Strong start in Q1, but sustaining performance through H1 will be necessary to achieve the full-year forecast for lower revenue and lower profit

FY2027-Q1 revenue was ¥51,616 million, up 13.0% year on year. Operating profit was ¥3,825 million, up 40.6%, ordinary profit was ¥3,900 million, up 41.8%, and net income attributable to owners of the parent was ¥2,400 million, up 76.2%. The operating margin was 7.4% on a calculated basis, above the 6.7% recorded for FY2026. Although the company recorded a gain on the sale of fixed assets of ¥8 million and a loss on the disposal of fixed assets of ¥20 million, neither was large enough to explain the increase in operating profit, suggesting that the Q1 profit growth was driven primarily by the core business.

The company's FY2027 full-year forecasts are revenue of ¥197,000 million, operating profit of ¥13,000 million, ordinary profit of ¥13,200 million and net income of ¥8,000 million, representing declines of 2.6%, 3.8%, 5.9% and 5.6%, respectively, from the previous fiscal year's results. Q1 progress was 26.2% for revenue and 29.4% for operating profit, above the simple 25% proportion represented by one quarter of the fiscal year. However, the company has not disclosed an individual H1 forecast. Accordingly, revenue of ¥98,500 million and operating profit of ¥6,500 million are comparison benchmarks obtained by mechanically halving the full-year forecasts, not H1 forecasts provided by the company. This distinction should be noted.

The factors behind Q1 revenue growth were primarily improvements on the demand side, including demand for standard and light trucks in Japan, a recovery in demand in Thailand, Europe and Indonesia, data-center construction investment centered in the United States, and increased public works activity in various countries. However, the FY2026 full-year disclosure explained that, although pickup-truck production volumes in Thailand declined, revenue was maintained at the previous year's level through new orders. The delay in the recovery of pickup-truck production in Thailand is also reflected in the FY2027 full-year forecast, so it cannot be concluded that the downside factors affecting the full-year plan have been eliminated solely on the strength of Q1 performance.

In FY2027-H1, the first point to confirm is whether cumulative revenue exceeds ¥98,500 million and operating profit exceeds ¥6,500 million, the mechanical 50% progress benchmarks. It will also be necessary to determine whether the operating margin exceeds the 6.6% implied by the full-year forecast and, if it declines from Q1's 7.4%, whether the cause is a delayed recovery in Thai production, raw-material and energy costs, foreign exchange or fixed-cost burdens. If the full-year forecast is revised in the H1 results, whether the company can disclose changes in demand volumes separately from changes in production volumes will be a key point in assessing the reliability of profit in the second half of FY2027.