Now, we would like to start the presentation on Nidec Corporation's performance for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024. First, please turn off your mobile phones or put them on silent mode. Nidec Corporation's representatives to be presenting today's earnings results are as follows: Mr. Mitsuya Kishida, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Nidec Corporation; Mr. Akinobu Samura, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the company; Mr. Teruaki Urago, General Manager of the Investor Relations Department. That is all. In today's presentation, Mr. Samura will present an overview of the company's earnings results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2024. Then, Mr. Kishida will present the company's business strategy going forward. Then, the floor will be opened for a question and answer session. Please kindly wait until then to ask your questions.
The meeting is expected to last until 6:00 P.M. today. Now, Mr. Samura, please start your presentation. Thank you. This is Samura speaking. Thank you very much. I would like to talk to you and explain to you about our performance for the first fiscal quarter of this fiscal year. Please turn to slide 3. Net sales were, are up 14.8% to JPY 648.2 billion, and this is a record high result for us. Operating profit was up 0.1% to JPY 60.3 billion. It was a slight increase, but this is also, once again, a record high operating profit. Operating profit ratio was 0.38%, and this operating profit ratio includes the Nidec PSA eMotors. It's called NPE for short.
This was an equity method affiliate of Nidec until the end of fiscal 2023, but from the April, this company, joint venture, was consolidated, which... Then, the ten point one billion yen was included as a result of remeasuring the share of the said company. This will be explained in detail later. When it comes to the operating profit before income taxes, profit attributable to owners of the parent were both down. This is due to the effect of currency exchange rate. We had a decrease in the area of currency exchange rate. Please turn to slide 4. This is about the NPEs concerning, again, a step acquisition of Nidec PSA eMotors. Nidec acquired a controlling interest in Nidec PSA eMotors SAS, an equity method affiliate of Nidec.
Nidec made it a consolidated subsidiary as of April 1, 2024. Correspondingly, Nidec recognized a gain on the step acquisition of JPY 10.1 billion as a result of remeasuring the share of the said company, held by, held by the end of the previous fiscal year in a fair value on the acquisition date. In this case, as of March 31, which is JPY 6.7 billion, this was evaluated and based on a fair value and et cetera. Again, on a step acquisition is going to be a minus 6.7 billion yen plus JPY 16.8 billion, which equals JPY 10.1 billion. We had a third-party evaluation of this calculation base.
When it comes to this accounting method, this is not so familiar with the general public, but this is not so much of an incident. SoftBank, Rakuten, Ricoh, GE, and so many other companies have been involved in a similar method of acquisitions. Please turn to slide 5. Based on the financial explanations, we have made upward revisions on the forecast in terms of net sales, operating profit, operating profit ratio, among others. We have this balance between the first and the second half of this fiscal year. We are trying to move up the schedule as much as possible, and we have a more value balanced on the first half rather than on the second half. Please go to the slide number 6, and this is about our profit performance by group, product group.
When it comes to small precision motors, we have an inquiry, a recovery in the demand for the HDD motors, and we have a growing demand for water cooling module units. We have the vertical startup of this water module unit business, and we accelerate the pace of this recovery, and we have made a V-shaped recovery, as you can see. Next, automotive products, we are yet to launch a mass production system, and this JPY 33.8 billion is the amount of deficit for this automotive products. And we have JPY 10.1 billion for, and we have a positive number of JPY 6.3 billion, as you can see on the top left-hand, top right-hand side of this chart.
But in the end, we have been able to achieve the increased sales and operating profit. Next, appliance, commercial, and industrial products. We have consolidated and accumulated restructuring cost of JPY 1.5 billion, and we have a slight decrease in the year profit. Next, machinery. We have had optimization of our machinery production system. In the previous quarter of quarter four, last fiscal year, we have had some financial difficulties, but today, we have had a transfer of people as well as machinery. Because of that, we have a temporary decline in our profitability and profit efficiency, and because of that, we have had a decline, a slight decline in profitability. Please go to slide seven for more detailed information, year-on-year changes.
You can see that we have a chart on the slight increase or decrease of our performance compared with the last fiscal year. You can see that we have an increase in operating profit. We have had the gain minus restructuring taking place in Europe. Including all of these elements, we have had increase in profitability and sales and small precision motor and automotives, but we have a decrease in appliance, commercial, industrial, and machinery and some other business. Mm-hmm. You can see this decrease in appliance, commercial, industrial products in terms of operating profit. In the small precision motors and other units have enjoyed an increase in profitability, and the other sections have suffered some decrease. You can see the transition of free cash flow.
We have improved our performance when it comes to free cash flow. We have been able to use this, profitability, increased profitability for our shareholders and the, investment, reinvestment purposes in order to maximize our profitability as the group as a whole. We were able to recover from the, deficit from last fiscal year, and we have been able to, generate a record high amount of free cash flow of JPY 167.2 billion. We have at the low level, JPY 18.5 billion, as you can see, but on a year-on-year basis, we have been able to achieve an improvement. Lastly, on slide 10, these are the highlights of what I have just explained to you. That is all for the outlook of our performance, latest performance. Thank you very much. This is Kishida speaking.
I'd like to give you an important points as well as our long-term business strategy. First of all, when it comes to Q1, for Nidec, this was a very important three-month period for us to be able to make a very important step. Over the past years of hard work and dedication, we have looked at the reality very hard so that we can see for whom and how we should develop and make our products. And we would like to give you an update on some of our business activities. First of all, when it comes to Q1, I'd like to give you some topics over here. I'd like to give you two points in this section of our presentation. First of all, automotive business.
It was back in October last year that we have launched a very good, restructuring reform. We have talked to various people in the market, and we talked, and these people's focus of interest was on the traction motor. We were able to understand that in a previous session of this meeting, and we were able to understand the very huge impact of this business on us. This year—Last year, we have changed our strategy in this business, and we were able to see very positive changes, which I would like to give you an explanation on today in this meeting. Also, we, I'd like to explain to you how we could make a further development of this business.
First of all, the major change is as follows: we have had many traction businesses in China, and we have shifted our focus to be only dedicated on our joint venture in China. We have GAC as our main customer, and from this fiscal year on, we have a joint venture in Stellantis, and the joint venture is called NPE. These are two major automotive joint ventures that we have, and we have a traction business mainly in China with GAC. And from the second fiscal quarter and onward, we are going to make a profit. We will make sure to advance our schedule as much as possible, and we are ahead of our schedule. That's why I wanted to re-report to you here today.
When it comes to NPE, we will try to minimize the amount of deficit to the best extent possible, so that we can start generating profit from the third quarter of this fiscal year. We have had a direct talk between the two parent companies executives, and I have, I can say this to you with confidence. When it comes to NPE, 670,000 units is our target. We have made a downward revision of this number to the 400,000 unit level. This is how we like to minimize the negative impact on our financial capability. We like to focus on our production in the second half of this fiscal year. When it comes to these two parent companies, we have had various series of discussions with each other. We have had discussions on investment.
We have had a capacity of 1.5 million units, and that's our basic target for these two parent companies. That's going to be the area of our focus. We have a French, France production capacity. We will suppress it to a certain level. And when it comes to the additional level, as you can see on this second section of this slide, we have been in a very strict, severe business circumstance. We will maximize the experience from the country, and we will be focusing on the supply of components such as motors, and stators, and rotors. We will be talking to European OEM manufacturers as well as Japanese OEM manufacturers, to whom we elect to start supplying these products components. Going to the right-hand side of this slide, these are the existing businesses.
In these businesses, we have had major changes as well. First of all, this market itself, whether it be an EV or a hybrid, in either case, we will make sure to... We have been able to secure very good demands and orders of our products. First, when it comes to electronics, we have inverters, and we have these converters and DC-DC converters. These are ECU units. And designing and delivery of these products are the one new areas emerging in our company and business. We have OEM manufacturers in automotive, driving e-axle, the areas of other companies concentrations. And we have had the orders for the entire seat-related components, interior motors, brakes, in the entire unit. All of these products are the areas in which we are receiving a growing number of inquiries and orders.
In this area, we are making group-wide efforts. We have a large number of products ready to be supplied to our customers, in the cockpit, et cetera. We are going to receive orders for a system in basis as a whole.
Another point of change in this quarter is, as you can see on the upper left, the water coolant system, and we have seen increased business here. If you look at this water coolant system, it's called the CDU unit. But aside from that, you have quick coupling, and there are many peripheral devices and components, and we have decided to manufacture them in-house. So we are promoting production of critical components in-house. So when we say water coolant system, we have a tendency to speak only about water coolant system. But if you look at, as a whole, the AI data centers, which is experiencing an explosive growth, you will be able to see how our components are utilized in the AI data centers.
So for example, in the server racks of AI data center, there are water coolant system, spindle motors for the drivers, there's coolant tower, there's motors for the air conditioners or alternators for energy power generator or for clean energy, AI data center BESS. This is the energy storage system, and we are able to supply all of these in a comprehensive manner. In fact, Nidec, we do inspection devices of semiconductors, which is part of water coolant system. So we offer variety of different types of products, which will contribute to the growth of the AI data centers.
Going forward, based on what we have considered, we would work together with many core management around the world and steer our directions in this mid- to long-term direction that we have set out, and let me share that with you. We have been aiming for JPY 10 trillion in sales. We will achieve this organically, which will contribute to JPY 7 trillion and JPY 3 trillion through new M&As. This is our mid- to long-term direction, which we have set out, which we would like to describe to you. The mission of the new management is to carry on the strength of Nidec so far, but also enhance our corporate value through quality growth in the period of the second founding. This is what we have defined very clearly.
On top of that, we want to be a global company, and we will enhance that foundation as a global company. Also, we want to improve the quality of the company for corporate value. As a passing point of that, we will aim for market cap of JPY 10 trillion yen yen. In order to enhance our corporate value, it will not be all uniformly EV or any other one single product, but we have three axes of technology and five business axes, which we would overlay. No matter what age we are in, no matter when, we will be pursuing something that would allow us to be needed by the society at all times, and therefore, we would engage in activities towards the realization of circular society, and that's how we would like to grow as a company. First of all, what is core of Nidec?
First of all, we had thoroughly discussed this, what it is, and we have the 73-year history since the foundation of the company. Over half a century or so, we have built track record on things that spin and move, and that's what it, it is. And in addition to that, when we think about what the core is, we have found that there are two other axes for us. One is thermal management. Starting with motors, things that spin and move as we produce them, we need to convert from motion to thermal heat, and that cannot be avoided. So how do we control a loss called heat? And that's a big challenge, and this is where we have built up a lot of know-hows in.
The great leaps we have made in AI servers and also water cooling system, we will continue to build up on that capabilities and make sure that we bear fruit in AI servers. It's not just thermal management, but we have compressors, which will reduce or compress the coolants. It's not just cooling system, but we will also look at heating system as well, and we believe that there's room for expansion in the AC area. Other core axes is electricity generation, storage, charge, and conversion. This is the area where we actually treat electricity. So we have more than 50 years of experience in this area. So electricity, which is a source of energy, how do we manage this efficiently?
This is something that we have been challenging on since the foundation of this company, and we have built up our experience. In the 2010s, we have acquired companies outside of Japan, and we have been able to grow as a result of that. So from electricity to electricity, electricity to motion power, so... or mechanical power, we have this product line, line up in groups, which we would like to continue to increase and enhance. So the core of the three technologies will be the source of competitiveness of Nidec, and we will continue to drive towards the evolvement and advancement. So change the world, move the world, change the future.
This is the circular society which we would like to realize, and we will do so with the contribution of this great technological capabilities, and we will be able to become a solution provider, which would reduce-- which would realize carbon neutrality and CO₂ reductions. So through this, what will be the applications which we will be able to contribute to the world? There's five business pillars which we have identified and clarified. First pillar is supporting the AI society. That's how we had defined it. But this, today, AI today, is not just the boom for today. AI's existence will become a norm in every industry and every life, and we will see explosive AI growth and demand for servers which support that, and we know that this will accelerate going forward. Edge AI will be embedded in different devices and terminals.
It will be hard disk drives, coolant fans, coolant, and water cooling modules. These are the needs of the customer, which would we incorporate so that we can be growing at the cutting edge of IT. And with that experience, we would do chillers, BESS for power generator, and also semiconductor inspection devices. So that's thermal management, that's electricity generation and storage, all of these will allow us to face towards this explosive growth. The other pillar is the sustainable infrastructure and energy. In order to lead the circular economy, we need to meet the global demand for energy and support the conversion to sustainable energy. And what is it that we can do? Motor comprises 50% of the energy around the world, therefore, we need to supply high efficient motors, which would lead this industry.
In addition to that, renewable energy stability and supply, and also levelizing electricity demand. In the area of power generation and battery, we have control system and battery storage system and electricity management system. These are the technologies that we have, which we can contribute to the growth of this business segment as well. Next is the area of efficient manufacturing. Even in the monozukuri manufacturing, we can contribute. As we see automation evolve very rapidly, and as we see increasing labor cost, we're now beginning to see a big reform taking place in manufacturing. And we have been highly regarded in precision reducers, but we would also be able to offer solutions, especially for robots, especially reducers and motors, and in other areas as well, and we will make this our third pillar for growth.
The fourth area is the pursuit for a better life, and we would like to contribute to this business as well. Smart appliances and ACs for industrial purposes, these are the equipment and devices that will support the life, and this will continue to advance even in global service. As we see increasing move towards higher quality of life, we believe that we can continue to expand our business in this domain as well. Safe and secure, and health, those will be the perspective we would use to contribute to new product development, especially in AC. We will realize air-to-water, which is highly regarded. This is highly efficient compressors, and we are also capturing new technology such as heat compressors, so that we can also contribute to the world. And finally, we have mobility innovation. This is electrification and automation of eco-friendly vehicles.
We will begin to see continuous innovation in this area, and ahead of that, we can see new mobility, such as EVTOL. Just recently, as I have just said, we have electric solutions, and which we have been highly appreciated, and we can expect great expansion in the mobility products as well, which will contribute to the growth of this business area. So in these five business areas, we would like to continue to expand and leverage our strength so that we can generate next step growth.
In the various applications, we have the areas, sub-areas for us to pursue, and we sometimes acquire knowledge internally, but sometimes by way of M&A, and we like to drive this effort on a global basis. We have these five core pillars of businesses, as you can see. This is how we like to grow each of these businesses. From the left, and we can see the dark green, these are the areas, sizes last fiscal year, JPY 2.3 trillion in total, and then towards the 2030 fiscal year, we like to improve the sizes of these pillars so that we can achieve more than seven trillion yen, in addition to the additional JPY 3 trillion coming by way of M&A.
By growing these five pillars, we like to pursue the improvement and evolution of things that move and things that spin and move, so that we can pursue the better life and a sustainable society. As a solution provider, we like to make contributions to in these areas. Next, I would like to talk to you about India, which is one of our highly strategic areas in the world. This country, as a market, is continuing to grow rapidly. As 10 years ago, we started doing business in the area, and we have more than 14 different areas of businesses. We have several in the northern part and some others in the southern part of the country.
We can be close to our customers as possible, so that we can make a best way of contributions to each of these customers. In accordance with the growing demand for air conditioners, we would like to complete the construction of campus. This is going to be our fifteenth construction of business space. In this rapidly growing country of India, we would like to secure a great number of talented and brilliant engineers so that we can have this area as a center of excellence. That's what we would like to achieve in the future. In these activities, we would like to accelerate the pace of these activities, and we have made a press release today.
We have this MOU to be established with Tata Elxsi. In the, especially in the area of software, programming, we would like to deepen our relationship with each other by sharing with each other our knowledge and expertise. That's the contents of the press release. We will. In India will continue to grow and develop as a country, and we would like to provide our company's customers with a global level of services, and that's part of our strategy. In and towards the 2030, we would like to achieve a huge growth as well as stable cash flow. That's what we need to do. As a matter of course, in order to grow these pillars of businesses, we would like to generate the cash flow better than we have been able to before.
That's the type of change we would like to make happen. This is how we would like to improve the cash flow, and eventually, we would like to have acquisitions by M&A, and we would like to continue to make investment. At the same time, as has been the case, and we will continue to make contribution back to our shareholders, who have been a great supporters of our company. That this is... In addition to this, this dividend and other things that have been already released to the public, we will continue to maintain the principle of a stable provision of a dividend. We would like to continue to do that, to do that on a stable manner. In addition to that, in today's board of directors meeting, we have this effective date of October the first.
We are going to have a stock split, and the record date will be September 30th this year. Date of issue will be October 1 of this fiscal year. Split, the ratio will be 2-for-1 common stock. We would like to continue to share the enjoyment of growth with as many people as possible. That's our strong wish as a company. On to the next slide, this is our organizational structure for our future growth. We have had a huge conversion of management system as of April 1 of this fiscal year. We will continue to be a global company. We will continue to pursue our dreams as a company, and we will continue to take on challenges more than any other companies out there in the market.
No matter what changes we face, and no matter what times we go through, we will continue to have this corporate culture as our foundation, as a company, so that we can have more people and so that we can enjoy more technologies as a company. This is the second phase of Nidec's founding. We have now embarked on this process. We are going to move the future. We will change the future. We will move the world. This is how we would like to continue to take on challenges as a part of our DNA, and we will continue to make steps one by one, all for our dreams. Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you. Now, we would like to have a question and answer session.
If you have any questions, please make sure to be handed over a microphone, and please raise your hand if you'd like to ask any question. We'd like to have some questions from securities analysts, first of all, followed by people in the mass media. Thank you very much for your understanding. First of all, from among industrial analysts, securities analysts, does anyone have any questions, please? Hello. Thank you very much for your explanation. This is Takayama of Goldman Sachs. I would like to ask you three questions. When it comes to water cooling module-... Over the past few months, I believe the situation has been truly dramatic over the past few months. Please give us an update on the upcoming sales forecast, operating profit forecast towards the end of this fiscal year. Please give me those numbers.
I believe you have gone through some quality issues, according to some news media reports. I believe that's the point where you have to be handling situations very sensitively, carefully, and you have been receiving requests of orders from people other than your major customers. When it comes to the companies other than Super Micro, do you have to be handling those quality issues, or are you trying to be focused on one major customer, which is Super Micro? What is your current situation at the business front? That's my first question here. I'd like to give an, that Mr. Samura gave you some figures over the numbers there in response to your question. Previous fiscal year, annual forecast was JPY 20 billion or so.
That, you know, to achieve our minimum level of operating profit of 15%. But at the end of Q1, when it comes to sales forecast, it's about JPY 7 billion or so. When it comes to operating profit, I won't give you any specific numbers. We have been able to secure profit better than planned originally. When it comes to this fiscal year's forecast, I believe we can achieve a little more than double than initially planned. When it comes to these numbers, I cannot give you details because of our relationship with our customers, but this is the level we have not really been able to imagine before. But when it comes to technological revolutions to make these water cooling modules, these things are moving very rapidly.
Chips of this stuff is going to be a very important, source, area of change in the second quarter going forward, and we need to improve our water pressure as well. We need to launch all of these, improvements in various areas. We have Super Micro and its customers, and the number of these customers is growing so rapidly as well. We need to focus on these existing customers. We definitely make sure never to cause any quality problems. If we do that, there won't be a, any future about this business. Based on that commitment, we are making, various efforts to the best of our capability. When it comes to quick coupling and other, component-related, businesses, we have been receiving inquiries from various customers, potential customers.
Through TOB, Takisawa is now a member of our Nidec Group, and Takisawa is now trying to make the products in growing numbers. We like to improve our production capabilities so that we can meet the growing needs of quick coupling and other components. We have another designing team to be able to cover the general purpose components and other products. That's part of our future perspective. But as of now, over the past three months, what we have done is to be focused on our business with Super Micro. And at the end of the day, we are trying to meet the needs from the customer. You have talked about your in-house production of components and products. Can you talk about more specifically about the products that you're trying to produce in-house?
Are you receiving any approval from individual customers? These products are components are truly important. We need to obtain approval from individual customers. Currently, we are focused on quick coupling and other connection-related components. These are the group of components we are focused on, as well as some components within the chillers, pumps, water ascending components, motor-related components within the CDU. These are the areas of focuses as of now. Thank you. And my second question is as follows: When it comes to traction motors, that's one of the major topics here. And in China, can you feel... Okay, what is the reason for you to be able to confidently be able to say that, that you have been able to secure a profit in China?
But when it comes to Europe, how can you say that you will be able to make profits from Q3 and onward? I believe you're struggling with the increasing the number of quantity, I believe. Are you still focused on the second half of this fiscal year, or what is your standard of business perspective? Well, thank you very much. This is a very important business area as well. Based on our level of achievement in Q1, we would like to go to the next phase of achievement. When it comes to NCJ or Nidec Corporation, we have this business in China.... As I've said before, we have Gen-1 products and Gen-2 products. I would like to replace them with Gen-3 products starting from September or from Q3 of this fiscal year, depending on the customers.
And when it comes to development process of Gen 3 products, we have been doing this business very steadily when it comes to Gen 3 business, in comparison with Gen 1 or Gen 2 businesses. We have spent 5-6 years for the transition from Gen 1 to Gen 2. We have had a new partner for electricity-related components. This communication is going very, very smoothly, and based on the knowledge and expertise accumulated inside, we have been able to do this business very smoothly now. Gen 3 products are starting up surely, certainly. In China, in the past, we have had some illusory numbers that we have given you before. That's not the case anymore. We have handled all the fixed cost related issues. We have completed with the process.
By the end of the last fiscal year, we can expect a profit to be generated in the area of Gen 3 in China. That's the response that I have received when it comes to our automotive business in China. When it comes to NPE in Europe, we have had this very close weekly discussions between the two parent companies of this joint venture. We have been discussing a material cost, a fixed cost, and we are trying to reduce all of these costs in cooperation between these two parent companies. We are going to avoid making additional unnecessary investment. This is a production taking place within France.
When it comes to this joint venture, we will continue to have this, strengthen this joint venture, of course, but at the same time, we would like to think about how much more production that we can take place in France. But as based on the discussion between the two parent companies, now, we like to achieve the level that we have shown you today. And currently, the things are going as planned when it comes to this NPE business, and we have been able to reduce the deficit to more than we had anticipated, and we have been able to, I believe we will be able to reduce the deficit from Q1 to Q2 so that we can achieve a profit in Q3. That's what I can say to you with confidence.
But at the same time, we need to make a large, huge amount of profit from this business. We need to have. We have had a cap. Based on that, we are going to have a limit in the amount of profit that we can achieve. This is another important point of our business. We have EV-related traction components. Businesses is going to expand as far as we are concerned, more than we had anticipated. We would like to continue to stick to the business we are specialized in, we are truly good at making. Thank you very much.
One last question. You mentioned about five businesses and three, you know, core axes, and this is very easy to understand. It really, I was able to really understand, especially in light of the second generation. Now, you had a chart with the JPY 7 trillion organic growth, achieving that by 2030. So one question about that is: what sort of visibility do you have? Maybe you have the fixed number for next three years, so what's the substance of that? And also, in the process of developing this, you -- I'm sure you have found something that was missing this, so you have the JPY 3 trillion in M&A. And so, you know, what sort of ideas do you have about M&A, the JPY 3 trillion? So let's go back one page.
So the further we try to, you know, we advance in this area, there will be pieces that we will be missing, and what is it that we would be trying to fill in with M&A? And of course, I'm not going to be able to, you know, plot out for you today, but I'm looking at these metrics, you know, every week, and have deep discussion with Mr. Nagamori. But the dots, the three dots you see, I would say that's the missing piece, which would be filled in with M&A. And I think as we move on, we will be able to increase greater visibility, and there will be things that we will be able to see more.
Now, the visibility into this, each of these businesses in order to achieve JPY 1.5 trillion, you know, we have tried to build this up with all the businesses. And of course, there's some more, some less, and when you actually accumulate this, this is a group that was, you know, driven by automotive business, so, you know, auto projection much, much higher than this. And for meanwhile, AI data center, the discussion has just started, so maybe it's not as high as this. So to be honest with you, you know, there's a lot of, you know, ups and downs, but, you know, next year, you know, we say maybe one target would be JPY 3 trillion. Maybe within a certain year, we need to be able to achieve to this certain level.
So internally, we have a pretty substantial visibility and have been able to share that inside. So there's a pathway that is already clearly in the company and within the businesses. Now, going forward, you know, we need to get the feedback from the customers, from the stakeholders, and also internally as well, so that we can improve the plan more so than before. So thank you very much. Any other questions? Then the person here. Akizuki from Nomura Securities. Thank you very much. I have three questions. First question, about upside on the profitability, and that was your track record in Q1, so where would be the factor for that?
And also, maybe if I could ask for more color, you talked about, you know, components are being produced internally, and perhaps that would improve your margin more so than ever. Now, I'm asking this question with some speculations, but is that the right understanding? So I would like to hear more, get more color on profitability. Sure. So the market has just really started, and so, you know, in order to we have to increase the production system by tenfold suddenly, and it's been a lot of challenges and exploration, so 5% is just, you know, internally. And so, you know, this is just from the original projection.
But from going forward, you know, I talked about this being vertical startup, but we've been doing this at a very speedy manner and in appropriate manner, and as a result of that, we have been able to exceed our profitability target. But this industry is evolving at a very quick pace, fast pace, so we have to be cautious in order to secure solid profitability. In addition to that, as you rightly point out, producing in-house will help us with profitability, and this is our winning pattern before, so we will be thorough in pursuing that. However, if we limit this to Q1, the profitability improvement through in-house manufacturing, it's—the contribution isn't so much in Q1. I think it will be in the latter half of this year that we will see more contributions.
I hope you can look forward to this. Related to Takayama-san's question earlier, but you know, quick coupling was a lot harder than you had assumed. There's a lot of water leakage, and so it's creating a lot of noise, I think. And I investigated the supplier, and there's a lot of Western companies who's involved in this business of, you know, quick coupling, and it seems as though it's very high-margin business. But you know, you are a volume manufacturer. If you were to do this, my impression is that maybe the profitability is quite good. But in this process components, do you think there's a good profitability? You are right, so the supplier is quite limited today. These are all Canadian and German companies, so suppliers are limited to those areas.
And, you know, many assemblers are now starting to enter this business, but this is not an easy business, easy processing. And if there's one drop of leakage, it could cause a great trouble, so we are extremely cautious and very thorough in confirming the technology so that we will be able to produce this perfectly in-house. Thank you. And the second question, ACIM and motion & Energy, how should we look at this business this year? Can you be more comprehensive on this explanation of these two businesses? In Q1, the restructuring charges was a little less than against the plan, right? I think you said JPY 1 billion, Samura-san, but it's JPY 7 billion. I think that was the plan in the first half. So can you also explain about that, the progress on the restructuring?
You know, you have the projection, improving profitability from the first half to second half, so are you able to maintain that? Thank you. So about restructuring, we were looking at JPY 6 billion-JPY 7 billion. That was our estimate initially. Overall, we want to reduce this as much as possible. Also, on a full year effect, we want to be sure that it's generated, even -- we, so we will be working at cash out. And in Q1, we were able to maintain about JPY 1 billion under this effort to make sure that we have as little cash out as possible. ACIM and motion & Energy, , I have to be responsible for myself, so I have exchanges on a day-to-day basis. In Q1, restructuring was -- there was a lot of ACIM related, especially in Europe, so a lot of restructuring took place in Europe, ACIM business.
The management actually go to the front lines and lead this. So I think the second half, we should be able to get a result a lot more than we are planning. MOEN in Q1, in some of the categories, there was a slight underperformance, but, you know, their target has been completely overcome. It's achieved. So ACISIM and MOEN in the second half will lead the progress, especially in the five business areas that I had talked about earlier. So on Q-on-Q profitability seems as though has declined slightly in AC motors. If you exclude restructuring, what is the reason for this decline in profitability?
Well, there was a restructuring, and also, in Q4, there was a big warehouse accident in the United States, and we had an estimate for the losses here, and this had increased a little bit in Q1, and so there was one-off reasons. And also, in the past, there was increase in selling prices, and so we had lost our share, so there was a correction of that as well. So these are all one-off reasons.
I see. Thank you. And last point, about M&A. So Nagamori-san, in the past, was saying that the next Nagamori... I'm sorry, I forgot the official, his name, his title, but anyway, he was saying that he, he wanted to do a large industrial motor, so you had a lot of M&As in the midsize. And I think if you were to go to the big size, you know, that would be a natural flow. But under Kishida CEO, under your new vision, you know, your next M&A will be relatively large in size. Where would you touch on, I'm sure you have a few candidates, but, where would you start off with? As much as you can share, please give us that information.
So I'm not sure to what extent I can share this information with you, 'cause that's a very difficult question, but thank you for that. So industrial use or mechanical, I think we are more focused in our discussion and considerations doing M&A, so there are several M&A candidates in these areas. But we don't really... If we were to categorize them, it's really going forward now. I mean, right now, the candidates... So I think the new management's role is to make sure that there's a good, strong pipeline of, and candidates of M&As, and that's still yet to take place. So on a day-to-day basis, we have very intense discussion on this, so I hope that you, this would be enough answer to your question. Thank you.
The person over there, please. This is Naito, Citi Group Securities. Thank you very much for the explanation. I'd like to give you two questions here. First of all, when it comes to overall figures here, you have made upward revision. Can you give me a background about this upward revision?
JPY 15 billion for the first half, and that includes NPE. It's about JPY 5 billion as an additional element, I believe.
Please tell me what this number came, comes from?
When it comes to second half of this fiscal year, I believe the number is slightly less than the first half year's number.
Can you elaborate on that?
Okay. When it comes to Q1, when it comes to the original guidance, it's JPY 100 billion operating profit for the first half of this fiscal year. When it comes to Q1, forty-five billion yen was what we were targeting, and then we were able to achieve JPY 60 billion. Of that, JPY 10 billion was concerning accounting issue. In Q1, we have achieved JPY 5.9 billion. And we have eventually made the, this upward revision by JPY 115 billion. And throughout the year, we have going to achieve expected to achieve upward revision of JPY 10 billion. If I may add one thing, when it comes to, in the area, especially in the automotive business, we have had some fragile situations we have to go through.
We have had downward revisions a number of times. In the, we are a group of achievement. We are committed to achieve as the new business management, executive management.
Thank you very much. When it comes to this additional, I'd like to give you an additional questions to that point. When it comes to cooling the business, you have had the business going over down original plan. When it comes to Q2 and thereafter, at this moment, are you having this, are you having this conservative forecast?
I would say yes. When it comes to this business, as I've said, this business is under development still, and we need to check out the situation very carefully as we move forward.
Thank you very much. Here's my next question. When it comes to these five pillars of business, I'd like to give you a question. Sales are going to increase in each of these areas. When it comes to operating profit ratio or operating profitability towards 2030, how do you see these are going to change towards 2030? And are there any areas where you can expect a very good margin, if any, please tell me.
In these business areas that we're going to be successful in-
... We would like to achieve at least 15% of operating profit ratio. That's the minimum for us to achieve, want to achieve. There are some startup products which are going to underachieve these as a minimum target of 15%. But all in all, we definitely want to aim to achieve a 15.5% operating profit ratio as the competition in the market intensifies. That's the level of target that we have in our mind. Thank you very much. This is my additional question here. As far as you can see, you are going to be able to achieve a 15% in operating profit ratio in all of these areas? We are not going to enter into any business where we cannot expect achieve a 15%.
15% is part of our DNA. We definitely need to achieve that. We are not going to be in any business just to grow the business. That's not the type of thinking that we have. Thank you. That is all from me. Next, we would like to have some questions from the mass media. The person who is raising his or her hand there. Thank you. This is Abe of Nikkei Newspaper. I'd like to ask you two questions to Kishida-san. And the first question is regarding the software development in India. And you're going to have the software development facility in India in the future, as you said in your explanation. When is it going to be? Is it going to be sometime in the near future? Can you tell me when it is going to be?
Well, the size of the facility is going to be small. We're going to have some movements taking place from some of our group companies. We have this facility called the Center of Excellence in India. We are going to do that from this fiscal year. We're going to take actions, and the number will increase from several hundreds to several thousand in the future. But we have this somewhere in the state which is home to Bangalore, and we're going to develop software programs in this place within the state, home to Bangalore. Here's my second, next question. Thank you for the first question. This is not about India, but this is about your midterm and long-term strategy.
In the end, you're going to achieve the sales of JPY 10 trillion in 2030, which is the same as before. And you, you explained once again about your company's midterm and long-term strategy. Why is that? Are you going to change the way you make steps towards the future to achieve this number? Why is it that you explained this chart once again here, this today? We have been sharing this information with you. JPY 10 trillion in 2030 fiscal year. This is just about the sales target. We have not been able to explain to you the chart or steps toward achieving the target. That has only been in Mr. Nagamori's mind. What we have done is to redraw the map toward achieving the target of JPY 10 trillion in 2030.
That's the meaning, background of my latest explanation about this roadmap. Of course, this chart... There, there are some charts, there are some maps that are yet to be complete or perfect. That is true. There are some missing pieces as well. But we have this global team of management executives to try to come up with one map to be able to be shown to you. That's the major reason for us to have decided to explain this to you. Thank you. Thank you very much for your explanation. Thank you. And here is going to be, next question is going to be the final question. Anyone, does anyone have any question? Please, the person over there. This is Tsunoda of Nihon Keizai Shimbun. Thank you very much for your explanation today. I'd like to give you two questions.
My first question is regarding this long-term and mid-term strategy. You said that you're trying to achieve JPY 10 trillion in sales in 2030. In 2025, for example, JPY 2 trillion, ROIC with 15%, I believe that was your target in terms of ROIC. When it comes to these numerical targets of the JPY 10 trillion, and as well, I believe this number strikes me as a conservative number. Huh? How come you have not been so aggressive in showing us these numbers? The reasons for... There's not so many people who like to explain such reasons, I believe. But as I've said before... We are trying to redraw the map, roadmap towards achieving this goal of 2030, JPY 10 trillion in sales.
As a midterm goal, we have a ROIC-related number, which we have disclosed in the past. We have communicated these numbers to you. We're not going to throw everything away when it comes to our past targets or premises, but the way we try to do things has not been really a good match with the way we try to do things now. We would like to show you the result of our discussions. We have been target-based before, now we are team-oriented as a company. As we have been able to reach a consensus, which we would like to continue to show you going forward. We would like to improve our market capitalization as a company. We will continue to aim to achieve JPY 10 trillion in sales in 2030 fiscal year.
We have spent a lot of time discussing those issues on the balance sheet. We have cash flow targets, free cash flow target as well, to achieve a certain amount by or in a certain fiscal year. But at this moment, we are yet to be able to disclose those numbers to you in detail. When we have reached that stage, we would like to share these numbers with you in detail. As far as I'm concerned, I would like to be managing this company based on ROIC targets. Over the past three months, we have not been fully prepared to be able to disclose those targets. That's my honest answer to you. Thank you very much.
Here's my second question: when it comes to Indian software development project, you have had the MOU with Tata, as a group company. Can you be more specific about products that you would like to utilize in association, collaboration with Tata? We're not really limiting the area of products that we would like to utilize together with the Tata Elxsi. With this company, I, myself, have been having a long-lasting business relationship even after joining Nidec. We have had some automotive-related talks with the company in the group. This release is not about a specific target, or a specific group, or a specific product to launch. This MOU is about letting you know about the future growth of our individual businesses. That's the case that has been so far.
But, we, we have some differences in laws, taxes, tax affairs, tax practices in different states in India. We would like to give you such information as part of our group-wide activities, and that's part of our vision as well. Thank you very much. Now, we would like to finish this financial presentation, Nidec, for the first quarter of this fiscal year, 2024. Thank you very much for your attendance today. Thank you very much.