Resonac Holdings Corporation (4004) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good evening, everyone. I'm Hideki Somemiya, CFO of Resonac Holdings Corporation. Thank you for your consistent understanding and the support for our company. Today, I will explain the consolidated financial results for the first quarter 2025. Please see Slide 2 for key takeaways. There are 2 key points. First, core operating profit increased year-on-year under IFRS that we started to adopt in the full year financial results for FY 2024. This is mainly due to the year-on-year strong performance of the Semiconductor and Electronic Materials segment. Overall revenue remained flat due to the sluggish Chemicals segment, but core operating profit achieved robust growth. Second, Q1 results showed steady progress against the forecast for FY '25, which was announced on February 13. Besides this, partly due to the uncertain external environment by tariffs of Trump administration, among others, the forecast has not been revised as of today. Without further ado, let me explain the summary of consolidated results for the first quarter 2025. Please see Slide 3. This slide shows the consolidated results for the first quarter 2025 with a year-on-year comparison. We started to adopt IFRS in our disclosure in annual securities report for 2024 ended in December, which was disclosed in March 2025 and numbers of the previous year are restated to adopt IFRS retroactively. As a concept to show the earnings of core business, we disclosed core operating profit, which is close to OP in JGAAP. Core operating profit is calculated excluding gains and costs attributable to nonrecurring factors and segment profit is based on this core operating profit. Revenue in the first quarter was JPY 321.1 billion. Revenue was up and down by segment, but as a total, it was almost flat year-on-year. Core operating profit was JPY 14.8 billion, up JPY 5.3 billion year-on-year. Nonrecurring items were almost neutral when cost net out from gains and the profit decreased substantially from the previous year when gains on sales of land and buildings of headquarter were posted. Operating profit was almost same as core operating profit at JPY 14 billion. And due to the absence of gain on sales of headquarter, profit decreased by JPY 14.6 billion. Profit attributable to owners of the parent was JPY 8.8 billion, down by JPY 19.8 billion due to currency loss in addition to the absence of gains on sales of headquarter. EBITDA was JPY 38.5 billion, up JPY 4.8 billion year-on-year, and the EBITDA margin was 12.0%, up 1.5 points. Excluding Crasus Chemical, whose partial spin-off is considered, EBITDA margin is 15.0%. Please see next slide, Page 4. This is a breakdown of core operating profit changes from JPY 9.6 billion in Q1 2024 to JPY 14.8 billion in Q1 2025. Within the year-on-year difference of JPY 5.3 billion, sales volume impact was plus JPY 4.2 billion and the improvement in Semiconductor and Electronic Materials segment accounts for most of it. Sales price impact was plus JPY 2.1 billion, and it includes the impact of depreciation of the yen year-on-year. Chemicals is the only segment to see the profit decrease by sales price, and it is due to the market deterioration of graphite electrode in graphite business. The variable and fixed cost impact was minus JPY 6.6 billion as it lowered the profit in all segments by fixed cost, including labor cost. Finally, the others impact was plus JPY 5.7 billion, and the majority was in Semiconductor and Electronics Materials segment. We had a negative impact by feedstock adjustment due to costly inventory in the hard disk business in the previous year, but it didn't recur this year and profit from overseas sales companies in Q1 of this year increased. In the following Pages 5 and 6, breakdowns of core operating profit by segment are shown. So please refer to them later. Please see Page 7. This slide shows the changes in disclosure segmentation, which started in 2025. As there is no change from the explanation in the previous results meeting, I wouldn't explain in detail, but the 2 previous subsegments in Mobility segment are consolidated into one as Mobility segment. In Chemicals segment, Olefins and Derivatives subsegment whose partial spin-off plan is progressing now, will be an independent segment as Crasus Chemicals segment. Page 8 shows results by segment. This slide shows revenue, core operating profit and EBITDA margin by segment with year-on-year comparison. The prominent year-on-year change is in Semiconductor and Electronic Materials, and it serves as a key driver with revenue and profit increase, while Chemicals segment revenue and profit decreased due to sluggish graphite electrode market. From Slide 9 to 13, we show segment summaries. On Page 9, in Semiconductor and Electronic Materials, revenue increased 14% to JPY 111.2 billion. Core operating profit increased JPY 11.2 billion year-on-year to JPY 19.6 billion. Key drivers for revenue and profit growth were back-end semiconductor materials, whose sales volume increased for advanced semiconductors such as those for AI and Device Solutions where HD Media revenue increased due to the recovery of the demand for data centers. Segment EBITDA margin improved significantly from 18.9% in the previous year to 27.1%. Moving to Mobility on Page 10. Revenue decreased 8% year-on-year to JPY 46.9 billion, and the core operating profit decreased JPY 0.4 billion year-on-year to JPY 1.1 billion. Major reason for decreased revenue was divestiture of secondary battery packaging materials and food packaging materials in the Q1 2025 and the weak automotive market in Thailand led to revenue and profit decreases. Page 11 shows Innovation Enabling Materials. Revenue was JPY 22 billion, almost flat year-on-year, and core operating profit also remained flat at JPY 2.1 billion. Page 12 shows Chemicals segment. Revenue decreased 16% year-on-year to JPY 37.7 billion, and core operating profit decreased JPY 5.5 billion to the loss of JPY 6.3 billion. Revenue and profit decreased mainly due to the graphite business as the sales volume and the price decreased due to the weak market condition of graphite electrode. The absence of reversal gain of inventory write-downs in the previous year also impacted as well as sales decrease. Final page of segment summary. Page 13 shows Crasus Chemical. Revenue was up 4% year-on-year to JPY 78.7 billion, and core operating profit increased JPY 0.4 billion to JPY 0.8 billion. Sales volume impacted positively year-on-year due to the higher naphtha prices and less scheduled maintenance of derivatives. This is the end of segment summary. Page 14 shows major items below core operating profit. On the left, details of nonrecurring items. And on the right, financial income and cost and equity in earnings are shown with year-on-year changes. On the left part, nonrecurring items deteriorated JPY 19.9 billion year-on-year, and this is due to the gains on sales of headquarter land and buildings in the previous year. In this first quarter, gain on business reorganization and others, mainly gain on business transfer of secondary battery packaging materials and food packaging materials was JPY 5.2 billion. Total business restructuring expenses and extra retirement payment was JPY 4.8 billion on the expense side. And they were posted along with the structural reform of graphite electrode business. To be specific, as the first action to optimize the graphite electrode capacity, we decided to liquidate business [spaces] in Malaysia and China and its relevant one-off cost was posted. Financial income and cost deteriorated JPY 6.3 billion year-on-year, as shown in the right part. The major reason is foreign exchange loss with further appreciation of the yen towards the end of the quarter, though in the first quarter in the previous year, foreign exchange gain was posted. Finally, equity in earnings improved by JPY 2.1 billion year-on-year. Page 15 shows our consolidated balance sheet. On the asset side on the left, total assets at the end of the fiscal year was JPY 2,101.1 billion, down JPY 71.5 billion from the end of the previous fiscal year was caused by the decrease in assets held for sale, which is included in other noncurrent assets due to the transfer of the regenerative medicine business as well as decreased trade receivables. Total liabilities were JPY 1,439.9 billion, down JPY 40.7 billion from the end of the previous fiscal year. This decrease is due to the payoff of liability held for sale and as well as the decrease in trade payables. Total equity was JPY 661. 2 billion, down JPY 30.8 billion from the end of the previous fiscal year. The major cause is the appreciation of the yen to JPY 149.5 to $1 at the end of March in this first quarter, as shown in the appendix, which led to the decrease in exchange differences on translation of foreign operations, JPY 26.4 billion under IFRS. Another major move was retained earnings, down JPY 2.7 billion as a decrease through dividend payment more than offset the increase by quarterly profit. Regarding the major indicators shown below, the net D/E ratio increased slightly from 0.74 in the previous year to 0.77 with a decrease in total equity and almost unchanged net debt. One additional comment. This balance sheet is as of the end of March, but as already announced, at the end of April, we repaid JPY 137.5 billion of subordinated loan before due date, and that will increase the ratio to slightly over 1x. We continue to work on the improvement of financial position targeting a net D/E ratio of 1x or less. Finally, the ratio of equity attributable to owners of the parent to total assets, which is equivalent to shareholders' equity ratio remained almost flat at 30.3%. Page 16 and 17 show the supplemental information about the adoption of IFRS and its impact, including those for FY 2024 results. Page 16 shows the results of FY '23 and '24 and with the IFRS applied retroactively and the forecast for FY 2025, we didn't revise the forecast for 2025 as of today, and it remains unchanged from the announcement on February 13. On the right, 2025 forecast and the difference from the results in 2024 are shown. As mentioned at the beginning, for earnings of core business, which was shown as OP in JGAAP, please refer to core operating income under IFRS. Core operating income will be up JPY 5.9 billion year-on-year, but nonrecurring items include the one-off loss, including those with the structural reform in graphite electrode and profit attributable to owners of the parent will decrease by JPY 47.5 billion. Page 17 shows major transition impact breakdown from JGAAP to IFRS. The greatest impact is, as mentioned earlier, the non-amortization of goodwill in IFRS made improvement of JPY 17.2 billion. On the other hand, actuarial gains and losses on retirement benefits impact are negative as it is not amortized under IFRS, though it was amortized on the profit side under JGAAP. The cost of property tax and costs related to scheduled maintenance will affect quarterly number, though they wouldn't affect the full year number. Under IFRS, the cost of property tax is recognized upon assessment and costs related to scheduled maintenance is recognized as it occurs. In our case, expenses will be concentrated in the first half, in particular, Q1. Page 18 onward are appendix, so please refer to them at your convenience. This concludes my presentation. Thank you very much for your attention.