NEC Corporation (6701) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon. Thank you very much for your participation today. I will now explain the financial results for FY 2023 March, along with the forecast for FY 2024 March. This will be the agenda for today. First, the financial results for FY '23 March. Page 5 shows the summary of the financial results. Revenue was JPY 3.3 trillion, an increase in all segments. Year-on-year, this was a growth of 10%. Adjusted operating profit was JPY 205.5 billion. Details will be explained later. But aside from network services, all segments increased. Adjusted net profit was JPY 138.6 billion. Impact from tax expenses was approximately JPY 30 billion versus last year. And if we exclude this, it effectively increased. Page 6 shows the main indices, along with performance by segment. Revenue, adjusted operating profit and adjusted net profit were all higher than the January 30 forecast. Details of each segment will be described later. Now to Page 7. This shows the fluctuation of adjusted operating profit, while will use FY '22 March as a baseline to explain. In FY '22 March, onetime profit of JPY 10 billion from asset sales was acknowledged. In FY '23 March, a onetime profit of JPY 11 billion was attained. Next, in Q4, JPY 5.5 billion was acknowledged for structural reform, such as global 5G cost structure optimization. As for macroeconomic environmental change impacts, fork fluctuation was a positive JPY 16.5 billion. Component shortages were resolved from the second half of the year and onwards in year-on-year, a positive JPY 4 billion. Intellectual property income was obtained in Q4 of last fiscal year as well as Q3 of this year and on an annual basis, contributed to a positive JPY 7.5 billion. Operations improved by JPY 11 billion. Domestic IT segment advanced fairly. Enterprise saw JPY 14.9 billion and Public Solutions business saw a JPY 7.5 billion improvement. On the contrary, network service business was minus JPY 13 billion. Based on these results, operating profit for FY '23 March was JPY 205.5 billion. From Page 8, I will explain each segment starting with Public Solutions business. For revenue, the market situation surrounding SMEs have bottomed out, and we continue to see a growth trend. Public and health care are increasing steadfastly as well and all in all, a growth of 3.2%. Adjusted operating profit due to an increase in revenue as well as cost optimization saw plus JPY 6.7 billion. Page 9 is public infrastructure business. Revenue grew by 6.8% due to increases in business for satellites and defense. As for adjusted operating profit, on top of an increase in revenue, nonperforming projects were contained and overall, an increase of JPY 8.1 billion. Page 10 shows our Enterprise business. Revenue increased 6.9% due to strong trends in all domains, including financial, manufacturing and retail services business. Adjusted operating profit due to revenue increase enriched offering venues as well as enhanced profitability through strengthening of SI project risk management improved JPY 15.9 billion. Operating profit ratio has advanced to 11.9%. Page 11 is network service business. Revenue increased despite investment restraints among domestic and overseas telecom carriers. Intellectual property income attained in Q3 also made a positive contribution. On the next page, I will describe the adjusted operating profit. Here on Page 12, I will use the results from FY '22 March as a baseline to explain the changes in profits and losses. Changed factors up to Q3 have been explained during previous financial announcements. For Q4, due to revenue expansion, business operational improvements were JPY 12.8 billion. Further, to improve profitability, JPY 3.3 billion for structural reform and JPY 1.4 billion to streamline assets were acknowledged. There was also a negative JPY 5 billion impact for IP income. And all in all, that gave us a profit of JPY 24.7 billion for Q4 and for the full year, JPY 24.1 billion. Next, Page 13 is Global business. For revenue, net crackers OSS/BSS as well as acquired company software-related business for digital government and digital finance, along with a favorable trend for major domains such as submarine systems uplifted revenue by 20.8%. Adjusted operating profit increased JPY 16.6 billion due to progress of business portfolio transformation and improved profitability in major business domains. Page 14 illustrates free cash flows. Operating cash flows increased JPY 34.5 billion due to an increase in adjusted operating profit. Inventory was increased by JPY 60 billion because of component shortages in FY '22 March and as planned in FY '23 March, this was resolved, but to prepare for longer procurement periods and mitigate component risks, another JPY 34.5 billion has been added. Year-on-year, this is an increase of JPY 85 billion. Because of a large increase in revenue, working capital balance has increased and accounted for a minus of approximately JPY 115 billion. Operating cash flow total year-on-year is an increase of JPY 4.6 billion. As for investment cash flows, expenditure decreased by JPY 13.8 billion. This is due to a decline in spendings for M&A activities. All of this taken into account year-on-year free cash flows increased JPY 18.4 billion, totaling JPY 102.5 billion. Page 15 is the status of our CCC. FY '23 March saw an increase in large projects where upfront expenditure was made. And on a normal business operation basis, a deterioration of 6 days year-on-year is the result. However, these projects lead to future intake. And when excluding such projects, CCC is on par with the previous fiscal year. Long-term launch projects will increase in the future as well, so we will continue to promote improvement activities such as securing advanced payment fees. Page 16 shows the status of our investment securities. Back in April of 2020, we decided that the policy be zero holdings and as explained to you previously, we have steadily decreased the volume. Among the investment securities for listed stocks as of end of 2021 March 108 shares and by 2023 March end, this became 33 company shares, a decline of 70%. For FY '23 March, the same level as FY '22 March, JPY 19.6 billion was sold and the total amount sold since 2021 March is JPY 135.4 billion. Non-listed stock, excluding Aligned shares have dropped to 137 from 207. Page 17, orders. I will focus on the order trends of FY '23 March. By segment, Public Solutions orders were up 10% due to an increase in urban infrastructure projects and the bottoming out of SME's sluggish demand. Public infrastructure increased 8%, mainly due to strong demand in the national defense sector. Enterprise increased 12% on the back of robust IT demand. Network services rose 10%, mainly driven by 5G. Even excluding IP revenues recorded in Q3, the increase was 8%. Global business, excluding the offshore business impact, was up a substantial 15% driven by net crackers large projects. Thus, all segments posted year-on-year gains. Even excluding the volatile Submarine Systems business, the total orders increased 12%. The IT services also registered an increase of 9% for the full year. Next, our forecast for FY '24 March and the progress of the Mid-term Management Plan 2025. Page 19, forecast for FY '24 March. We are projecting sales of JPY 3.38 trillion and adjusted operating profit of JPY 220 billion, with increases in all major segments. The annual dividend for FY '24 March is planned at JPY 120 per share, an increase of JPY 10 from FY '23 March. Page 20, factors contributing to the changes in adjusted operating profit. The basis of my explanation is the FY '23 March adjusted OP of JPY 205.5 billion. Onetime profit recorded in FY '23 March will have a negative impact of JPY 11 billion in FY '24 March. Although there is a decrease of JPY 5.5 billion in structural refund expenses, IP income is expected to decrease by JPY 14.5 billion. Other than these items, we have factored in JPY 34.5 billion increase in profit from operations. We expect to post adjusted OP of JPY 220 billion in FY '24 March. Page 21, the progress of Mid-term Management Plan 2025. Page 22, progress by segment. Network Services is behind our expectations due to restrained investment by domestic telecommunications carriers and delays in the ramp-up of overseas 5G market. Despite these drawbacks, enterprise public solutions, public infrastructure and global segments are, all in all, making steady progress towards the achievement of the Mid-term Management Plan 2025. Page 23, status of Growth businesses. Profitability of digital government and digital finance will be improved by ripping the fruits of investments made in FY 2023 March. We will expand cross-selling in APAC and EMEA, including Japan and augment synergies by promoting offshore operations. Global 5G will shift more from hardware to software and services. We will enhance profitability by expanding our market share in Japan and optimizing our sales and development structure in overseas markets. We will work on shifting to a high profitability business model by further expanding the ratio of common platform sales. In addition, we will reinforce our strategic customer business by strengthening cooperation with ABeam, which is trending favorably. Page 24, status of underperforming businesses. We are focusing on improving low-profit businesses. And in FY '23 March, we achieved a 2.4% improvement in adjusted OP margin over the previous year. This improvement contributes to about half of business enhancement. In FY '22 March, CFO-led monitoring began and 4 out of 16 businesses were removed from the monitoring list due to improved profitability. We will continue to make appropriate decisions to maximize the value of noncore businesses by divesting them or establishing joint ventures. Page 25, culture. First, the engagement score, one of the KPIs of Mid-term Management Plan 2025. It rose from 25% in FY '21 March to 36% in FY '23 March. We are promoting job-based management as part of the people and culture reforms undertaken within our engagement program. Job-based management will be initially introduced to general managers and above in FY '24 March and will be expanded to all employees in FY '25 March. Without the right allocation of people based on business strategies without the top caliber talent and without the best team, we cannot compete globally. The aim of job-based management is to assign the right person to the right places at the right time. Employees want to work for a company where they can see their own growth and feel motivated to realize their goal. We want NEC to be such a workplace, and this is extremely important to improve engagement. RISE Fast, an initiative to accelerate transformation through issue resolution practices is being promoted as an activity to simplify on-site processes and strengthen the autonomy of employees. The program is well established and 1,300 employees participated in FY '23 March. Through improving efficiency, we realized an impact of JPY 1.7 billion, and we want to continue this effort. In Smart Work 2.0, teams maximize their productivity by selecting optimal work time in developing internal business infrastructure, we will build a globally top-level management infrastructure so that all information can be digitalized, thus enabling data-driven management. This will enable our business operations to be flexible and adaptable to environmental changes and maximize our business outlook. Finally, topics. Page 28, segment revision. In accordance with the reorganization implemented in April 2023, we will revise our segment disclosure from Q1 FY '24 March. The new segments are IT Services and Social Infrastructure. And the organization included in each segment is shown here. The new segments are based on business domains rather than market customer segments as in the past. This provision does not only allow the tracking of the Mid-term Management Plan 2025, but also enables the capital market players to understand our business, which was said to be difficult to grasp. Page 29, non-GAAP indicators. From Q1 FY '24 March, we will disclose non-GAAP profit loss in addition to the conversion adjusted operating profit loss. Adjustment items from GAAP OP are shown here. Through this change, we aim at disclosing underlying profitability, excluding onetime profits and losses and enhancing the ease of comparability with global competitors. Non-GAAP indicators will be disclosed only for the total earnings and segment-based earnings will be disclosed only on an adjusted OP basis as it stands now. This concludes my presentation. Thank you very much for your attention.