We hereby announce that as below, our Board of Directors has resolved at a meeting on April 14, 2006 to post an extraordinary loss resulting from the structural reform of keyboard business and loss from revaluation of affiliated company securities, resulting from this reform.
1. Extraordinary loss resulting from structural reform of keyboard business
We outlined the improvement of profitability of money-losing businesses as priority tasks in order to improve the overall company's profitability. Regarding the keyboard business, we completed the production transfer from Thailand to Shanghai, China during fiscal year ended March 2006 and tried to improve the production efficiency of Chinese subsidiary Shanghai Shunding Technologies Ltd. (SST), but were not able to achieve substantial profitability improvement partly due to effects from intensified price-cutting competition and price increases of raw material for plastics of recent years. After reviewing from various viewpoints in order to drastically improve the business, we decided to implement a structural reform of the keyboard business as follows.
In the structural reform, we will build a business structure suitable for focusing on manufacturing and sales of high quality, high priced models that will utilize our technologies and competitive strengths. In order to press forward with structural reform, we will post a business structural reform loss of ¥3.4 billion (consolidated basis) for organizational restructuring of manufacturing, sales and engineering, and disposal of excessive fixed assets such as manufacturing equipment and dies, and inventory. We will implement additional reform from various angles as necessary if the situation changes.
2. Loss from revaluation of affiliated company securities
Related to the above structural reform, keyboard manufacturing company SST will also post an extraordinary loss. As a result, the share value of SST's holding company Sheng Ding Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, will be substantially below book value and will require an extended time for recovery. Due to this, we will post a total loss of ¥8.8 billion on our non-consolidated financial results for revaluation of Sheng Ding Pte. Ltd.'s shares and business structural reform.
3. Revision of Business Performance Forecast for Fiscal Year ended March 2006 (Consolidated and Non-consolidated)
We therefore revise as follows our business performance forecast that we announced on November 1, 2005.
(1) Revision of Forecast of Non-consolidated Business Performance (April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006)
Dividend to be paid is planned to be unchanged as ¥7 per share, although a net loss for the period is posted on the non-consolidated business results.
* Supplementary Information
Outline of Sheng Ding Pte. Ltd.
Representative: Shoji Shishido
Location of head office: 5 Shenton Way #19-00 UIC Building, Singapore 068808
Date of establishment: August 21, 2002
Capital: US$52 million (Approx. ¥6.1 billion, as of March 31, 2006)
Shareholder: Minebea Co., Ltd. 100%
Outline of SST
Company name: Shanghai Shunding Technologies Ltd.
Representative: Takayuki Yamagishi
Location of head office: No. 1290 Zhongchun Road, Zhuangiao Town,
Minhang District, Shanghai 201109, China
Date of establishment: November 12, 2002
Principal business: Manufacture of PC keyboards
Capital: RMB423 million (Approx. ¥6.2 billion, as of March 31, 2006)
Shareholder: Sheng Ding Pte. Ltd. 100%
Company Name: Minebea Co., Ltd.
Representative: Takayuki Yamagishi
Representative Director, President and Chief Executive Officer
(Code No. 6479 TSE Div. No.1)
Contact Person: Sakae Yashiro
Managing Executive Officer
Deputy Chief of Administration Headquarters
(TEL 81-3-5434-8611)
Other News:
Minebea Extraordinary Loss Resulting And Revision of Business Performance Forecast
SKF Acquires Macrotech Polyseal
New Miniature Plastic Housed Bearings From Rodriguez(Pic)
Delphi Targets Sandusky Hub Plant for Sale or Closing
Bearings Delivered For Chinese Hydro Project
Plastics Processor Acquires Bearings Operation
Spherical Bearings Have Longer Life On Screens
Timken Expanding Lincolnton Hub Assembly Capacity
