The morning session comments covered developments at Chugai Pharmaceutical, Nidec, Asahi Organic Chemicals, Nippon Felt, Kakaku.com and NAITO. A series of extraordinary decisions and revisions were announced by major companies, resulting in changes to earnings outlooks and partnership arrangements.
Chugai Pharmaceutical said Roche plans to discontinue clinical development of emugrobart for obesity and return the license rights for emugrobart. Chugai has also begun out-licensing activities and is considering resuming development for SMA, but said there would be no impact on its consolidated earnings forecast for the fiscal year ending December 2026.
At Nidec, President Kishida is reported to have decided to resign, with the successor expected to be chosen by a board centered on outside directors. Kishida is expected to submit his resignation. Impairment losses on the order of several hundred billion yen are anticipated due to the impact of electric vehicle-related operations and accounting irregularities, and the company plans to announce on the 30th corrections to its securities report and financial figures for the past 5 years.
Asahi Organic Chemicals raised its consolidated full-year operating profit forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2027 from ¥8.5 billion to ¥12.0 billion, anticipating upside in revenue and profit on the strength of semiconductor-related projects in Japan and overseas. It also announced revisions to its interim and year-end dividends, raising its projected annual dividend to ¥180.
Nippon Felt decided to sell investment securities it holds and plans to sell 3 issues from 1 to 9 October. Gains on the sale of investment securities are expected to total approximately ¥1.7 billion and are expected to be recorded as extraordinary income in the third quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2027. The full-year earnings forecast is under review along with other factors.
Kakaku.com announced that it had agreed to dissolve its capital alliance with KDDI. The business alliance will continue. The outcome of the ongoing tender offer and the specific progress of the business alliance going forward have not been determined, and the impact on earnings has not been established at this time.
NAITO raised its full-year operating profit forecast from the previous ¥400 million to ¥1.25 billion. Operating profit for the first half of the fiscal year ending February 2027 was ¥820 million, approximately 4 times the level of the same period of the previous year.