Furukawa Electric said on September 24 that it will sell all of the UACJ Corporation shares it holds, one of the listed securities it counts among its policy shareholdings, through a securities firm on September 25. The Tokyo Prime-listed cable and materials maker expects to receive about ¥28.6bn from the sale and book a special gain of about ¥22.0bn on the disposal. The company cited two reasons for parting with the stake: cutting its policy-held cross-shareholdings and freeing up cash for growth investment.
The timing is the real news. Furukawa Electric had originally expected to book this disposal from the third quarter of the year to March 2027 onward. Weighing market conditions and UACJ's share price, it moved the sale into the first half, the six months to September 2026, instead.
That shift changes two lines of the half-year guidance. Net profit attributable to owners of the parent rises to ¥58.0bn from a prior forecast of ¥42.5bn, an increase of ¥15.5bn, or 36.5%, and half-year earnings per share climb to ¥82.45 from ¥60.41. Sales, operating profit and ordinary profit forecasts for the half are untouched at ¥720.0bn, ¥49.5bn and ¥60.5bn respectively, and Furukawa Electric left its full-year guidance unrevised. The uplift is a one-off from selling a security, not a sign the underlying cable and materials business is earning more this half.
| Metric | Previous forecast | Revised forecast | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net sales | ¥720.0bn | ¥720.0bn | unchanged |
| Operating profit | ¥49.5bn | ¥49.5bn | unchanged |
| Ordinary profit | ¥60.5bn | ¥60.5bn | unchanged |
| Net profit attributable to owners | ¥42.5bn | ¥58.0bn | +¥15.5bn (+36.5%) |
| Earnings per share | ¥60.41 | ¥82.45 | — |
UACJ confirmed the mechanics from the other side of the trade. Furukawa Electric is its second-largest shareholder, and the block being sold is the whole of that holding, about 7% of UACJ's outstanding shares, placed through a securities firm. UACJ framed the sale as routine housekeeping under the Corporate Governance Code's push to unwind cross-shareholdings, and said it expects the disposal to raise its free float, improve liquidity and widen its investor base. UACJ said the sale has no effect on its own business operations or earnings, and that trading and cooperation with Furukawa Electric will continue even after the equity tie is fully severed.
UACJ was formed through the merger of two aluminum makers, one of them previously a Furukawa Electric subsidiary. This notice gives no timetable for any other policy holdings Furukawa Electric may hold, so whether the UACJ sale is the start of a wider reduction or a stand-alone disposal tied to favorable pricing is not established by it.