Daily Brief Japan: Roland DG Corp, Fanuc Corp, Astellas Pharma and more

In today’s briefing:

Taiyo Pacific Overbids Brother for Roland DG (6789)
Fanuc (6954 JP): Guidance Points Down, but the Market Sees Recovery
Astellas Pharma (4503 JP): Fx Drives FY24 Revenue; Impairment Loss Dents Profits; Pain to Continue

Taiyo Pacific Overbids Brother for Roland DG (6789)

Originally, Brother Industries (6448 JP) wanted to buy Roland DG Corp (6789 JP). Roland invited others to bid, didn’t tell Brother, then said Taiyo Pacific’s ¥5,035 bid won.
That was low. Weeks later, Brother lobbed a ¥5,200 overbid. They are going through the approvals process but it isn’t clear Brother is negotiating.
Taiyo has extended and extended and shown up in interviews. Now it has overbid at ¥5,370.

Fanuc was up 4.7% this past week as the market reacted to a slight uptick in orders and transparently conservative guidance.
The book-to-bill ratio remained below 1.0 in 4Q of FY Mar-24, but was up from 3Q, which appears to have been the low point in the cycle.
Inflation and ongoing inventory adjustments indicate a slow recovery, but demand for automation from traditional markets and new opportunities in aerospace and other industries should support long-term growth.

Astellas Pharma (4503 JP) reported ¥85B revenue increase in FY24 over FY23, while Fx impacted the revenue positively by ¥96B. In local currency terms, the U.S. revenue declined 5% YoY.
FY24 operating and net profit declined 80%+, due to amortization and impairment loss of intangible assets. Astellas is changing accounting policy to smoothen core operating and net profits in FY25.
For FY25, Astellas guided for just 3% revenue growth. Core operating profit is expected to decline 10%, while net profit is anticipated to take a bigger hit and decrease 17%.

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