Resonac Holdings Corporation (4004) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you very much for joining us. I am Hidehito Takahashi, CEO of Resonac Holdings Corporation, right, to explain the progress in achieving our ideals. Semiconductor Materials is our core growth business. We will lead this ever-changing industry by realizing sustainable growth and revolutionalizing the market. In order to achieve this, today, I'd like to explain 3 important initiatives: number one, aggressive investment in growing Semiconductor Materials business; number two, to accelerate creation of core creative innovations to drive market innovation; and the third is to focus on corporate culture reform and human resource development to build environment to support success. Let me explain the details according to this agenda. Starting with the Resonac ideals. Our purpose is to change society through the power of chemistry. To realize it, there are 4 values: passionate and results-driven, agile and flexible, open mind and open connections, and solid vision and solid integrity. For 2 integrated companies to co-create and promote innovations, we believe that the fastest way is to incorporate and adopt the purpose and values and develop new corporate culture. To solve problems, we aim to become co-creative chemical company connected and resonating with various people. Utilizing our strong points fostered as a Japanese chemical company, we will become global top-level functional chemical company by introducing advanced management methods, including portfolio reform. Our ideals for 2030 is a company that can compete on the world stage, company that contributes to the sustainable global society and a company that develops co-creative human resources representing Japanese manufacturing industry. For this vision, we focus on portfolio reform to establish CXO system and the corporate culture reform and human resource development. By concentrating management resources on Semiconductor Materials business, we try to grow in this area. In order to achieve those targets, there are 4 major strategies: establish world-class revenue base, improve business portfolio, promote innovation, and strengthen business foundation. Next is aggressive investment in growing Semiconductor Materials business. In order to reduce conglomerate discount, it is indispensable to continue revising and reshuffling our business portfolio from investors' perspective. We are trying to maximize our corporate value and try to establish the optimum business portfolio. Until now, we have divested 9 businesses amounted to about JPY 200 billion. Three criteria for the portfolio reform is, first of all, fitness to strategy; secondly, the profitability and capital efficiency; number three is whether we are the best owner or not. There is no end to the portfolio management. We continuously revisit this. We'd like to announce the new initiative today. In order to pursue optimum measures to respond to demand from environment and society, shareholders and employees, we started to consider partial spin-off of petrochemical business. The purpose of this is a green transformation of the Petrochemical business and to enhance our competitiveness and to improve our strategic agility toward the reorganization of the semiconductor and electronic materials industry. The partial spin-off is approved through the 2030 -- 2023 revision of the tax system. After the spin-off, we will maintain a little less than 20% of the shares of the new company and remaining 80% plus will go to shareholders as compensation of the partial spin-off. At that time, the new company will be listed. We aim for the partial spin-off in 2 or 3 years. In order to realize this, we have to have the approval of various stakeholders. And also, we need to satisfy the requirements for listing, and we will start to validate the details. Today, we are announcing this so that we can accelerate our dialogue, discussion and consideration with the shareholders. Through this portfolio reform, we allocate the management resource intensively to growing semiconductor and electronic materials so that this segment will account for 45% or more in 2030. Semiconductor market is expected to continue strong growth, especially the autonomous driving, IoT and generative AI where they merge together, and also in the data center, the growth is expected, and semiconductors will play important role. For semiconductors for AI, we will continue to grow by leading innovations in semiconductor materials industry through development and supply of high-performance semiconductor materials. Many companies in semiconductor materials industry have strength in specific products, but their overall size of sales are relatively small. But we have many products with leading market shares in the world and have a unique position to have a large sales volume. Therefore, we can meet customers' needs flexibly by combining functions of the products and offer solutions from multiple perspectives vis-a-vis the semiconductor road map. Currently, the semiconductor industry at the crucial turning point. As a front-end miniaturization reaches the limit, back-end packaging technology evolution is becoming more important. Semiconductors for AI era require processes for high-speed computation and semiconductor memories to enable real-time processing of large amount of data. To respond to these expectations for back-end packaging innovation, including 2.xD and 3D packaging [ is mounting ]. Against this backdrop, we focus on ability to propose back-end materials as a source of competitiveness. We have wide-ranging semiconductor materials not only for the conventional semiconductors, but also for processors for AI with growing demand. In comparison to the conventional semiconductors, materials demand will expand [ 4 ] AI processors as number of parts increase and semiconductors become larger. Among newly released materials for known conducted film and thermal interface materials, or T-I-M or TIM, we plan to invest -- to increase capacity. We expect these will drive Resonac's business. This graph shows the semiconductor demand outlook toward 2028. After experiencing temporary setback, the market is expected to grow and exceed $800 billion by 2028. AI-related demand is drawing attention as its driver. AI-related semiconductor demand is forecast to grow by 36.3% per year as an average. Accordingly, our business will grow. AI-related business will become a major driver for our future growth. Looking at the trends of the semiconductor industry, major companies such as Google and Amazon have started to develop their own AI processors. Since the emergence of generative AI, many companies, including GAFAM, accelerated their efforts to enter this industry and enhance activities. They aim to develop original chips optimized for their AI services. Silicon Valley has long been known as a center of innovation, and the semiconductor-related companies such as NVIDIA have their head offices here. This region also plays an important role as a center of semiconductor design. In light of the recent industry trend, we are preparing to establish a package solution center in the U.S. The objective of this center is to promote co-creation with design, substrate, equipment manufacturers and verify concept in the proximity of advanced package concept leaders including GAFAM. We have been promoting consortium JOINT and JOINT2 of semiconductor materials and equipment manufacturers in Japan, and we had to start new activity of U.S. JOINT in the U.S. as well. We are now finalizing the participating companies of U.S. JOINT, and we'll let you know the detail at later date. And we will develop human resources who can play active role in the world through this center. Going forward, we plan to deepen collaboration with local suppliers and build a facility, which will enable us to verify technologies. In the U.S., CHIPS bill has been spurring the cutting-edge semiconductor packaging technology verification. In this trend, it was decided that we will be the first strategic partner as a material manufacturer and non-U.S. company to join this consortium, which includes leading companies such as Intel, AMD and Micron Technology. This consortium will focus on developing 2.xD and 3D packaging technology. As the only material manufacturer, joining hands with leading manufacturers, we will promote R&D of cutting-edge semiconductor packaging technology. Next, let me explain acceleration of creation of co-creative innovations. First, I will explain our value creation model. In the core of our business, there are 3 strengths of chemistry to synthesize, chemistry to formulate and chemistry to think. Through these approaches, we create innovation to meet the downstream customers' needs in depth by combining materials technologies and function design technologies. Furthermore, we aim to provide new value to the market, utilizing evaluation technologies and simulations. It is our mission to explore future potentials through these co-creative innovations. In our co-creative innovation, we will promote cooperation, deepening and strengthening in various ways based on chemistry to synthesize, chemistry to formulate and chemistry to think. For example, we are promoting chemistry to think through cooperation between chemistry to synthesize in functional materials and chemistry to formulate in semiconductor materials, and using analysis and variation in development of semiconductor materials. Our Center for Computational Science and Informatics, which is also the base of chemistry to think, is the innovative organization to promote company-wide R&D by integrating computational science such as molecular simulations with informatics, which uses AI and materials informatics. Our approach of using computational science and informatics deliver results in reducing the inspection and development period of semiconductor materials. We have world top-level patent assets in materials informatics. And we draw attention from market and customers as we contribute to improve additive search efficiency in CMP, ACF and SiC product as well as inspection man-hours and development period. We are promoting co-creation with other companies and various stakeholders going beyond the innovation activities in our company. For example, Packaging Solution Center has an integrated production line for packaging and evaluation and can reproduce the production process of semiconductor back-end process in collaboration with business partners. Stage 4 co-creation and innovation center function as cross-sectional [ half ] to bring together diverse technology in Resonac Group and promote open innovation activities through dialogues with various stakeholders. Finally, I will explain corporate culture reform and human resource development. Organizational and HR transformation takes time. And I think this transformation will take 10 years. In order for each of us to personalize and practice purpose and values, we need people who share values and have grit for transformation, [ with changes ] into the company where people work autonomously with an appropriate level of tension. The strength of our human capital management lies in the fact that CEO and CHRO work in tandem and are fully committed to transformation. I have a specific image of the company 10 years from now based on my experience at General Electric, where I belonged before. It is a world where there is attention, but everyone can share the sense of accomplishment when they succeed. I wish to create the environment to share vision, mutually compete and promote co-creation. To realize this vision, we will aim to grow as a functional chemical company with co-creative talent at its core, and we identified 4 HR materialities as key HR strategies and set KGI of each materiality targeting 2030. We will build a global human resource management system, visualize human resources and their skills, and aim to realize dynamic HR portfolio management. This approach will enable us to select core human resources early and train them strategically. Aiming for flexible personnel composition suitable for the business speed, we will appoint and develop candidates for core management staff based on the principle of right person for right job and set a pool of diversified talent. Through systemization and globalization, we will optimize HR allocation and development and support global business development. This is an important step for sustainable growth and enhancing competitiveness. To develop co-creative human resources, we need to cultivate co-creative corporate culture. For this, I have been working with CHRO to instill purpose and value through numerous dialogues with employees. Furthermore, we will continue to provide places for autonomous activities for employees. To be specific, we launched AHA! Global Award of Harmony to realize value; moya-moya meetings for empathy and solution and Townhall meetings. Moya-moya meetings and the Townhall meetings were held in multiple locations, and we received positive feedback on shared feelings and interactive communication from participants. Today, about 50% of employees practice purpose and values, and we feel that corporate culture to develop co-creative human resources is steadily taking root. Based on the employees' engagement survey, I will present the future initiatives for transformation of corporate culture and HR development. According to the survey, 54% of employees said that the company has excellent workplace, and the psychological safety and worthwhileness of jobs improved. But some issues were pointed out including employees' feedback were not sufficiently reflected in management policy and a career development support for employees was insufficient. To address them, we aim to enhance 2-way communication between management and employees and develop environment to secure psychological safety. Ultimate goal of these activities is to develop HR who can compete in the world and contribute to the sustainable global society. We continue activities toward this goal. Today, I explained active investment in growing Semiconductor Materials business, accelerate creation of co-creative innovation and consistent corporate culture reform and human resource development. And additionally, we make the most of improvement in market conditions and opportunities, make operations more efficient and continue optimization of business portfolio. By steadily implementing these initiatives, we, Resonac, will aim to achieve the target in the long-term vision, net sales and EBITDA margin in 2025. And as a result of improved corporate value, we will strive to improve PBR. With this, I conclude my presentation. Thank you very much for your attention.

Thank you, Mr. Takahashi. I'd like to call up on Mr. Somemiya, CFO.

Hello, everyone. I am Hideki Somemiya, CFO of Resonac Holdings Corporation. I'd like to thank for your understanding and support for our company. Let me now present the fiscal 2023 consolidated financial results. Page 2 shows key takeaways. This slide briefly summarizes the key points of 2023 financial results as well as 2024 performance forecast. Starting with, one, 2023 financial results. Due to unfavorable market conditions of Semiconductor and Electronic Materials, income declined significantly from 2022. As Hard Disk Media business faced major income decrease because of the business environment deterioration, we implemented large-scale structural reforms in 2023. Despite the big drop in income, looking at the quarterly changes, basically, we are on the recovery track after hitting the bottom in Q1. In comparison to the forecast disclosed on November 9, operating and net loss numbers are shrinking. As for number two, 2024 performance forecast, we expect to turn around and start to make profit for full year. Especially in the second half with a strong recovery of semiconductor market, the Semiconductor and Electronic Materials segment will be back on growth track. Let me now explain 2023 consolidated financial statements. Page 4 shows 2023 full year consolidated results compared to 2022. One point to note is that starting with this slide, change in the accounting policy is applied retroactively to 2022 figures. So numbers have changed from the previous year. As we shifted to a holding company, accounting policy of former Showa Denko Materials have been changed from IFRS to Japanese standard. Please turn to the table on the left. Net sales were JPY 1,288.9 billion, down JPY 103.8 billion year-on-year. Operating loss was JPY 3.8 billion, down JPY 65.5 billion year-on-year. Ordinary loss was JPY 14.8 billion, down JPY 76.5 billion year-on-year. Net loss attributable to owners of the parent was JPY 19 billion, down JPY 51.4 billion year-on-year. EBITDA was JPY 105.7 billion, down JPY 64.8 billion year-on-year. EBITDA margin was 8.2%, down 4 points. Now table on the right. This is a year-on-year comparison based on the ongoing businesses. These figures exclude the results of the businesses divested, such as ISOLITE and diagnostic medicine. Focusing on the year-on-year changes, net sales were down by JPY 87.2 billion. Operating income was down by JPY 65.2 billion. EBITDA was down by JPY 64.2 billion. EBITDA margin worsened by 4.2 points. Page 5 shows the factors of changes from operating income of JPY 61.7 billion in 2022 to operating loss of JPY 3.8 billion in 2023. The breakdown of JPY 65.5 billion decline in profit is as follows: sales volume pushed the profit down by JPY 52.4 billion. About 80% or JPY 41.9 billion was due to the Semiconductor and Electronic Materials segment, including the big year-on-year drop in volume of Hard Disk Media and lower sales of Semiconductor Materials. Sales price pushed down the profit by JPY 12.6 billion. As shown here, the Chemicals segment was impacted by lower oil prices, mostly in olefins and derivatives, down by JPY 31.2 billion. In other segments, this factor pushed up the profit by JPY 18.6 billion. In fact, in most businesses, other than olefins and derivatives, sales price had a positive impact. Partly due to the weaker yen, we are steadily seeing the positive impact of the price revisions. Variable and fixed cost pushed up the profit by JPY 25.9 billion. Lower oil price had a positive impact to push up the Chemicals profit by JPY 32.7 billion. Other segments profit was down by JPY 6.8 billion. Cost impacts are mixed depending on the businesses. And businesses where sales decreased significantly, lower operating rate led to higher cost impact. Others pushed profit down by JPY 26.4 billion, including the Graphite Electrode feedstock cost adjustment and evaluation loss with lower [ of cost or ] market and disposal loss in Hard Disk Media business. Page 6 shows results by segment. Here, we are showing the sales, operating income and EBITDA by segment comparing 2022 and '23. What stands out is the Semiconductor and Electronic Materials at the top. Both sales and profit decreased. The fourth from the top, Chemicals, also saw lower sales and profit. The second from the top, Mobility, profit grew year-on-year and was profitable for full year. Innovation-enabled materials, profit increased despite lower sales, steadily supporting the profit as stable revenue source. Pages 7 through 10 are segment summary. I will just briefly explain the overview, and each slide has the performance overview describing the subsegments in detail on the right-hand side. These are for your reference. Page 7 is Semiconductor and Electronic Materials, which is to highlight the results. Sales decreased 21% year-on-year to JPY 338.1 billion. Operating income dropped JPY 55 billion year-on-year to the loss of JPY 9.4 billion. There are 2 major reasons: first, the sluggish Hard Disk Media business included in Device Solutions. In addition to the lower volume, temporary loss of about JPY 6 billion was recorded in relation to inventories. This accounts for about half of the decrease in income of this segment. Secondly, although Semiconductor Materials are clearly back on the recovery track, but it's not back to the pre-adjustment level. Thus, sales are down year-on-year. Page 8 is the Mobility. Although divestiture of ISOLITE last year decreased sales by about JPY 10 billion, sales were mostly flat or down 1% year-on-year at JPY 179 billion. Operating income improved by JPY 2.7 billion to JPY 1.9 billion. The full year number of positive was recorded, and driver was automotive products. Car production is recovering despite some regional differences and sales increased. Lithium-ion batteries materials, sales were down due to the sluggish consumer demand for some products. Page 9 is the Innovation Enabling Materials. Sales were JPY 130.1 billion, down 8% year-on-year. Operating income was solid at JPY 11.3 billion, up JPY 1.2 billion year-on-year. To reflect the last year's higher materials cost, we raised sales price. [ Withdraw ] and reduction of a part of the products led to lower volume, but overall margin improved. EBITDA margin was -- has improved to 15.3%. Page 10 is Chemicals. Sales were JPY 516.3 billion, down 2% year-on-year. Operating income was JPY 7.7 billion, down JPY 17.2 billion. Situations differed depending on the businesses. As for olefins and derivatives, once every 4-year shutdown maintenance was held last year, so volume increased in fiscal '23. The lower naphtha price led to the lower sales price and sales declined. Better spread resulted in higher profit and others. In Chemicals, sales price increased on higher material and fuel cost of the previous year. However, sales were almost flat with lower volume of a part of the products. Recovery in margin led to higher profit. Lastly, about the Graphite Electrodes. Both volume and price were sluggish. Due to the unfavorable market environment, sales decreased. In addition, due to the negative impact of feedstock cost adjustment that is higher material costs, which became inventory since last year, impacted this term and pushed down the profit. That is all for Page 10. Page 11 shows quarterly sales and operating income of 2023 by segment. As shown at the bottom of the table, hitting the bottom in Q1, sales have been increasing every quarter, and operating income has also been on the recovery track. But it seems that the momentum was stalled in Q4. This stall was mainly due to the profit decrease in Graphite Electrodes and Chemicals segment, and except the Chemicals segment, other segments have been showing the steady recovery trend with partial fluctuation by seasonality. For example, sales and operating income of Semiconductor and Electronic Materials segment have been improving quarter-on-quarter due to the steady recovery in back-end Semiconductor Materials and in Q4, even recognizing onetime expenses of JPY 2 billion plus for purchasing high-purity gases of front-end semiconductor materials. Profit increased over Q3. On the right, the earlier forecast disclosed on November 29, 2023, and the difference between results and the forecast are listed. Except Chemicals, in all segments, profit increased where loss contracted. In Chemicals, performance deterioration of Graphite Electrode was included at the time of forecasting, and the segment profit was almost in line with the forecast. Page 12 shows nonoperating income and expenses and extraordinary profit and loss in comparison with the previous year. Nonoperating income and expenses on the left shows the deterioration of JPY 11 billion year-on-year. Major factor was the contraction of foreign exchange gains, which worsened by JPY 8.7 billion. Extraordinary profit and loss on the right was net loss of JPY 11.4 billion this year, which remained almost flat year-on-year. As for key factors, first, gain on sale businesses shown on the second column improved JPY 24.4 billion year-on-year with a large gain on sale of diagnostics business in this year. As shown in 2 columns below, impairment loss worsened by JPY 16.1 billion year-on-year, mainly due to impairment in Hard Disk Media business and Regenerative Medicine business. Extra retirement payments of JPY 6.6 billion were due to the closure of hard disk business in Taiwan. Page 13 shows consolidated balance sheet. For assets on the left, total assets as of the end of this year were JPY 2.032 trillion, down by JPY 61.8 billion year-on-year. This is due to the decrease in inventories and amortization of intangible fixed assets including goodwill. Total liabilities were JPY 1,453.3 billion, down by JPY 65.7 billion year-on-year due to the repayment of interest-bearing debt. Net assets were JPY 578.7 billion, up JPY 3.9 billion year-on-year. Shareholders' equity decreased due to the net loss and a decrease in retained earnings through dividend payout. But total accumulated other comprehensive income increased due to increase in foreign currency translation adjustment with depreciation of yen. Turning to major indicators below. Net D/E ratio improved from 1.07x of the previous year to 1.00x mainly due to the decrease in interest-bearing debt. Equity ratio also improved to 27.2%, up by 0.9 points year-on-year. And as shown in the footnote as usual, for calculating net D/E ratio, 50% of subordinated loan is regarded as equity capital based on the credit rating given by Japan Credit Rating Agency. This is the final agenda of financial results 2023. Please turn to Page 14, results of structural reforms. In Hard Disk Media business, whose demand declined drastically since Q4 2022, we decisively implemented structural reform, including closure of a manufacturing plant in Taiwan in 2023, cutting back 1/3 of the production capacity. We expect to reduce JPY 9 billion in fixed cost in 2024 in the production structure with better efficiency and improved utilization of each location. In Mobility business, we identified 48 products, which require the urgent steps, in particular, among the unprofitable products, and we negotiated for the -- either price hike or exit with customers. As a result, profit improved by JPY 3.4 billion in 2023, and the segment returned to profitability. Finally, for the company-wide price hike and elimination of loss-making products through cost reduction, we were mostly able to achieve the target of 2023 as planned. In the tough market environment, by accomplishing these measures, we were able to reduce loss from those in the full year forecast announced in Q1, and we move toward the profit improvement in 2024 onward with a more robust earnings structure. Next, I'll explain 2024 performance forecast. Please turn to Page 16, 2024 consolidated forecast. In the full year forecast of FY 2024, with the foreign exchange assumption of JPY 135 to $1, net sales are expected to grow to JPY 1.330 trillion, up by JPY 41.1 billion. Operating income is profit of JPY 28 billion, up JPY 31.8 billion year-on-year. Net income attributable to owners of the parent is also profit of JPY 10 billion, up by JPY 29 billion year-on-year. Key drivers for sales and profit growth in the next fiscal year are recovery of semiconductor market, returning to profitability in Hard Disk Media business and the recovery in the Graphite Electrode business. The improvement will be more skewed to the second half. For profitability, EBITDA margin will be 10.4% for the full year. And with the progress in recovery, it will be 12.9% in the second half. Net D/E ratio as of the end of the next year will be 1.03, almost unchanged. And the dividend will be JPY 65 per share, which remains unchanged from 2023. Turning to Page 17. As of 2024, Aluminum Specialty Components business belongs to Mobility segment. Moving from Innovation Enabling Materials segment, we see organizational change. As for the background of organizational change, as Aluminum Specialty Components will be more focused on the automobile market, we believe it -- better to manage it with Mobility segment, which overlaps in terms of target markets and technology. In these financial results materials, 2023 full year results are based on the segment before change, and forecast for 2024 is based on the segment after segment change. 2023 full year results, which retroactively reflect the segment change, will be disclosed promptly when they become available. Page 18 shows sales, operating income and EBITDA margin forecast for 2024 by segment and by half year. On the right, comparison with 2023 result is listed. In the [ large ], year-on-year growth is expected in Semiconductor and Electronic Materials, shown at the top, and its sales and profit will increase due to sales growth with market recovery and Hard Disk Media business returning to profitability. In Innovation Enabling Materials, the third column from the top, sales will be down by JPY 40.1 billion, and operating income will be down by JPY 3.3 billion. As I explained in the previous slide, this corresponds mainly to the impact by the transfer of Aluminum Specialty Components business. In Mobility segment, sales and profit increased year-on-year due to profitability improvement mainly by price hike. In addition to the inclusion of aforementioned Aluminum Specialty Components business. In Chemicals segment, profit will increase due to the Graphite Electrode recovery and its relevant reversal gain of variation loss on the lower cost or market method. Page 19 onward are appendix, so please refer to them at your convenience. This concludes my presentation. Thank you for your attention. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]