might be converging to higher-end models, and I think that trend is likely to happen. So we are cautious in our stance. But trend-wise, momentum-wise, I think it's relatively strong. That's all from me. Thank you.

speaker
Unknown
Moderator/Host

Thank you very much. Next, City Group Securities, Yujiwara-san, please.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

Please unmute yourself and speak. Thank you. Yujiwara from City Securities. I have two questions. First, This time, so 150 days, you're going to raise your internal inventory target to 150 days. So when you ask a question, so you think you have to increase your inventory for AEI related applications. 150, so by applications for a segment, by automotive and IOT, is it different inventory levels? And the pace of this increase of the inventory, and by doing so, how much can we expect this will push up the profit? So this is the first question. Shinko-san, please. Between automotive and IIoT, we do not think that it's an appropriate way to look at the inventory. The reason is that we have three buckets that we're looking at. One is the high demand growing area, that would be data center AI, so that is IIoT. The second bucket is that we want to respond to the request of the customers who want to have a redundant supply chain. That would be more on the automotive side. The third bucket is, generally speaking, the risk of the supply of the material. For instance, if it's rare earth, it would be difficult maybe to acquire or So there are some situations that some parts was difficult to acquire. So this was taken up by other demands, meaning that demand supply was tight. So we want to be proactive in securing that procurement. So we have these three buckets that we're thinking about when we talk about inventory. In terms of the pushing up the profit, we are not actually looking into that too much because in terms of raw material, we have to have the raw material. And then for AI data center, a lot we procure from our data center, so that will be contributing to the profit. So the buffer stock, based on some products, some we produce internally, some not. So it's not the case that the 30 days of increase of the inventory will fully cater profits, maybe some contribution, but not all. Thank you. My second question is that you said to the previous person is that due to the high price of memory, So I would like to ask you about that. So I think a PC, smartphone, automotive, I think that is where the DRAM price will hit you. You look at PC smartphones, the impact on the volume in itself, Specifically, maybe smartphone is in the case, but if you look at the cost, maybe there is a negative impact when you have a price negotiation as well compared to the competitors in terms of automotive. So infotainment area, maybe that will impact the infotainment area. So when you're negotiating with the customers currently, do you think that this will impact the volume? In the previous cycle of the lack of semiconductor, so there was a move to have lower specs for the automotive applications. Are you discussing about this at this point?

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

Yes.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

So for automotive, we do not have a clear visibility about the situation right now. In terms of volume, it's not that big a business. So maybe the volume is not that large in terms of usage. So maybe you can just pay up. We'll be able to get our hands on the DRAM. So volume-wise, that's the situation. But what I said is I don't know what's going to happen is that So, there are applications that are using old models. So, for instance, they're using DRAM4, DRR4. So, the memory suppliers are saying that we can supply DRR4, but we can supply DRR5. I think that's going to happen. So, that is where we do not have a visibility. So, all in all, I think things like one step forwards and one step backwards. I do not think that the bottom in the sub is going to plunge, but we cannot be too optimistic about the situation. So, for the non-automotive areas, of course, dd1 prices going up this level some customers will ask us to do something about that but as of now we're not experiencing that i think our customers are very very careful in this area already as shinkai has implied This frenzy that the AI is generating, some raw material is already lacking in supply. So there are already some areas there is a lack of supply. So if that is the case, if they put too much pressure on the suppliers, then there is a risk that they will not be able to get their products from the suppliers. I think customers are trying to strike a balance in this area. because it is true that there is a shortage of products. So we do want to be ahead of placing orders and try to build up an inventory so that we don't have a lack of the supply. So this kind of imbalance of the situation is already there. So we are telling ourselves that we should be very careful about the supply chain.

speaker
Unknown
Moderator/Host

Thank you.

speaker
Shibata Hidetoshi
Representative Executive President and CEO

Understood. That's all.

speaker
Unknown
Moderator/Host

Thank you. Thank you.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

We are drawing close to the ending time, so we would like to conclude the Q&A session here. Finally, Mr. Shibata will expand closing comments. Market cycle-wise, we are finally at a point where we're seeing light. Also, centered around AI, in consideration of geopolitical risk, the way we hold inventory as well as how we can settling supply will be one of our focus areas for the time being.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

It will be a tailwind if we do it well, and if we fail, it will be a headwind. And regarding the transfer of the timing business,

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

In the area of AI, the necessity of making investments are growing higher day by day, so we're going to change our narrative compared to before, and accordingly, We would like to think about making significant investments where necessary.

speaker
Unknown
IR Facilitator

Apart from that, we will be focusing on balance sheet management and shareholder return. And like I always say, factors that may allow our performance to go upwards or downwards are all over the place.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

Therefore, we would like to ensure that we are able to disclose information to you so that we could heighten our predictability without delay. That's all from me.

speaker
Unknown
Moderator/Host

Thank you very much. Thank you very much. This concludes Windows SaaS Electronics Fiscal 25 Q4 and the full year results briefing.

speaker
Shinkai Shuhei
Executive Officer, CFO

Thank you very much for joining today.

Disclaimer

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