Resonac Holdings Corp

XMUN:SWD

Q3-2025 Earnings Call

[Hideki Somemiya, executive]

Hello, everyone. I am Hideki Somemiya, CFO of Resonac Holdings Corporation. Thank you very much for your understanding and support for our company. Let me explain the financial results overview of Q3 of fiscal 2025. Page 2 is key takeaways. There are 3 things that I'd like to communicate to you. First, core operating profit in Semiconductor and Electronic Materials segment reached a record high on a quarterly basis. In Q3, products for advanced semiconductors used for AI and others were strong. In addition, there was inventory demand for smartphones and others.

Second, core operating profit increased year-on-year, driven by the strong performance of the Semiconductor and Electronic Materials segment, which more than offset the weakness in the Chemicals segment. Third, compared to fiscal 2025 forecast announced on February 13 this year, we made steady progress through Q3. Forecast numbers remain unchanged.

Now let me explain Q1 to Q3 financial results. Slide #3 shows the summary of Q1 to Q3 consolidated results comparing fiscal 2024 to '25. Q1 to Q3 revenue was JPY 986.3 billion. Semiconductor and Electronic Materials revenue grew considerably year-on-year. However, Chemical segment and Crasus Chemicals segment revenue decreased.

Overall revenue declined by JPY 43 billion year-on-year. Core operating profit was JPY 72.8 billion, up JPY 4 billion year-on-year. As for nonrecurring items, gain on sale of former headquarters land and buildings was booked the same period last year. During Q1 to Q3 this year, impairment losses on business sale and restructuring were recorded. Nonrecurring items turned negative to JPY 51.4 billion. IFRS-based operating profit was JPY 21.5 billion, down JPY 64 billion year-on-year.

Profit attributable to owners of the parent was JPY 6 billion, down JPY 58.8 billion year-on-year due to the nonrecurring items, which turned significantly negative, as mentioned earlier. EBITDA was JPY 143.9 billion, almost flat year-on-year. EBITDA margin was 14.6%, improvement of 0.8 points. Excluding Crasus Chemical, for which we are considering partial spin-off, EBITDA margin was 17.8%.

In Q3, the EBITDA margin was 18%. Excluding Crasus Chemical, it was 20.7%. So we exceeded our target of 20% or higher. Page 4 is the breakdown of core operating profit changes from JPY 68.8 billion last year to JPY 72.8 billion in Q1 to Q3 2025.

Looking at the breakdown of JPY 4 billion year-on-year increase, sales volume was JPY 7.2 billion, mostly improvement impact of semiconductor and electronic materials. Sales price pushed down the profit by JPY 19.2 billion. Sluggish graphite electrode market led to lower sales price.

Naphtha price was down year-on-year and sales price also declined in Crasus Chemicals segment. Variable and fixed costs pushed up the profit by JPY 13.8 billion, although fixed costs such as labor mainly increased in each segment and raw material costs rose, in Crasus chemical, lower naphtha price pushed up the profit.

Lastly, the others pushed up the profit by JPY 2.2 billion. This includes the Hard Disk Media business in Semiconductor and Electronic Materials segment having sold off high-cost inventory in the same period last year. Pages 5 and 6 show breakdown of segment core operating profit changes. These are for your reference.

Page 7 is results by segment. Revenue, core operating profit and EBITDA margin are shown by segment comparing fiscal 2024 and '25. Semiconductor and Electronic Materials grew 11% in revenue and 40% in profit year-on-year, driving overall results. However, revenue and profit decreased in other segments, especially in Chemicals segment, sluggish graphite electrode market led to considerable decline in revenue and the segment ended in deficit.

Page 8 is quarterly results by segment. In Semiconductor and Electronic Materials segment, in addition to the demand for smartphones, volume of products for advanced semiconductors used for AI and others steadily grew in Q3. Both revenue and core operating profit reached record highs. EBITDA margin was 31.3%. As a result, overall Q3 revenue was JPY 344.2 billion. Core operating profit was JPY 38.2 billion. EBITDA margin was 18%.

Pages 9 to 13 are segment summaries. Page 9 is the Semiconductor and Electronic Materials. Revenue grew by 11% year-on-year to JPY 365.7 billion. Core operating profit increased by JPY 21.2 billion year-on-year to JPY 74 billion. Higher revenue and profit were driven mainly by back-end semiconductor materials, whose volume grew for advanced semiconductors, mainly for AI and others and Device Solutions, where Hard Disk Media revenue rose on a demand recovery for data centers. We understand that the growth of the Hard Disk Media for data center is driven by storage demand expansion, including those based on AI. Segment EBITDA margin improved greatly from 25.5% the year before to 29.1%.

Page 10 is Mobility. Revenue decreased by 12% year-on-year to JPY 132.1 billion. Core operating profit decreased by JPY 1.9 billion year-on-year to JPY 2 billion. Lower revenue is mostly due to divestiture of secondary battery packaging materials and food packaging materials in Q1 as well as a decline in demand for some domestic customers. Both revenue and profit were down. Page 11 is Innovation Enabling Materials. Revenue decreased by 5% year-on-year to JPY 67.9 billion. Core operating profit decreased by JPY 0.7 billion to JPY 8.1 billion. Revenue and profit decreased due to lower demand for certain products impacted by sluggish automobile market.

Page 12 is Chemicals. Revenue declined by 17% year-on-year to JPY 125.9 billion. Core operating profit declined by JPY 9.2 billion to the loss of JPY 7.4 billion. Lower revenue and profit come mostly from graphite electrode business, where both sales volume and price dropped due to weak graphite electrode market conditions.

While gains from the reversal of the inventory write-downs were booked same period last year in Q1 to Q3 this year, there were valuation losses. The last segment summary, Page 13, shows Crasus Chemical. Revenue decreased 8% year-on-year to JPY 222.8 billion. Core operating profit decreased by JPY 1.8 billion to JPY 3.3 billion.

Lower naphtha prices led to lower selling prices and revenue dropped. Core operating profit decreased due to a deterioration in inventory valuation differences. The results by segment has been completed.

Page 14 is the major items below the core operating profit. On the left, we have the list of the nonrecurring items. On the right, year-on-year comparison of the financial income, cost and equity in earnings. Starting with left, nonrecurring items, this worsened by JPY 68 billion year-on-year. Because of the gains on sale of the former headquarters land and building, this was positive same period last year. In Q1 to Q3 this year, we booked impairment losses for transfer of businesses and provision for business structure improvement. This is mainly for the business transfer of Fiamm Energy Technology engaged in lead acid battery business and automotive molded parts business.

Other items during Q1 to Q3 have not changed much since the first half. Gain on business reorganization and others was JPY 6.9 billion, mainly from divestiture of secondary battery packaging materials and food packaging materials. Total of business restructuring expenses and extra retirement payments was JPY 5.3 billion, mainly from restructuring of graphite electrode business.

Moving to the right-hand side, total financial income cost improved JPY 3.8 billion year-on-year. While FX loss was recorded in the same period last year were weaker Yen during the Q1 to Q3 this year led to small FX gain. As there was negative impact of onetime cost adjustment during the same period last year, the equity in earnings increased by JPY 2.5 billion year-on-year.

Next, Page 15 shows consolidated balance sheet. Starting from the left. Total assets at the end of September this year was JPY 2,69.7 billion, down JPY 102.9 billion from the end of December last year. This is mainly due to the lower cash and cash equivalents due to the corporate bond redemption and others.

Assets held for sale increased due to the transfers from the trade receivables and inventories and others following the decision to transfer Fiamm Energy Technology and automotive molded parts business. Total liabilities were JPY 1,398.2 billion, down JPY 82.4 billion from the end of December 2024 due to the lower interest-bearing liabilities. Total equity was JPY 671.5 billion, down JPY 20.5 billion from the end of December last year.

Biggest reason behind the decline is stronger Yen up to JPY 148.4 to the dollar at the end of September, as shown in appendix, which led to JPY 13.6 billion decrease of the conventional foreign currency translation adjustment or exchange differences on translation of foreign operations under IFRS.

Major indicators are shown at the bottom. Net D/E ratio increased to 0.98x from the 0.78x at the December end. This was due to the early repayment of JPY 137.5 billion of subordinated loans, which are recognized as 50% equity by Japan Credit Rating Agency through the regular senior loans and others at the end of April.

We continue to improve our financial position, targeting a stable net debt-to-equity ratio of 1x or lower. Lastly, equity ratio attributable to owners of the parent, which corresponds to the conventional equity ratio improved slightly to 31.2% from December end. Pages 16 and onwards are appendix, and these are for your reference. That concludes my presentation. Thank you very much for your attention.