Bestera started the year with its strongest first quarter on record, but the company's June 9 disclosures also made clear that two separate issues still need watching: larger demolition projects are pulling in more working capital, and the financial consequences of April's fatal accident in Kawasaki remain impossible to size. Sales for the three months to April 30 rose 29.3% from a year earlier to ¥3.27 billion, operating profit jumped 164.1% to ¥353 million, and the company said large projects progressed ahead of plan while profitability improved.
Order flow was hardly sleepy, either. New orders reached ¥3.865 billion, up 188.5%, and order backlog ended the quarter at ¥9.141 billion, up 49.8%, which the presentation described as a first-quarter high. Bestera left unchanged its outlook for the year ending January 2027, including ¥13 billion in sales and ¥1 billion in operating profit. But it also said any direct profit-and-loss effect from the Kawasaki accident is still too difficult to calculate and is not included in that forecast.
After the quarter ended, the company approved total new borrowing of ¥6 billion to secure working capital as projects become larger. A separate June 9 notice covered a ¥2 billion variable-rate loan from Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, due to be executed on June 10 and repaid by May 31, 2029, unsecured and without guarantees. The earnings release said this followed a ¥4 billion borrowing from Mizuho Bank executed on May 29, with the same stated purpose. Bestera said the June 9 loan would have only a minor effect on full-year consolidated results.
The more sensitive disclosure was the company's second update on the April 7 accident at a demolition site at JFE Steel's East Japan Works, Keihin district, in Kawasaki. Bestera said six workers were affected, three died, two were injured and one remains missing. It said search operations are continuing, a recurrence-prevention committee led mainly by outside directors has been approved, and investigations by the relevant authorities are still under way, so the company is not expressing its own view on the cause or sequence of events. Management said there has so far been no interruption to work, no decline in project inquiries and no change to its midterm plan. The presentation separately showed about ¥8 million of accident-related selling, general and administrative expense in the quarter. That is a number, but not yet the number readers ultimately want.
The current picture, based on the company's own disclosures, is of stronger demand and better margins alongside higher funding needs and an open investigation. For Bestera, the quarter was excellent. For everyone trying to model the rest of the year, it was excellent with footnotes.