Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (7011) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

My name is Izumisawa. Thank you very much to be here to participate in this briefing. Before starting the explanation of the materials about the corona or COVID-19, we have to be prepared for that since we are not able to see the solid decline in its trend. And we would like to express our sincerest condolences to all the people who have been infected and for the families who are surrounding them. And for the people who are providing the medical services, we'd like to express our sincere appreciation to all of them. And many people have difficulty maintain their social life. And Mitsubishi has been working in the area of energy, social infrastructure and other areas as well. And we have been working toward the final goal of the stabilization of people's lives. And we do believe that this is our mission. And we sincerely hope that we'll be able to work as a entire company to make changes here. Now at this point, we have the aerospace and also the automobile industries, which are heavily impacted. So today, in this meeting, we'd like to speak about these issues. And please refer to Page 3. And as can be seen here, we will have the presentations for our fiscal year 2019 financial results and we would like to speak about how we are looking at the standing. And so Mr. Kozawa, CFO of the company, will make an explanation for this. And then we will speak about how we are looking at fiscal year 2020, the full year forecast and the strategic measures. So I'll be taking over. So without any further ado, we'd like to ask Mr. Koguchi to take the floor.

Kozawa is my name. Thank you. I assume the office of the Vice President and Senior Vice President taking over Mr. Koguchi. So first is about the overview of the financial results. Please refer to Page 5 and also Page 6. There have been the major -- the order intake increased solidly, led by the power domain, which was the JPY 4,168.6 billion, up JPY 315.2 billion. The revenue decreased slightly due to a slowdown in medium-lot products, and then the -- and also the industry and the social domain decreased. So the total figure was the JPY 4,041.3 billion. And then for the SpaceJet project, we had to work on the impairment, so we recorded a major loss for that. So that means that the profit from business activities declined significantly to JPY 29.5 billion. Profit attributable to owners of parent decreased slightly and as the loss of business activities was offset by the boosting of deferred tax assets on accumulated losses in previous years, and the losses for the current -- the fiscal year for SpaceJet, the figure was JPY 87.1 billion. And as to the balance sheet, the balance sheet improved by reducing risk assets for the collection of -- in the indication asset for South African projects and impairment of SpaceJet-related assets. As to the free cash flow, it increased from the forecast announced in the third quarter financial closing from JPY 100 billion to JPY 212.9 billion as a result of reduction in working capital. As a result, interest-bearing debt is at its lowest, which stands now at JPY 598.2 billion. This is a summary excluding the coronavirus or corona crisis. Results were generally in line with our forecast. And the financial position remained from our -- from -- owing to -- remained firm owing to operational excellence. So full year dividend payout of JPY 100 billion -- JPY 150 per share as planned at the beginning of the fiscal year will be maintained. Allow me to make supplemental remarks. Although this is not included here, but this is a comparison with the previous announcement. So we have about JPY 100 billion increase and about -- the increase -- the profit -- the revenue, it is about JPY 100 billion short. And then the profit from business activities, the 0 and also JPY 100 billion was the forecast. And then here, we have the shortfall of about JPY 30 billion. And moving on to Page 7. Here, we look closely into the fiscal year 2019 financial results, and this is separating out the SpaceJet-related items, so remaining here is the business excluding SpaceJet. And in the case of SpaceJet, the profit from business activities was negative JPY 263.3 billion, which is the -- so for -- and also, the impairment is the JPY 22.2 billion. And also, for the SpaceJet-related items, we already -- the provision fits, so this has been carried over. So the profit attributable to owners of parent is much less impacted. And then in 2018, the business was -- revenue was JPY 4,041.3 billion and the profit from business activities were JPY 233.8 billion. And then in the case of these matters, we have to say that these are also declining, so this poses a major issue for us. And then next page, Page 8. This shows the financial results by segment. I'm not going to read out all the numbers. But for the Power Systems, for order intake and revenue, we have seen increase. But in the case of I&I Industry and the Infrastructure, for order intake, revenue and profit, all of them are down from the previous term. And for Aircraft, Defense & Space, the order intake and the revenue was up, but because of the SpaceJet, the losses -- the profit was not -- was declining. But if you exclude the SpaceJet, the profit is also increasing. So I'd like to continue providing you with the explanation using the size -- starting Page 11. And then Page 10 shows the financial position overview. And then going back to Page 9, and then the financial position overview. The total assets was JPY 4,985.6 billion. So we have introduced IFRS 16. So the -- we have to see the expansion of the scope to be covered. So there was the increase of JPY 97.2 billion (sic) [ JPY 97.6 billion. ] But as we mentioned, we were able to recover some of the receivables, and also, we were able to increase the efficiency of the working capital. So we were able to improve the balance sheet. About the interest-bearing debt, there has been an increase -- decrease of JPY 66.8 billion, so now it is JPY 598.2 billion. And then capital, there have been a sharp decline to the JPY 1,900 billion. So this is related to the -- for the minor minority share issues for the South African project. And then about the equity attributable to owners of the parent, there has been a decrease of JPY 212.5 billion, and this is also -- this is related to the profit of the term. And also, there have been the other issues related to the changes of the exchange rate. And then these are figures for the financial figures, please refer to 10. So about this, we'd like to explain the -- give you the further explanation, starting Page 14. Page 11 shows the order intake and order backlog by segment. The order in 2019, especially in the Power domain, GTCC and Nuclear increased. In Industry & Infrastructure, we saw the major decline in turbochargers and machine tools. In Aircraft, Defense & Space, the space systems, defense aircraft and missile systems increased. As for the order backlog, Power domain increased. And as a result, this has increased after 3 years. Page 12 shows the breakdown of the revenue. And turbocharger decline was the major one. There was about a 20% decline year-on-year. Page 13 shows profit from business activities by segment. As we mentioned on Page 7, there is a major decline due to the SpaceJet. Excluding the SpaceJet, the profit has changed from JPY 271.9 billion to JPY 233.8 billion, so there has been a decrease of JPY 38.1 billion. So we believe this is very serious, the decline of the profit, including the space -- excluding the SpaceJet business, and this would be mentioned by our President later, and we also expect a major impact from the new coronavirus epidemic. So this is going to be difficult for some time to come. On Page 45 and onwards, I have some additional information on the orders, revenue as well as profit. From Page 14, this is an analysis of financial position and business performance-based on the fiscal 2019 results. Please turn to Page 15. Here, we are talking about the balance sheet optimization that we conducted in fiscal 2019. First of all, let me explain the numbers. Total assets on the left-hand side, as you can see, is JPY 5.1 trillion. On the right-hand side, the total assets is shown as JPY 4.6 trillion. On Page 9, we mentioned that the total asset was JPY 5,142.7 billion, and that changed to JPY 4,985.6 billion at the end of fiscal '19. In this balance sheet, there has been the asset of the South African project, that is JPY 407.8 billion, that was included at the settlement with Hitachi. And excluding that, this would be JPY 4,577.8 billion or about JPY 4.6 trillion. So we are trying to reduce the negative legacy and risk assets and transform into the productive assets, and we believe that we managed to do so. We also reduced the size of the balance sheet. And those -- shifting to the productive assets, the details are shown in the middle. As for the indemnification asset of the South Korean project, cash is JPY 200 billion. And also, there has been the change of the MHPS into 100% subsidiary. And this cash was already deposited at the end of March. And after we clear all the antitrust issues, we will complete the procedure. As for the SpaceJet related, we have cleared this from the asset. And there is also uncertainty about the possibility of collecting the asset and, therefore, we booked the impairment loss, but we would also try to book the deferred tax asset, so that we can control the future cash out as a tax cost. And we also mentioned the cross-holding shares which were being disposed as well as the low operating factory. On Page 16 shows the reduction of the working capital. And as you can see, we have been making progress in terms of the cash conversion cycle as well as the reduction of the working capital. And a year ago, we mentioned that we have already reached the limit, but we have continued to make some improvements as for the conditions of the making deposits and so forth, and we made further improvement, as you can see. And as for the fiscal 2020, based upon the progress of the projects which have been already received, we expect the working capital to increase, unfortunately. Page 17 shows the fact that we're trying to maintain the financial stability. On the right-hand side, the bar graph, it is -- which is shown in the dotted line, this shows the pro forma balance sheet after the transfer of MHPS shares, as you can see at the bottom on the right-hand side. So interest-bearing debt is about JPY 600 billion. And if you offset this with the cash and cash equivalent, net debt is JPY 320 billion. Debt equity ratio is 0.46, which is up by 0.38 from the year before, but this is not a problem. The equity ratio is 24.4%, which is lower. But as we explained, if you add adjustment in relation to the South African asset, it will go up to 26.7%, which is quite a stable level. So based on that, this page, Page 18 shows the highlights and challenges for fiscal 2019. The blue letters shows the positive factor and the red are negative factor. In the Power domain, which was very strong, we obtained a JPY 4 trillion or higher order, which was good, and we have reduced the size of the balance sheet and improved the quality. And we have made sure that we have our liquidity in hand and we also secured some additional funding to buffer for the risks such as COVID-19. As for the negative factors, we can mention that the profitability has been declining. The major factors, first of all, is the drastic changes in the market environment due to the coronavirus pandemic and also the higher fixed costs of the steam power business and unprofitable projects among the overseas plants and the higher SG&A. And we believe it is crucial for us to take the appropriate measures very quickly. With that, I'd like to end my presentation. Next, our CEO, President, Izumisawa, will present the FY 2020 strategic measures.

Thank you very much. So here, we'd like to speak about the fiscal year 2020 strategic measures. Miss Izumisawa, the President, will be the speaker. Please refer to Page 20. Here, we make a comparison between the time at the establishment or launch of 2018 midterm business plan. And today, at a time when the 2018 MTBP was launched before the fuselages and engines and the logistics, thermal and turbochargers, these activities were considered to be a growth engine, they were growth business. And then after that, there was the decision by the Boeing to cut their production. And also, U.S.-China trade war occurred. About the SpaceJet, we were planning to have a first delivery of the first SpaceJet in the middle of 2020, but there have been a delay, and this has been delayed until fiscal year 2021 or later. And then on top of that, we had a huge impact by the COVID-19. So emergency measures are now needed. And then in the middle, please take a look at what we conduct for the Power. At the time of the launch of the MTBP 2018, we were focusing on the carbon abatement against the backdrop of the climate change. And also, we tried to work on the power -- thermal power JV. And then here, we tried to work on the further abatement of the carbon. And also, energy transition is gaining momentum. Against this backdrop, we were able to have a settlement over the South African project. So that means that we now are able to capitalize the MHPS, the figure stands at 100%. So with that, we try to work on the new system and organization. And in the past, there have been some limitation and the restriction because of the status of the JV. We are now able to have the business structure transition, and through that, we are able to realize group synergies. And then about the defense and the air space, we have been working on this. And then we see them as a new segment. So this way, we are able to have much better decision making. But in the '18, the 2018 MTBP, we had 3 domains. But this time, we are planning to have 3 domains and 4 segments. And also, for the future, the activities -- we have been working on the MHI future stream. And then in order to promote its further direction, we decided to launch the growth strategy office, so we have to work on the growth of the growth domain. So this way, we will have further growth for the entire company. Please refer to Page 21. So we are now looking at a major change of the environment. And then we are trying to look at the strategic countermeasures for our fiscal year 2020. First is related to COVID-19 impact and the emergency measures for that. And we'd like to make further explanation starting next page. The second point is about the earning capacity. In what way are we able to increase earning capacity against the backdrop of major change? And one thing that is shown here is the expansion of the service and the group synergy. And the third point is SpaceJet. So we try to work on the further -- the process part of the planning. And finally, we will work on the increase of the earnings using the strong and growth areas. Then moving on to next page. First is about evaluating the impact of COVID-19. Starting from the left-hand side, please look at this on the counterclockwise. For the commercial aircraft and also the medium-lot products in the automobile. We do have a major impact. So the emergency measures should take place. So we have already done that. So this is about 1/3 of the business. And then about the order products, because of the emergency measures of the entire country, there have been some delays of some construction work. And so for the new construction projects, we are now seeing the impact of the delays. So we have to pay more attention to that to make sure that we will minimize the impact. And then looking at the entire company, we -- for the companies that -- for the kind of project orders which are centering around the domestic market, the impact is small. But for other items, we will have a major impact. So we have to work on emergency measures. Please refer to Page 23. Here, these are the items and areas in which there is a major impact from the COVID-19: commercial aircraft and aerostructures and also medium-lot products rather. For the commercial aircraft, because of the reduction of the production by Boeing, we will be impacted, 10%, 20% to 30% reduction of sales is something we are looking at. And about the commercial aircraft, we have to say that the airlines would have difficulty having their activities. So we have to work on the fixed asset and also the fixed costs, and then we try to make sure we have the business profits. And then about Oye plant in the area, they are now -- we have already closed down. We have suspended and reduced operations in Nagoya plant in Oye. And then about the commercial aircraft aero engines, we have to say that we will not be free from the impact. So we will see the reduced sales and reduced revenue, as can be seen here, the impact to be about 35% to 55%. And then against this backdrop, we have to make sure that we will reduce or postpone outflows and reduce investment. And then about this, with the improvement of the operation, we are quite sure that we will see the improvement. And then the third item, medium-lot products, including the turbochargers and car air-con, air conditioners, they are very much impacted. And so again, it is important to reduce the fixed costs, and also the production adjustments and the utilization of the various schemes. And then when we are able to see the finalization of this period, we are not sure. But we, at this moment, believe that or expect that this will be over in 1 year. So this is the basis of our plan. Please refer to Page 24. Here, we talk about 100% capitalization of Mitsubishi Power. So this chart shows the future direction of this. In the past, it was MP -- MHPS, so there have been some limitation of our activities because of the very nature of joint venture. But now that it is 100% capitalized, we now are able to see this as the comprehensive, the overall energy company. So to be more specific about -- for the gas turbine, we will maintain our top global market share since we are able to see the market. So we would like to continue working on the quality and performance and the prices. So this way, we are able to beat our competitors, so that we are able to remain in the top arena. And then for the steam power, it is very difficult to see the new orders, but we try to shift to the maintenance of the existing services. And then about renewables, the collaboration with renewable energies is important. And also, at the same time, we will have to -- we will look into the hydrogen society, which is going to be enabled in the future. So -- and also, we try to work on the -- becoming the world leader in hydrogen fired gas turbines and fuel cells. So this way, we are providing the new solutions for the hydrogen society. Next, please refer to 25. This shows the countermeasures. And these are the related companies and also SBUs. And as can be seen here, we have -- we are working on the integration of the technologies and products so that we are able to provide energy solutions to the society. Moving on to Page 26. This is about the increase and the stability of the profitability. It is important to focus more on the services. And in the past, they have been the JPY 1.3 trillion. But what we tried to do is to increase this by 20%. For that purpose, it is important to look into the shift of the human resources to the service, and we have to expand the service network. And we have to have the much -- the more lineup utilizing the AI. And especially important is the menu expansion. We will focus on ST, and then group-wide approaches would take place for that. To be more specific, we'd like you to take a look at it. These are the items to be looked at. In the case of power, we will have much better efficiency for the existing plant. And also, we will have much lower carbon and for the compressors. And also logistics, we will have much better services, and we will see higher coverage. And for defense, we will provide much more services for that. And also, for the commercial aircraft, we will work on the MRO businesses in this area. Moving on to Page 27. Here, we have to work on the reduction of corporate expenses. For the corporate businesses, with the M&A, we will expand the businesses. And then the business -- the size has not been expanded. So it is important to work on the elimination of the redundancies. And also, in order to deal with the corona, the COVID-19, people are now working home. And so we were able to identify some of the problems that we are faced with. And then allow me to repeat myself, we have to go back to the review of the processes we already have. So reconciliation of the work processes. And also, on top of that, we work on the workstyle reforms. This way, we will work on the much -- the realization of much efficient organization. And starting April, we will have the flatter organization, have the domains in the systems. And then this way, we are planning to decrease the figure by 20%. And so starting May, because of the very harsh situation, we will reduce the compensation for the executives. Page 28. This is about SpaceJet business. About the SpaceJet, to acquire TC, we had the air flight test, but there was a delay. And then we decided to delay the first delivery to 2021 or later. And so this is on the second box. And then at that point, if the final -- the new development schedule to be assessed after FTV10 very flight is considered to be the milestone. However, because of the COVID-19, we are not quite sure. We do not have the final plan for that. And also, the airline business is very much impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. And against -- then the -- against this backdrop, about the M90 development, we will continue working on the further review of the schedule. And then about the investment figures, I'd like to go back to this, but it is important to set an appropriate budget considering challenging financial headwinds for MHI Group as a whole. Page 29, please. Here, in Page 29, I would like to speak about something new, which is the development of offshore wind. Here, I'm talking about the offshore wind in Japan and Asia. So we are now seeing the increase of the projects in Japan and Asia, following the West. So here, what we try to work on is to make the best -- the use of the expertise and technologies of MVOW, which have been accumulated in Europe, so we tried to deploy that in Japan and Asia. Moving on, I would like to speak about forecasts for 2020. So now let me talk about the forecasts for fiscal 2020. Please turn to Page 31. On this page, fiscal 2020 forecast of the profit from business activities are shown. There is an impact of COVID-19, so it's very difficult to forecast. But based upon the recent trend, we try to make a forecast. Fiscal 2019 special impairment loss, and also, there was a onetime effects. But excluding that, profit from business activities, the left from -- sorry, the third from the left, that is JPY 215 billion. So in fiscal 2020, there have been an impact of COVID-19 in aircraft and the automobile. Those are the major ones and there will be other impacts, and we try to forecast. And currently, about JPY 140 billion negative impact is expected from COVID-19. And as I mentioned, we'll be taking countermeasures. And the effect of the emergency measures is expected to be about JPY 45 billion, to offset this negative impact. Now the budget of the SpaceJet will be made into more appropriate level. So fiscal 2020 profit from the business activities is expected to be 0. Of course, we will take the additional measures and accelerate them so that we can increase the positive side. Page 32 and 33 are the tables which gives you the summary of order intake, revenue and other numbers, summarized in a table. Page 33 shows the businesses excluding SpaceJet, and SpaceJet. So those are for your reference. Page 34, this is the forecast by segment. The revenue and the profit from business activities are shown here, especially the logistics, drive systems are the major factors. Lastly, let me talk about the strategic direction. Please turn to Page 36. After the resolution or the end of the COVID-19, we'd like to continue to be a crucial company for the society. So we will be bringing forward the next medium-term business plan by 6 months. So based on the COVID-19, we would like to do this. And as for the direction of this plan, we would try to grasp the changes of the needs of the market and so forth. We will focus on the decarbonization, electrification as well as intelligent systems. And we will try to accommodate the changes in the market, customer and societal needs. And we try to realize the forward growth strategy, including the organic growth and the developing the new areas. And also, we try to streamline the business operational functions. More specifically, we will reorganize and integrate the domestic factories and also group companies and increase the staff mobility. Also, as for the challenged businesses, we'll try to review the business portfolio and reorganizing them. Pages 37 and 38 shows one of the ideas. And Page 39, let me explain our way of thinking to promote this strategy. So A represent expanding the upstream and downstream. So existing hardware businesses will be expanded into the upstream and downstream. For example, the business investment, expanding services and digitalization and so forth. And as for the new businesses, especially the cross-domain or cross-SBU areas, I already talked about the energy solution company as a change in the MHPS. So that's one of the examples of our efforts. And through this, we would like to focus on the SDGs, mobility, energy and safe and secure society. And based on this, we would like to make a more concentrated investments into those areas. And with that, I would like to end my presentation, thank you for your attention. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]