Toray Industries Inc announced its consolidated business results for the three months ended June 30, 2007, the first quarter of the year ending March 31, 2008. The following summary of the business results that Toray submitted to the Tokyo Stock Exchange is unaudited and for reference only.
During the three months under review, the global economy continued to perform strongly despite the slowdown in the U.S. economy, as Europe maintained the recovery trends and the Asian economies led by China continued to post high growth.
The Japanese economy also maintained a gradual growth in both the corporate and household sectors. For the future, while there are forecasts of continued expansion for both the global and domestic economies, there are several causes for concern such as persistently high oil prices, the slowdown in the U.S. economy, inventory adjustments in IT-related goods, and volatile exchange rate fluctuations, and the outlook is therefore unclear.
Under such circumstances, Toray Group is addressing the issues set in its mid-term business strategies “Project Innovation TORAY 2010 (IT-2010)” launched in October 2006, with a goal of transforming itself into a dynamically evolving and highly profitable business group, striving
for innovation in every aspect of its operations.
Net sales for the first quarter increased 7.7% from the same period a year ago to 385.8 billion yen (US$3,129 million), due primarily to growing sales by Fibersand Textiles segment and Plastics and Chemicals segment.
Operating income rose 5.1% to 19.5 billion yen (US$158 million), led by the strong performance of Environment and Engineering segment and Plastics and Chemicals segment. Ordinary income increased 1.2% year-on-year to 18.8 billion yen (US$152 million), and net income declined 12.7% year-on-year to 10.2 billion yen (US$83 million).
If the impact of increases in depreciation costs due to the revision of Japanese taxation system were excluded, its results would be operating income of 20.8 billion yen (US$169 million), up 12.1% year-on-year, ordinary income of 20.1 billion yen (US$163 million), an increase of 8.5%, and net income of 11.0 billion yen (US$89 million), down 5.8%.
At the end of the first quarter, the Group’s assets totaled 1,697.4 billion yen (US$13,766 million), up 22.9 billion yen from the end of the previous fiscal year primarily as inventories increased.
Liabilities increased by 15.7 billion yen to 1,040.4 billion yen (US$8,438 million) mainly due to an increase in interest-bearing liabilities. Net assets were 656.9 billion yen (US$5,328 million), an increase of 7.3 billion yen. As a result, the equity ratio was 35.2%, remaining the same level as the end of the previous fiscal year.
The Company left its forecasts for the half year ending September 30, 2007 unchanged from its previous announcement on May 9, 2007. Also, the Company intends to review its full-year forecasts when announcing the half-year results, if necessary, by taking account of changes in the external environment.
