Komori is buying a company called Maruyama Chiller to strengthen its position in semiconductor manufacture. Maruyama produces temperature control units for chip manufacture and has customers in Singapore, China, Japan and the US, but has a heavy order book. Komori is paying ¥26 billion for the business and says it can use its manufacturing prowess to help Maruyama’s expansion.
Komori has a toe hold in this sector through its Seria gravure presses and calls the acquisition its “full scale entry into semi conductor manufacturing”. Behind the acquisition is a drive to diversify its revenue base away from the core printing industry in order to find growth.
That core printing press business is working well. Sales in Q1 were up 2.5% to the end of June, with a mixed bag across the regions where it is active. Strong sheetfed sales were balanced by a fall in webfed sales; US sales fell more than 40% due to economic uncertainty; European sales rose by the same amount, thanks to sales of Chambon packaging presses and MBO folders as sales of sheetfed presses were down; sales to China were also down with investment by packaging groups as a highlight.
Overall sales for the quarter reached ¥23.1 billion (¥22.5 billion) with an operating profit of ¥537 000 million (¥504 000 million). Pretax profit fell to ¥963 000 million (¥1.1 billion).
If Q1 last year fell short of expectations in terms of orders, this year the order intake was well above budget. Chinese orders were 96% up year on year, the US is up 19%, Japan up 4% and orders in other regions are 88% higher. The only blot is Europe where orders at this point are 26% down.
Once the acquisition is completed in October, Maruyama will contribute a further 10% to the sales revenue and 25% to its Ebitda.
