Presentation Transcripts

While we did outperform the competition in the LED backlight arena last year, some of you may be worried that we will lose our lead to the competition this year and the next. At the risk of repeating myself, since we are using the accelerated depreciation method to depreciate the value of production equipment over two years, we will generate a profit while at the same time bearing a huge amount of depreciation expenses on a short-term basis. Moreover, we have already switched from the conventional straight-line method to the declining balance method to cut fixed costs. This aggressive accelerated depreciation method should boost our competitive edge in the LED backlight market next fiscal year. While we don't know for sure how smartphones will sell next year, the one thing we are certain about is that our competitive edge is definitely getting sharper every month. Achieving about 20 billion yen sales for in-vehicle LED backlights in 2017 and 2018 now looks feasible. Our products have already been adopted by one European luxury car brand for an LCD panel application and the outlook for Minebea LED backlights being used by various other luxury automobiles is bright. When it comes to LED backlights for smartphones, July marks the beginning of the year. Just like last year and this year, the race against the competition will be on again next year. We have an excellent lead backed by our ultra-precision machining and mass production technologies and are absolutely confident about quality and yield. That's why it's very unlikely that we'll suddenly lose our competitive edge next year although it's ultimately up to the customers how much they'll buy from us.