Can the sharp recovery in FY27 Q1 be replicated in the first half?

Revenue in FY27 Q1 was ¥10,786 million, up 46.6% year on year, while operating profit was ¥1,249 million, up 926.6%. Ordinary profit was ¥1,289 million, and net income attributable to owners of the parent was ¥710 million. The operating margin was approximately 11.6%, up about 10 percentage points from approximately 1.6% in the same quarter of the previous year. The key feature of these results was not only revenue growth but also the fact that the recovery in profit significantly outpaced revenue growth.

Based on its Q1 results, the company revised its full-year forecasts to revenue of ¥43,253 million, operating profit of ¥5,649 million, ordinary profit of ¥5,726 million and net income of ¥3,822 million. Progress at the end of Q1 was 24.9% for revenue, 22.1% for operating profit, 22.5% for ordinary profit and 18.6% for net income, indicating that profit progress was slightly behind revenue progress. Given seasonality and the market assumptions for Q2 onward, it is too early to judge whether the full-year forecasts will simply be achieved. Progress in profit through the cumulative second quarter needs to be monitored.

Although the revised full-year forecasts were disclosed, the latest release did not quantify the difference between the pre-revision and revised forecasts for revenue and operating profit, nor did it provide a quantitative bridge showing how many millions of yen were added to profit by the handy-size vessel market, foreign exchange or other factors. In the next results, we will examine by segment whether the Q1 improvement in profitability was attributable to temporary market and foreign-exchange factors or accompanied improvements in costs and fleet deployment efficiency.