Hakuto's interim profit drops 22.1% amidst sales challenges

Hakuto reported an interim profit of 2,008 million yen for Q2 FY2025, a 22.1% decrease from 2,578 million yen in Q2 FY2024. Net sales also fell by 6.7% to 83,763 million yen from 89,751 million yen year-over-year. This decline was primarily attributed to reduced sales of semiconductor devices in the vehicle-related sector, impacted by ongoing inventory adjustments. Gross profit margin decreased from 15.0% in Q2 FY2024 to 14.6% in Q2 FY2025, partly due to foreign exchange effects.

Operating profit saw a significant drop of 41.5%, settling at 2,349 million yen compared to 4,019 million yen in the prior year. This was influenced by lower gross profit, higher selling, general, and administrative expenses, including goodwill amortization from a newly consolidated subsidiary, and repair costs in solar power generation. Ordinary profit similarly decreased by 39.2% to 2,325 million yen, affected by foreign exchange losses.

Despite these challenges, the company’s profit exceeded its initial plan for the period. The forecast for FY2025 remains unchanged, projecting full-year net sales of 186,000 million yen and an operating profit of 6,000 million yen, expecting only a slight year-over-year decrease in profit partly due to an anticipated gain on sale of cross-shareholdings.