Japanese Firms Report Mixed Half-Year Results

A batch of Japanese firms reported mostly year-on-year profit gains, though results diverged across sectors. NEC Corp jumped to ¥72.83 billion from ¥13.46 billion, while Lasertec and Komori rose to ¥19.06 billion (from ¥8.93 billion) and ¥2.36 billion (from ¥1.01 billion), respectively. NEC Capital Solutions (¥4.51 billion vs ¥3.38 billion), Meitec (¥6.93 billion vs ¥5.54 billion), Disco (¥55.91 billion vs ¥53.44 billion), Core (¥1.14 billion vs ¥954 million) and Tesec (¥214 million vs ¥129 million) reported smaller but positive increases, and Wacom and Transcosmos also posted gains. By contrast, Denso's first-half net fell to ¥131.36 billion from ¥190.84 billion and Bourbon’s 1H net declined to ¥1.13 billion from ¥1.72 billion. Disco said Q2 FY2025 net sales rose 8.7% to ¥194,537 million and operating income rose 3.8% to ¥78,871 million, its equity ratio improved to 79.2%, it trimmed its Q2 dividend forecast versus a year earlier, and it expects Q3 net sales to grow about 5.3% while anticipating slight declines in operating and ordinary income as management focuses on strategic investments and operational efficiencies.