Nippon Express Holdings raised its full-year forecast on 11 November, lifting operating profit guidance to ¥135bn from the ¥120bn it published on 7 August. Revenue guidance rises to ¥2.83tn from ¥2.75tn, pretax profit to ¥120bn from ¥105bn, and profit attributable to owners of the parent to ¥80bn from ¥70bn, or ¥335.73 a share from ¥289.50. The forecast covers the year to December 2026. The annual dividend forecast of ¥100 was left unchanged.
Four drivers, one of them freight
The notice gives four reasons. International logistics volumes are holding up, mainly from Asia. Consolidating Metro Supply Chain Group adds revenue. Structural reform is improving profitability. And gains from selling low-profit real estate and other assets are expected to come in above the earlier forecast. The notice puts no figure on any of the four, so the ¥15bn operating-profit uplift cannot be split between recurring volume and one-off disposal gains.
What the nine months show
For January to September, revenue was ¥2.07tn, up 8.4%, and operating profit was ¥86.1bn, up 126.4%. The company credits stronger air and ocean freight handling and the effects of business reorganisation and function integration. South Asia and Oceania segment revenue rose 35.9% and segment profit 199.7%, led by air freight in electronics, apparel and semiconductors. Europe revenue rose 21.1% on air freight.
The cash-flow statement shows a ¥14.8bn gain on fixed-asset sales in the nine months, against a ¥1.6bn loss a year earlier. The results do not say how much of that came from the low-profit real estate the forecast refers to.
The nine-month report lists no significant change in the scope of consolidation, and the guidance notice gives no consolidation date or revenue figure for Metro. Readers can find the earlier deal story in Earlier Tokyo Brief coverage. The company planned an online briefing for institutional investors and analysts on 11 November, with materials to be posted on its website.