Earnings call transcript: Nidec Q1 2025 reveals cost-cutting and strategic shifts

Nidec Corporation reported its Q1 FY2025 financial results, highlighting a slight decline in net sales and a marginal increase in operating profit. Despite challenges such as a stronger yen, the company is focusing on strategic initiatives to enhance profitability and efficiency. The earnings call emphasized Nidec’s commitment to structural reforms and global expansion, with an eye on future growth opportunities in data centers and power generation.

Key Takeaways

• Nidec’s Q1 FY2025 net sales decreased by 1.6% year-over-year.
• Operating profit increased by 2.3% year-over-year, despite currency headwinds.
• The company plans significant cost reductions, targeting a total of JPY 150 billion savings.
• Strategic focus on expanding AI server cooling solutions and data center initiatives.
• Nidec aims to strengthen its position in the power generation market.

Company Performance

Nidec’s performance in Q1 FY2025 was mixed, with net sales reaching JPY 637.9 billion, a 1.6% decline compared to the same period last year. However, the company managed to increase its operating profit by 2.3% to JPY 61.5 billion. Nidec’s profit before income tax fell significantly by 24.5%, impacted by a stronger yen, which appreciated by 7.2-10.1% against the USD. The quarterly profit attributable to the parent company also dropped by 18.5%, reflecting ongoing challenges in the global market.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: JPY 637.9 billion (-1.6% YoY)
• Operating Profit: JPY 61.5 billion (+2.3% YoY)
• Profit Before Income Tax: JPY 59 billion (-24.5% YoY)
• Quarterly Profit Attributable to Parent: JPY 45.5 billion (-18.5% YoY)

Outlook & Guidance

Nidec’s forward-looking strategy focuses on significant business portfolio conversion in the upcoming quarters. The company aims to improve its cost structure and concentrate on five core business pillars to become a truly global entity by 2027. Key initiatives include expanding thermal and energy solutions for data centers and leveraging partnerships in the power generator business.

Executive Commentary

CEO Mitsuya Kishida emphasized the need for transformative leadership, stating, "We need to graduate from charismatic business management." He also expressed optimism about Nidec’s future, saying, "Nidec will continue to have a huge opportunity and potential to become a great company." Kishida underscored the company’s commitment to divesting underperforming businesses, asserting, "We will have no exceptions or sanctuary about this effort."

Risks and Challenges

• Currency Fluctuations: The yen’s appreciation poses ongoing challenges for profitability.
• Market Competition: Intense competition in the AI and data center sectors could impact growth.
• Cost Management: Achieving the targeted cost reductions may prove challenging.
• Regulatory Environment: Changes in global trade policies could affect operations.
• Technological Advancements: Keeping pace with rapid technological changes is crucial for maintaining competitiveness.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the impact of FIR country-of-origin investigations and tariffs, which Nidec noted had minimal direct effects. The company also clarified its strategy for reducing variable costs and transforming its automotive business, highlighting efforts to streamline operations and enhance efficiency.

Nidec’s Q1 FY2025 results underscore its strategic focus on cost reduction and global expansion, positioning the company for future growth amid a challenging economic landscape.

Full transcript - Nidec Corp (6594) Q1 2026:

Teruaki Urago, IR Department Moderator, Nidec Corporation: Now we’d like to start Nidec Corporation’s preliminary report on performance values for the first quarter of fiscal year 2025. First, we’d like to introduce our service. We have Mr. Mitsuya Kishida, the representative director, president, and CEO of Nidec Corporation. We have Mr. Akinobu Samura, who is the Chief Financial Officer of the company. I am Teruaki Urago of the IR department. I’m today’s moderator here. I would like to have Mr. Samura first give a presentation on the preliminary report, followed by Mr. Kishida’s presentation on the company’s corporate strategy. We’d like to have a question-and-answer session after that. If you have any questions, please wait until then. We’d like to finish this conference at 6:00 P.M. today. Thank you very much. This is Mr. Samura speaking. I’d like to give you an update on our financial results.

First of all, I’d like to offer my apologies for the trouble caused by the additional investigation into the FIR country-of-origin matter. Since we cannot give you the result of our performance the way we normally do, we decided to have this voluntary disclosure as the preliminary report on financial values, which is something that we’d like to explain with the notes and remarks after that in this presentation material. I would truly appreciate your understanding on this. When it comes to our consolidated performance compared with the same time last fiscal year, we have had a relatively large fluctuation in the currency exchange evaluation. Against the US dollar, the yen has been appreciated by 7.2% in the middle of the quarter and 10.1% towards the end of the fiscal term. Our net sales was JPY 637.9 billion, which was down by 1.6%.

Operating profit was JPY 61.5 billion, or 9.6%, with a slight increase by 2.3% from the same time last year. When it comes to the profit before income tax, it was JPY 59 billion, which was down by 24.5%. When it comes to the quarterly profit attributable to the owner or the parent, it was JPY 45.5 billion, which was down by 18.5%. The financial forecast for this fiscal year remains unchanged, as you can see on the far right of this table over here. Next, information by product segment. The small precision motor segment was able to have this increased profit compared with the prior fiscal quarter. This is thanks to the expanding demand for the HDD motor for nearline and other applications. It is also thanks to the expanding demand for water-cooling modules for AI servers.

They were able to convert into the business portfolio that is more profitable than before. The next one is about the automotive, which is top right corner. They were able to secure increased profit compared with the prior quarter as well. They were able to have this traction motor business in China, where they were able to continue to have profit. When it comes to NPE, our joint venture in Europe, they were able to progress with the mass production, but their sales were in a struggle, and the deficit remains to be in existence. When it comes to automotive MX organic business, the OEM manufacturers in Europe were in a struggle, and some improvement actions were taken under the new management.

Because of that, there was a temporary cost increase by JPY 2 billion, but still, they were able to keep this increased profit compared with the prior fiscal quarter. Next segment is about the appliance commercial industrial segment. This is the segment most prone to the currency exchange fluctuation. Compared with the prior quarter, there was a decrease by JPY 2 billion. The business was still going very well for best business as well as power generator business. Still, the usually highly profitable U.S. motor had the drop due to seasonal factors. There are some ongoing projects such as the consolidation of business spaces in Europe, and a structural reform cost of JPY 1 billion was recorded as well. All in all, the situation was rather in decline. The next one is about the final one, is about this automation and the machinery.

They had decreased in sales and operating profit due to the decreased sales. There were some issues with the profitability of the sales of the businesses, the sale of the businesses, as well as the issues regarding the M&A-related cost and profit. These are the temporary issues that are reflective of this final segment’s latest performance. This chart shows the net fluctuation that excludes currency exchange fluctuation as well as structural reform-related cost. You can see when it comes to the currency exchange impact on sales was JPY 35.8 billion, and the impact on the operating profit is JPY 2.6 billion. We had JPY 2 billion on the impact of the structural reform and a JPY 1 billion impact on the appliance commercial industrial. Compared with the last fiscal year, there was an increase of JPY 1.5 billion when it comes to structural reform-related cost.

Last fiscal year, we made NPE a wholly owned subsidiary of Nidec Corporation. Therefore, we had a temporary increase of profit by JPY 10.1 billion. All in all, without these temporary elements, all the product groups were able to have this increased profit. All the information related to product groups were exactly the same as the information that I just given you. Next, free cash flow. The level remained low at the plus JPY 9.8 billion for this past first quarter. In order for us to stably generate the free cash flow at a level higher than the certain level, we need to be able to properly control the operating capital, including inventory. We will continue to strongly take improvement actions by staying very close to the front line of our businesses.

At the same time, we will make sure to spread the use of ROIC as a tool so that we can convert our business portfolio into a more profitable one. That is all from me. Thank you very much. From here on, I would like to explain to you some major topics followed by a progress report on our midterm business plan. This is Mr. Mitsuya Kishida speaking. Over the past three months, I myself have been able to and have had to solve immediate issues. We need to become a better and a better global company. This is a very important and necessary step for us to take. I was determined to address various issues, including structural reform, business reform, integration, and the reform about the global headquarter. All of these things are each part of the issues, actions that we need to take, in my opinion.

I would like to work with all the global management executives. That is my personal commitment, as well as the company’s commitment. That is one thing that I want to share with you today. First of all, please take a look at that chart over here on this slide. This is the original form of our structural reform. This is about how this could drive business. Quarter by quarter, we have been doing various business, nearline server, water cooling business, etc. The ratio of these businesses is growing larger and larger. Nearline business is approximately more than 80%, and quantity-wise, it is over 60% of the entire quantity of this business. These are the major driving forces of this business: small precision motors. Please look at this data center-related information. As I look back over the past year, we have had problems and issues with NVIDIA chipsets.

We have gone through a lot of discussions since then. We have been able to understand our position in this market. That is what we have done over the past year. When it comes to the entire market, we have a platformer, including software, hypersoftware, cloud server-related vendors, and we have various leaders in this industry. There are long-term leaders of this industry as well. We have power generation, power supply business, infrastructure business, emergency switch business, and many other different businesses that exist in this industry. That is what we have understood as a group. That is what we have learned over the past year. Please take a look at the photo here. This is in Chiba Prefecture. MC Digital Reality NRT12 data center located in Inzai, Chiba Prefecture.

The test operation will start in full scale from next month. That is what I made a statement of press release back in June. This is Nidec’s original specification, in road type. Please take a look at the photos on the right. This requires Nidec’s own specifications, unique specifications. We would like to appeal these products to a wide range of potential customers and business partners. We have had a lot of discussions on specifications. From now onward, we are going to expand this business, in my feeling. When it comes to this domestic data center, this is not just about that business only. We will target the United States, China, Japan. We are receiving inquiries regarding quick coupling CDUs, in rack, in road type. Related to inquiries are what we are receiving at this moment.

To extend to the second half of this fiscal year, we will stop this business successfully. In order to do that, we need to redevelop our own basic infrastructure. When it comes to Q1 of this fiscal year, conditioners compressor business is something we would like to talk to you about. We have been doing that business for a long time. We have had this new member of the company as part of our business group. A scroll compressor manufacturer is the type of business that they do. We have made a press release about this. When it comes to this compressor, we are going to unify all the products under the Nidec brand. We are going to target the heat pump for commercial use, data center, chillers. All of these new and large products will be what we are targeting going forward.

From here on, I would like to explain to you Converge on 2027, which is something we have already made the announcement on before. This is the overall picture of the Converge on 2027. Towards that fiscal year, we would like to improve our cost structure. We are going to be focused on five different business pillars. Thirdly, we will convert to become a truly global system as a company. As I have said, this third one is the major topic for all of us at Nidec. There are quite a few things we need to do. Comprehensively, we will take action so that we can become a true global company. That is what we are doing at this moment. Among all these activities, we need to reduce the variable cost by JPY 100 billion. As you can see here, JPY 2.6 trillion, 50% of that is about 90%.

Of that is generated by this portion over here. The remaining 50% are these businesses over here. We have core businesses and non-core businesses. We will review. It may take a little time, but we will review all of these. As we move forward with the discussion, the JPY 100 billion improvement in variable cost will be done in conjunction with our efforts to reduce JPY 50 billion in fixed cost. As we move forward, the non-core business downsizing and also pulling out from the unprofitable businesses, and furthermore, consolidation of the business sites, those are all going to lead us to complete the JPY 50 billion reduction in fixed cost. We have completed our plan to show the pathway to achieve that in Q1. For the appliance Chin Tao business site, we have two factories for the home appliances. We have stopped the operation for this.

The newly built large campus of the factory in Chin Tao, we will consolidate the production capability. We will be doing similar initiatives for each of the five business pillars. For the 10% of the operating profit, a lot of that is accounted for by the automotive products business. For this, from before, our traction business, the JV in China, we are trying to change the direction of that business. Also, for the existing businesses, integration with ASIM and conducting business reform, and also transforming the NPE business, we are trying to augment our efforts around these initiatives. The structural reform in Europe and the U.S., and also transforming the automotive business, what we are doing as part of focusing the business portfolio. We will continue to make those efforts.

On top of that, as we look beyond for further growth, to transform, the conversion business is going to be something that we are going to focus to grow. The pictures you see here are from the Reynosa factory in the U.S., Lexington factory, and Mankato factory. As you can see from the pictures, you see a big turbine-like motor. Using this, they are manufacturing the power generators. In April this year, I visited the sites. We decided on the ramp-up on the spot. We are now preparing to ramp up the production there. Within this three months, the customers have mentioned the big potential demand growth over the next three years. I will be there again next month, and with big companies like Caterpillar, we will be discussing the plans to expand our siting capacity for their emergency power sources.

We need to graduate from the charismatic business management, which means that we have to have a system in place and also reform the process. That is what I have been focusing on. In order to do so, we are going to consolidate the business portfolio into five business pillars. For that, the customer base, our development capability, the production capability, and the sales and marketing approaches from many perspectives, we are going to be revisiting the whole operational flow. One example I can share with you is shown on this slide. For the Technological Chief Officer, we have appointed CTOs for five business pillars. We have launched a CTO summit to coordinate your global technological capabilities across the group. What we need to have as a technology, that will be identified. We will be revisiting our existing technology in order to try to fill in the gap.

We have just commenced this initiative. For R&D, we are going to have a coordinated global system. For that, we are also introducing a digitalized PLM. These CTOs for five business pillars, for these six people. Across different business entities, they have been appointed for those five business pillars. They will go beyond the boundaries of the organization to coordinate from the technological perspective. Also, the discussion is not just about what we can do with technology, but we will be sharing the information with our global CFOs and also for the HR organizations. We will simplify our global organizational structure to manage the process and their business. In April, we announced the Chief Digital Officer and the Chief Human Resource Officer’s appointment. On top of that, as of July 1, we have appointed Chief Legal Officer as well.

As a global headquarter, the CLO will be looking at the legal matters throughout our organization from a global perspective. The person appointed was Mr. Kazuya Murakami, who had been serving as our director as well as auditor. He will be sorting out the challenges that we confront today from the legal perspective. Mr. Murakami, the CLO, under him, for US, which is a critical market, we will have a US lawyer to look at all of our business entities within the US who will directly be reporting to me. That will be included as of September 1. Also, the professional person in supply chain for trade will be appointed as a director candidate, and he or she will be part of the management team effective September 1. Also, we have augmented our talent team in order to pursue the pathway to become a global organization.

Nidec will continue to have a huge opportunity and potential to become a great company. To unleash that potential, we need to confront the current challenge of trying to globalize the system and also reform our process. Building the foundation is something that I personally am committed to do. I hope to continue to enjoy your generous support. Thank you very much for your attention. This will be the end of my presentation. Thank you, Mr. Kishida. Now we would like to move on to the Q&A session. We will deliver the microphone to you, so please raise your hand and ask a question. First questions will be from the securities companies, and then after that, we will get the questions from the media. Anyone like to kick off? The person in the middle, please. Thank you very much. This is Takayama from Goldman Sachs. I have three questions.

My first question is regarding the trade issue and the tariff issue. You had some internal conflicts, and you were doing some investigation. Can you elaborate on what exactly the problem was and what the background to this issue was and what kind of investigation is ongoing? What are the measures to avoid the recurrence of this? I think this may lead to your new legal structure that you have formed. Can you give us more details? Can you make sure that there are no further issues. From any of your subsidiaries? I think that is a concern that’s raised by the investors. Can you elaborate on that point, please? Yes, I will respond. Samura-san will make additional comments as needed. This incident, we acquired a business entity from Kinetec in 2012. It’s a company called FIR. Their country of origin expression to the North American market was not accurate.

That was the starting point of the problem. To deal with the country-of-origin issue, we started a specific investigation. As this was discovered in the latter part of 2023, the report was submitted. The measures taken to date, were there any deficiencies on our side? For any of the categories other than FIR, as our own resolution and commitment, we said that we want to do a further investigation on any potential issues elsewhere. For FIR, the investigation has already been completed. I can say that the investigation is now complete. On top of that, we are broadening the scope of the investigation as a show of the will of the company to make sure that there are no other incidents. ASIM, which is overseeing this whole business, we are looking into the whole ASIM to make sure that there are no other similar incidents.

Because we have this investigation from June end, the three, we have extended the submission date of the financial reporting for three months. At this point, I cannot make any specific comments about the potential outcome, but we are doing the appropriate investigation. If we find any issues that need to be dealt with, we will respond immediately. We are preparing for that. At this point, you have extended the deadline to the latter part of September. Can you make that deadline with your investigation? For that, on a daily basis, from morning to night, we have relevant people across different global sites. Regarding the inputs to us, they are collecting the evidence. Also, the people in charge, the business owners, are being interviewed. Through those efforts, we are conducting the investigation. On a daily basis, we are working on this, and we plan to complete by the extended deadline.

Thank you. My second question is regarding the variable cost. At the outset of the year, you had mentioned a subtle number for fixed cost. Now you say you have completed the plan to reduce the variable cost. That said, on the variable cost, in order to cut the variable cost by JPY 100 billion, would you expect some increase in the fixed cost as a one-off, or would you be able to further reduce the fixed cost? Because you said that these two are correlated. Yes, thank you for your question. Addressing this variable cost is not just simply reducing the raw material ratio. We are saying that we want to cut variable cost by JPY 100 billion by selecting and focusing on the businesses that we’d like to continue. We may be pulling out from the underperforming businesses.

We also may be negotiating with the customers to improve the profitability of our business. Our fundamental operation will also be consolidated, like the example I gave about the Chin Tao new campus. We are willing to close some sites to consolidate to a larger base. For the fixed cost efforts, we also have better clarity. Also, my last question is that in the second half, you will have to push up the operating profit by JPY 70 billion. You have JPY 65 billion, so I think Q2 will be okay. As you move into the second half and you need to bring up the profit to JPY 70 billion or higher on a Q1-Q basis, what kind of changes do you need to make? What kind of improvement do you need? This is Akinobu Samura speaking. This is part of the mid-term plan that we have.

I believe your question is related to that plan. As I’ve said, when it comes to small precision motors, they are becoming a very highly profitable structure. We have other smaller motors. That’s another segment that we have. There are some non-profitable businesses. We need to make the business shrink, and we need to say no to any future offers when it comes to those non-profitable businesses. There are some businesses where we need to grow alternator power generators. We are having a huge surge in demand. When it comes to mine business, our backlog is more than JPY 400 billion already. When it comes to this business portfolio in Q3 and Q4, we are going to see a significant conversion in Q3 and Q4 this fiscal year. This will become a huge business driver for our business going forward.

When it comes to the JPY 3 billion in Q1, when it comes to this cost reduction, can you elaborate on the quarterly strategy when it comes to fixed cost reduction or temporary cost handling? We have negative one-timers, and we have positive one-timers as well. We have business consolidations taking place. Real estate-related ones are sometimes what we need to focus on. We have profit loss makers, profit makers. We definitely need to make a balance between the two, even though we are not going to be perfect in that effort. About JPY 3 billion, are you going to say that you will be seeing this type of amount less and less going forward? We are having this mid-term plan. We have planned a structural reform. We need to realize the amount of loss as we try to speed up the process of this structural reform.

We would like to keep in mind our pace in Q1. That’s what we elected. Thank you very much for that. Any other questions from anyone? Please go ahead to the person on the left. Thank you. This is Manabu Akizuki of Nomura Securities. I’d like to give you some detailed questions, if that’s okay with you. When it comes to machinery sales, there seems to be a significant decline there. There is not so much effect from currency exchange fluctuation. You have made some comment on that. Can you elaborate on the performance of the business unit, automation, and machinery? When it comes to machinery and automation, when it comes to tooling machine business, compared to Q4, sales are declining significantly from Q4. When it comes to this machine tool market, sales tend to increase towards the end of the fiscal year.

There is a decrease from Q4 to Q1, as you can see, when it comes to sales. As I’ve touched upon a few minutes ago, when it comes to inquiries and order intake, it was over JPY 35 billion back in Q1. And the sales are as much as JPY 23 billion. So the amount is five times so much. Order intake is going very smoothly. There are some seasonal factors when it comes to this sudden drop. Thank you very much for your answer. Now, my second question is as follows, which is about the power generator business. I believe Kishida-san has made some comment on that a few minutes ago. Can you add some comment to that comment, please? When it comes to North American power generator business, one idea is to utilize LNG. That’s one major trend up there in North America.

GE, among other companies, are some of those companies in that type of business. When it comes to your company, Nidec, you have the super large power generator. I believe Caterpillar is one of the names. I believe that’s one of the suppliers for the products. You have partners, I believe. You are going into this business. Is that the correct thing to say? Are you going to increase your capacity in that area? When it comes to the power generation made by liquid to natural gas, the backup generator needs will decrease because of the possible redundancy. You will be making probably fewer and fewer such backup generators in the future. Thank you very much for the question. When it comes to data center, data power source, that’s not what Moen is doing. They are in the emergency power source business. We have customers. There are quite a few.

There are some customers in this business. Emergency. They are all Tier 1 businesses. They are covering pretty much the entire industry there. There are customers of these Tier 1 customers. Those are the customers that are very famous as the worldwide brands. We have a large customer base, in my opinion. Fuel trends may change. The sources for power generation will change, will continue to change. When it comes to emergency power generation, such sources of power, emergency power generation, will not be gone completely. They will stay here in the business. As changes are made, we are making changes. We are going to make. We are making changes as we try to adapt ourselves, continue to adapt ourselves to that business. Thank you very much. The third question is also related to this area, water cooling, data center related question.

We have pumps, large pumps at the end of the foot of data center. I believe you will be using new as people. When it comes, I believe you have a large market share when it comes to pump in North America. Do you foresee any increase in the demands for pumps for these data centers? It could be a Tier 1 to Tier 1 business, but are you going to make or planning to make any access to such area in the business? Please take a look at the photo over here. It’s not that our internally produced pumps are used here. That’s not the case. We have quite a few group companies that are producing these pumps. These pumps are usually mainly for cars. These pumps are produced in the United States and elsewhere.

We are converting this technology for this business over here, as you can see on the slide. We need to make sure that these products are installed in our customers’ products. We are making progress to make these pumps part of the data center business. I believe you’re talking about the huge pumps for the chiller, that the water to be coming from chiller, which is outside of data center. We’re not having those huge pumps as part of our product portfolio. When it comes to these pumps that we have just talked about, we could expect expansion of our product portfolio. I believe NMC has a large pump business. I believe you’re talking about is the pumps for natural gas. It’s more like a motor rather than a pump. It’s a propeller-equipped product, I believe. Turbine-like product, I believe.

Those turbines may be used in this type of business in the future. As I’ve said, I’m talking about a scroll-type chiller business. That’s one of the new possibilities that we have for our company’s future. This is one of the five major business pillars that we are discussing. Thank you very much. Any other questions from anyone? The person on the right, please. On the back. Thank you. Thank you very much for explanation. I’m Takayuki Naito of Citigroup. I’d like to give you two questions. When it comes to variable cost, I have a question for you. When it comes to this structural reform, sales expansion and sales, business shrink, withdrawal. OP percentage, 10% or less could be that category. Automotive, for example, that could be the business with a 10% or less operating profit ratio.

If this business fails to reach the 10% operating profit ratio, could this business be subject to this type of policy over here? How about the timeline for taking those actions, please? When it comes to the target of this company or the policy, there will be no exception. Whether it is an automotive business, whether it is any other business, there will be no exception when it comes to this company or the policy. That is one thing that I want to tell you first. When it comes to the timing, we need to think about our customers. We cannot make decisions alone. That is not something we can do. We need to think about our customers. We have this scenario that we need to make covering up to 2027.

If we need to withdraw from certain business, we need to let the customers know, and we need to discuss the timing with our customers. There are some things. We have some declaration made about some of our businesses that have been cash bleeders. We have not been able to make a profit more than 10%. We have been able to convince those customers about the price increase, and we have been able to shake hands with these customers for new business opportunities. Withdrawing from a business is not everything about what we are trying to do. We like to increase more profitable businesses in our hands. Thank you very much. Here is my second question. About this, when it comes to this performance back in Q1, and now this Q1 is behind us, behind you.

Do you see any changes in the demands regarding tariffs payment in the United States? If you have any opinions regarding Q2, July through September, please let me know. Thank you. Significant decrease in the demands caused by these tariffs is not something we are facing. When it comes to our businesses themselves, we have business taking place in each of these regions here. We are producing and consuming products locally in individual regions. Regardless of changes in tariffs, we will produce products locally, and we will deliver products locally to our local customers. These current tariffs are not really making any huge impact. That is one thing that I like to say based on our long years of business. 50% from Brazil, several percent from Mexico, etc., according to several tariff-related talks.

There used to be enough that we have USMCA, which is a new form of a trade agreement. It was established back a few years ago. Up until 2036, this treatment will be in effect. The products will be protected under this treaty. In 2026, the Triple Nation talks will be held, and they will be able to decide whether to continue or discontinue this type of policy. The 50% decision today is not going to be in effect forever. We have this supply chain. We have a long range. We need to think about this type of situation in the long range. 50% tariff ratio for Brazil, Mexico, etc. Situation varies from country to country. We’re not really suffering any huge impact from these tariffs in place. We have had some impact by JPY 5 billion or JPY 6 billion.

We are having these communication discussions with our customers, trying to minimize the impact of their tariffs. That’s what we have been doing, and we will continue to do it as a manufacturer in order to survive this situation as a manufacturer. Thank you. That was very clear. The next person, please. Thank you for the presentation. My name is Goto from Mizuho Securities. I have two questions. My first one is, earlier, you said that cash flow level in Q1 was relatively low. Can you give some additional commentary around why that was the case? You did not disclose the balance sheet information, so we cannot confirm, but are there any material changes to your balance sheet? Yes, Samura-san will respond to the question. The cash flow did not grow that much this time. It’s because the working capital reduction did not progress as anticipated.

The background to this was mainly in the business segment. It’s Moen. As we discussed earlier on the energy-related business, for that, we had a lot of intermediary inventories. We had made some upfront preparation for the business. At this point, we are not at a phase of trying to reduce the inventory for machine tools. The revenue is above order book, so we are not able to reduce the inventory. Also, this is a result of a positive business trend in a way. I see. My second question is, for the organic auto products, the margin improvement is happening for real. What triggered this improvement? Revenue was tough, but why were you able to still improve the profitability? Going forward, how much more room do you see for further improvement going forward? Yes, thank you for your question.

For the organic auto products business, mainly the customers are European, U.S. customers. Especially with the European customers, we are going through some major transformation, or the customers are going through the transformation. We did not see a big growth in sales this quarter, but since last year, we have been trying to transform our business portfolio. Through those initiatives, we have been making improvements through negotiations with the customers. This is not a type of business or product where we close the contract and then get the revenue immediately. With many customers, we have been able to solve the issue, and this will lead to further expansion of business going forward in fiscal 2027 or 2028. The current improvement we’re seeing is at the benefit of the operational improvement and also the result of the structural reform. Do you have anything to add? No.

Now we will open up the Q&A session for the media, please. The person in the middle, please go ahead. My name is Nita from Nikkei Newspaper. Looking at the U.S.-Japan tariff negotiation, it’s decided at 15%. I think there will be some impact to the auto customers. What are your responses to the tariff that’s been or that’s going to be implemented? Looking at the media reports, it’s the tariff on what is exported from Japan to the U.S. As for industrial goods, we do not have a lot of goods in our business where we produce in Japan and export to the U.S. The Japanese OEM who asked us to supply in Japan, we manufacture in Japan and supply in Japan from our capacity and production. With the tariff from the U.S. to Japan decreasing from 25% to 15%, it will not have a huge impact.

When we deliver our goods to the U.S., it may come from China, Europe, Asia, or Latin America, and from different country of origin. How the supplies are being delivered, in some cases, we may be the importer, and we may deliver those to the customers. We need to grasp the overall view of the supply chain, and after understanding that, we have been studying the impact of the tariff since the last fiscal year. It was not a surprise for us. Maybe this was not the direct answer that you were looking for, but in order to mitigate such impact, we have been making efforts in the past multiple years to locally manufacture and locally sell. Also, through this communication, I think what’s been under the attention is the rare earth export restriction in China.

The nation has a policy to moderate the export restriction, and I think that is also being reported in the media. In practice, the volume that we need and the volume that’s being exported, there is a gap. As a manufacturer, we would like to be prioritized for those rare earth exports. We are discussing with the government and regulators to closely monitor the situation. Thank you. Regarding the tariff, the direct impact may be just JPY 5 billion-JPY 6 billion. Indirectly, if the customer’s business performance deteriorates, how would you assess the indirect impact? I think your question is coming from Japanese OEMs exporting like 1 million cars to the U.S. I think you need to raise that question to that particular OEM. That customer is a global top-tier company, and they also have production sites in the U.S. Those OEMs also are customers in the U.S.

market for our U.S. business. When their production shifts to the U.S., we will also follow suit. We do not expect a big drop in the demand in that sense. We have very close communication, and this is beyond our control. We continue to collect the information. To be able to respond to what is needed by the customers in a flexible way. Yes. The other question is regarding the cooling module business, which is improving. Can you explain why the water cooling modules are improving, like the GPUs, and maybe different methodologies, or what are the reasons for the better performance? We have Urago-san, who is the doctorate of the water cooling module, so let him explain that. Yes. As Kishida-san mentioned, the AI data center demand. For that, we have two solutions, a thermal solution and an energy solution.

Nita-san, I think your question is around what’s happening in the improvement of the thermal solution. It’s not just about CDUs, but for the fans for AC systems, and also the water cooling modules, and also the pumps, and the equipment that are outside the facilities. The overall inquiries regarding the data center-related demand is a lot of inquiries coming from China, U.S., and Asia, as Kishida-san mentioned, and also in Japan. We have a team that’s developing this product, and in their site or facility, there are a lot of inquiries and visitors coming to look at what we can offer. That’s underpinning current sales for the water cooling modules. I believe that going forward, Q2 and second half, we will continue to see evolution and development for this business. Yes. Last year, the whole discussion was around NVIDIA, but GPU, there’s going to be more variations.

Also, depending on the countries, they may choose to use different chipsets. After 12 months, we see more variations and options. For ourselves, coming into this market and trying to grow in this market, we had multiple entry points. For each of the entry points, it was important for us to prepare the appropriate product offering. We were able to confirm that, and we had been able to complete the preparation for such products. With that, the product lineup is expanding, or we can expect the product lineup to expand in the latter part of this fiscal year. On that note, last year, for the full year, we fell short of our target. We did have some hiccups in the past, but we overcame that, and this industry will continue to grow, is what we are seeing. For the emergency power source, there’s a commitment for the next three years.

Here we see a very strong demand, and we are going to offer the right product to address the robust demand. We were able to confirm that those are going to be driving our business growth. We will take the last question, given the interest of time, and the person in the back. Thanks, Marisa. This is Yoshida of Merchant Market. I have two questions for you. You’re talking about this reviewing of businesses that are not really profitable. I believe you talked about before. Possibly selling some of the businesses. In automotive business, there are quite a few businesses within the automotive business unit, but are you thinking of any specific businesses to be sold? The next question is about M&A tariffs. Do you see any effects of tariffs on the M&A strategy global? Thank you very much for your question.

When it comes to selling, we will have no exceptions, no sanctuary or anything when it comes to selling our businesses. It’s sometimes very difficult. There have been hardly any cases for us to sell our existing businesses, and we need to accumulate our knowledge in that regard. We will have no exceptions or sanctuary about this effort. When it comes to M&A based on tariffs, tariffs will not change our policy or strategy. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now, time has come for us to finish this presentation. Thank you very much for attending. We would like to finish this presentation. Preliminary figures for the quarter, first, quarter one of fiscal year 2025. Thank you very much, everyone, for your participation. Thank you.

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