Briefing on the present situation in Minebea and its key subsidiaries
Latest Update : June 29, 2007
Back to Shareholders' Meetings (Year 2007)
The 61st Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders
1. Medium-Term Management Policies
Issues that the Minebea Group must face are explained on page 9 of the Notice of the 61st Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders. The 60th term was designated as "a year of reorganization," and the 61st term was "a year of transition to stronger business." We feel these goals have been achieved for the most part.
The 62nd term will be designated as "a year of moving forward," and we will engage in efforts to grow our businesses and to increase profits.
It is essential to position businesses of the entire group for sustainable growth, and to do so will require that we have clear goals for both the medium and long term to work towards. Thus we established a three-year plan, which includes this year, as the medium term business plan.
The three-year medium term business plan aims at 350 billion yen in net sales in the 63rd term, and 370 billion yen in the 64th term. Efforts must also be made to achieve operating margins in the double digits at 10% or more in the 64th term.
Under this three-year medium term business plan, the first year will be designated as "a year of moving forward", the second "for progression", and the third "for a further leap forward", as a foundation for advancing into the future.
As a long-term goal for growth of the company, we are aiming for sales of 500 billion yen in the 66th term.
To achieve future growth, we aim to "Win the Competition with Manufacturing Excellence and Technological Competency".
In this environment, our innovation is focused on "new product development", "new market entrance", and "production technology". Instead of advancing these separately, and will always push these three forward working together.
Establishing our corporate governance is an extremely significant issue, and we are making every effort to enhance our internal control system as demanded by the Law, as you can see from page 18 to 21 of the Notice of the 61st Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders.
In addition, we established a new organization to promote the building of our internal control system related to financial reporting, based on the Financial Products Exchange Law.
Moreover, we explain our basic ideas on measures against hostile takeovers on page 22 of the Notice of the 61st Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders. However, we consider them with our special care for shareholders' benefits.
2. Manufacturing Activities in Thailand
It has been 25 years since Minebea began manufacturing activities in 1982 in Ayutthaya, which lies 75 km to the north of Bangkok.
We presently operate a group of factories in four areas in Thailand and employ approximately 30,000 people. These factories account for about 50% of the Minebea Group's total output and comprise the largest base.
Production of "miniature and small-size ball bearings", "pivot assemblies", "HDD spindle motors", "lighting devices for LCDs" and other mainstay products has continued to expand in Thailand as Minebea's primary production base.
3. Manufacturing Activities in China
In 1994, Minebea established its first Chinese subsidiary, Minebea Electronics Hi-Tech Components (Shanghai) Ltd. in the suburbs of Shanghai and started production of miniature and small-size ball bearings and of fan motors.
Since then, production of these products has increased smoothly at our current three plants in the Shanghai, one plant in the Zhuhai where "miniature and small-size ball bearings", "fan motors", "measuring instruments" "PC keyboards" and "vibration motors" are now produced. This positions the subsidiary as our main factory of "fan motors" and "PC keyboards".
Operations in China account for approximately 20% of total group output and form the second largest production base of the Minebea Group following Thailand.
We intend to decide on our product lineup and production scale while keeping a careful eye on market trends in China and the other parts of the world, situations in China, foreign exchange fluctuations and other business factors.
