Now, let's start the presentation on Nidec Corporation's performance for the third quarter of fiscal year of 2024. We would like to thank you very much for your participation in this virtual video schedule. We have Mr. Mitsuya Kishida, President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Tatsuya Nishimoto, Executive Vice President in charge of Automation and Machinery Business Unit. Mr. Takamitsu Araki, First Senior Vice President in charge of company's M&A activities. Mr. Akinobu Samura, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
I am Teruaki Urago, General Manager of the Investor Relations Department, and I'll serve as the moderator for this meeting. In today's presentation, we have two sections. The first section will be about the company's latest performance results, followed by the second section, which is about the press conference on Nidec's TOB-based acquisition of Makino Milling Machine. We will have a question-and-answer session for each of these sessions.
Thank you very much for your understanding. Now, we would like to start the first section of the presentation. First, Mr. Samura will present an overview of the company's latest earnings results, followed by the presentation and explanation detailed by Mr. Kishida. This first session is expected to last until 5:45 P.M. Now, Mr. Samura, please.
Thank you very much. I would like to give an update on the financial results of this quarter three . Please take a look at the middle section of the page over here. First of all, net sales, which rose by 11.5% to JPY 1.946 trillion. This is a record high result in terms of net sales. When it comes to operating profit, it was up by 5.0% to JPY 175.5 billion, which is another record high result for us.
When it comes to operating profit, operating profit before income taxes, as well as profit attributable to owners of the business, these were down by 4.7% and 6.7%, respectively. This is due to the temporary effect of the depreciation and the fluctuation change in the current exchange rate, which resulted in the financial loss of JPY 22.5 billion, and nearly all the numbers, exchange rate-related data, are remaining unchanged since the first half of this fiscal year. Next, I'd like to give an update on the product overview by Product Group. The demand for Hard Disk Motors remained to be high, and demand for the AI server has been growing rapidly, and due to the late delivery of some products to the customers, there has been some loss in the latest quarter, this past latest quarter. Next, Automotive Products. Profitable situation in China remained continued.
Due to some positive impact, we have been able to reduce the amount of debt. We have some tight situation in European and American car manufacturers, and we have done some restructuring efforts in this area. We have lost some profit. When it comes to the Appliance, Commercial, and Industrial products, we have done some consolidation of our business bases in this area. We have spent about JPY 2 billion for that effort. We have a U.S. Motors products which are very profitable. There has been a seasonal temporary loss in the momentum, and there have been other effects due to that. All of that, we have suffered some loss. Lastly, when it comes to Machinery, we have had some ongoing sluggish situation, but there are signs of recovery in this business. We have press machines and machine tools.
Sales have increased, and the results are as you can see here on the slide. These are the details over here on this slide. You can see the year-on-year changes. You can see the chart. You can see the increases and decreases from the previous fiscal year. We have the exchange rate, which is up JPY 91.5 billion in terms of net sales. Machinery and Small Precision Motors have enjoyed increased sales and operating profit. The other ones have enjoyed increased sales, but some of them have suffered a decreased operating profit. When it comes to quarter-on-quarter changes, as you can see, there are some decreases in some of these businesses, including Small Precision Motors, Automotive Products, and Appliance, Commercial, and Industrial segments.
I would like to skip the detailed explanation here, which also overlaps with the previous slide situation. Next, promoting cash flow management, JPY 41.1 billion for the operating cash flow. You can see the steady growth improvement from the past fiscal quarter, but slightly decreased from the previous fiscal year. And we are doing the accompanying efforts to increase our efficiency as a business. And we are continuing to accelerate our pace of cash-generating activities. And these are the major points. That is all for the summary of our financial situation. From now on, I would like to explain major topics from quarter three of this fiscal year. And I'd like to give an update on our activities for fiscal year 2025 and thereafter. First of all, please take a look at this chart over here. This is our initial original business, Hard Disk Drive Motor business.
This is our history over the past 35 years or so. We have hit the bottom in the 2023 fiscal year, and we are expected to increase in the number of HDD shipments from 2024 calendar year. Our data center-related hard disk drives are spearheading this effort. When it comes to our Nidec situation over here, please take a look at the chart on the right. You can see that these products account for 60% of the entire product portfolio. And this Hard Disk Drive business continues to be a growing business for us. Please take a look at this slide over here. This is one of our new businesses, some of our new businesses here, Water Cooling S ystem business. It includes GPU and chipsets. And we are enjoying the growing momentum of this business over here.
In Q3 and Q4, these quarters are truly important for us when it comes to the preparations for the future growth. That's what we realized once again. Here are the details of the preparations here. We need to expand our component business. It includes quick coupling, LCM, and other important components are included here. When it comes to quick coupling, which is something that I've touched upon last time, we need preparations for our Chinese customers as well as our American customers, and we are utilizing Philippine factories for that, and starting from December, we have started shipping our components that are explained over here. When it comes to sales route, that's another important topic here. As of today, our water cooling business is, we are limited to direct sales of our products to server makers such as Supermicro, Fujitsu, among other companies.
That's a direct business between us and them, and plus, we have a data center business operators, system integrators. All EM and OEMs are making strong demands for us to ship them our products. Indoor types and other types components are what we are preparing to ship to them. Timings are very important, and we would like to give you a very detailed explanation in the future. When it comes to Q3 and Q4, we will make sure to do a very good solid development of our products. There is one more topic over here, production-related preparations. Please take a look at the photograph over here. This is our Ayutthaya, Thailand factory, and we have this Rojana Industrial Park. Factory 2 and Factory 6 are the areas where we are making preparations for producing CDUs. These are the solid preparations we are making for upcoming Q1 and thereafter.
That's what I'd like to report to you. Thank you.
Next. This is the W ater Cooling System, including the Telecom business. We are talking to Fujitsu, and we would like to further broaden this business to address the technologies with the next generation telecommunication technology. So what we are trying to offer with the five business pillars is that this will be necessary for all the five business pillars. So for that, as Nidec, we decided to participate in our own. For this initiative, I wanted to offer you some report. Nidec has been providing the cooling system for the base stations, and we have a broad range of telecommunication-related businesses. But we'd like to make further contributions to this sector. So for our five pillars, we are going to acquire this technology that will be a common base for five business pillars. And that's the reason for participating in our own.
Also, MOEN is engaged in the battery energy storage system. There are some updates that I'd like to make. Here, we are enjoying strong order taking in this fiscal year. The business unit has expanded to roughly JPY 50 billion. Going forward, we expect a figure of high 20%-30%. With that in mind, we would like to grow the business. As of today, this business is mainly focused on the European market to grow. As you can see at the bottom right, I visited this factory in December in the suburban area of Lyon, France. There are nine buildings, and we are making production in these nine buildings. But we are going to relocate to Saint-Etienne, to the new plant, in order to consolidate these nine bases to expand our business. From the beginning of FY 2025, this will contribute to our business.
We are also making similar preparations in Italy to expand our factory, so this is for the large capacity and large voltage control will be enabled. We believe this is a competitive edge, and we would like to utilize this high-quality production expertise to be competitive. As of today, on a project basis, we have an order of roughly $2 billion, so we want to make sure that this business will become one of the strong contributors to the profit, and today, in the second part, we will offer you more details on this topic. Also, we made a letter of intent in order to maximize our corporate value with a high technology and also high solution capability. We are targeting a Makino Milling Machine.
In order for us to become one of the leading machine tool manufacturers, and we want to maximize our corporate value working together with the target company. Nidec has built our technology based on 97 M&As across the world. We would like to work together closely with Makino Milling Machine, leveraging the high management capability to become one of the world's leading machine tool manufacturers. We'd like to be in discussion in good faith with Makino Milling Machine. Mr. Araki and Mr. Nishimoto will offer you details in the second part of today's meeting. In the last three years, we have continued to conduct structural reform on the auto business. We are now in the final phase of the structural reform for this business. As of October 1st, the Automotive existing business was transferred to ACIM.
The existing Automotive business, as you can see on this slide, there were three, one, two, three, indicated on the slide. The first one is the Automotive motors manufactured in China. The second business is Automotive motors manufactured in Europe and the Americas. With more than 10 group companies in Japan, we have the third Automotive business, which is catering to the Japanese OEMs. There are some seasonality, but each of these businesses has generated up to JPY 200 billion. Altogether, the automotive existing business has a size of JPY 600 billion. For many years, we struggled with the second part of this Auto business, where we are manufacturing in Europe and the Americas. We have rolled a lot of countermeasures, and there are a lot of things that we were doing for structural reform. From Q3, we commenced on rolling out these initiatives.
So that said, as countermeasures, what we needed to do has already been implemented. In Q3, Q4, we will continue further improvement so that the second business domain will start to make profit contributions from FY 2025 and from FY2026, 2027. We would like to make a double digit profit contribution from this business. And we have put together a business plan to achieve that. And also, for many years, the traction business was causing concern over the investors. But as was indicated earlier, the traction business based in China is starting to generate profit from Q3 and for Q4 and from FY 2025. We have been able to turn around the business so that they will continue to generate profit. And also, the Stellantis JV business in Q1, Q2, Q3, we're seeing improvement in reducing the losses. So finally, in Q4, we will start to generate profit.
Also, two years ago, we have been communicating about the traction-related component business, and now we are going to exploit this opportunity, and Stellantis is injecting money into the Leapmotor, and from that, we have received the order from December, and from Huawei, we were certified as the manufacturer, and we plan to ship out in February, so for the component business, we have made progress, so for the traction business, we are making progress on par with the plan, for the 10-month, with the new management team, we have embarked on new initiatives, but there are more that we can do, and from FY 2025, we will start the business plan leading up to FY 2027, and we want to turn around our business foundation so that we will be highly profitable, and for that, we are going to roll out various structural reforms.
The ACIM integration, Automotive integration, and Mobility Services integration are some iconic measures that we have taken. And we will make further progress in trying to further consolidate our businesses without making any exceptions. We will consider how the business should look like to improve. And in India, where we cannot achieve enough growth on a standalone basis, we will conduct a group-wide measure to accelerate our growth. And on top of that, the business-based consolidation will be conducted on a cross-functional basis. And we will start the fundamental reform. And we are feeling a good impact and results from those initiatives. Unnecessary assets, divestitures. And also, the inter-regional fundamental reform will be conducted in each of the regions like Europe. And as new management team, we will continue to augment the structure as an organization.
The operation capability will be improved, and the DX will be supporting those initiatives. DX investment plan is in place for us to facilitate the structural reform. The head office functions will be globalized, and we will make a fundamental change effective April 1st in the HR area and also the global organizational team and the CFO teams, and the current organization structure will be revisited so that there will be a change in the organizational structure, inviting participation from the overseas talent.
Starting from this week's call, we have a technological committee, and we have discussed all the reforms on software and other issues. We will continue to do that relentlessly. Relentlessly. Starting from 2025, we are going to launch a new system. We have this new three-year business plan, new three-year strategy to fiscal 2027. And we would like to give you updates in the future meetings. Structural reforms will be necessary, and consolidation of business bases will be necessary, investment in new organizations, investment in human resources, structural reforms will be all necessary. And we would like to share with everyone all the detailed information, the latest information, so that we can visualize our service. This is going to be a full-fledged effort for us to globalize our service. And we are going to become a truly important or leading high-efficiency organization. This type of effort has already started.
Starting from this second half of this fiscal year, we have already started some of these actions. And for the three fiscal years, starting from the next one, we would like to establish ourselves as a high-efficiency organization. That is all from me. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Now, we'd like to open the floor for a question and answer session. If you have any question, please raise your hand. And please make sure to receive a microphone from one of our staffers. First, we'd like to entertain questions from securities analysts, followed by people from the mass media. Thank you in advance for your understanding. First of all, does anyone among the securities analysts have any questions? The person in the front row, please.
Thank you very much. And this is Takayama of Goldman Sachs Corporation. I'd like to give you three questions here. First of all, when it comes to individual products, including Water Cooling and Traction Motor-related products, can you elaborate on numbers of these products for this fiscal year as well as for next fiscal year? What type of forecast do you have for these products when it comes to sales and other important elements? When it comes to non-Supermicro customers with non-CDU products, how much do these other products account for in your product portfolio?
Thank you very much for the question. I would like to give the answer, and as necessary, I would like to have Urago as well as Mr. Samura. I would like to add some information as necessary.
When it comes to Water Cooling business, for this fiscal year, we have exchanged several numbers: JPY 200 billion at the beginning of this year. During the middle of the process, we wanted to start aiming for JPY 400 billion instead. But at this moment, we are now going back to the initial level, which is JPY 200 billion. But in the end, I believe this business can become a JPY 500 billion business in the future. We would like to start the preparations for that from now.
When it comes to the breakdown of the non-Supermicro customers, as of today, we are still in a planning process phase. We are working with Supermicro as well as Fujitsu. We would like to continue to grow with these companies. And we would like to expand our sales with other customers as well for this fiscal year and thereafter. Urago, do you have anything to add? No? Okay.
Here's my second question. When it comes to E-Axle-related products, can you elaborate on that topic as well?
When it comes to E-Axle products, we have a Chinese business going on. Every quarter, we are at the break-even point. When it comes to Q4 and thereafter, we are going to have production starting for other customers as well. When it comes to annual numbers, it's about 160,000-unit level. When it comes to NPe, Q1-Q3, JPY 1.6 billion in deficit. And Q3 was about JPY 600 million in deficit. So we have a very good chance for us to go into the positive territory in Q4 and thereafter.
This is Samura speaking. When it comes to our preparations for traction motors in 2025 fiscal year, in Europe, we have established a mass production phase. This quarter, the production will be 100,000-unit level. For the next quarter, 150,000. On an annual basis, it will be 6 million unit level. So the sales will be more than JPY 100 billion or so.
Thank you. Here's one thing that I'd like to confirm with you. When it comes to Water Cooling and E-Axle businesses, sales will be JPY 50 billion and JPY 100 billion for E-Axle. Are these accurate numbers? Well, these numbers, I believe these numbers have been subjected so far depending on customers, but how accurate are these numbers?
We are going to promote visualization. One of the important elements in that regard is elements, the components or parts of our products. It's very difficult to predict in the industry how much is the demand for GPUs, for example. It's very difficult to predict at this moment. It's highly difficult to predict actual numbers for GPUs and other similar products.
We are in a preparation period as far as we are concerned. As far as the January through March period is concerned, we can visualize more and more of these numbers. When it comes to traction business, in China, we have this traction business taking place, and visualization is very good, so accuracy of the numbers regarding this particular market is very high. But the remaining portion, which is we have an NPe, which is a joint venture with Stellantis, we need to make sure to understand the business very accurately, and quarter by quarter, we have suffered loss so far. I myself am a member of the supervisory board of this company, NPe, a joint venture, NPe, so I would like to make sure to talk to all the people concerned about increasing accuracy.
My third question is about the automotive and the ACIM business unit. What is the timing for the improvement of profitability? Will it be next fiscal year, quarter one of the next fiscal year? That's what I thought that you said, but you have some suffered loss in Q3 and Q4. How is this gross curve going to be? Can you give me some forecast on that?
When it comes to Q3 and quarter four, when it comes to existing AMEC business that was integrated into ACIM, this organic business will continue to be in a very severe situation, and Q3 and Q4 will continue to take very good measures. That's what I want you to understand.
In Q1 of the next fiscal year and thereafter, I would like to make sure that this segment will be able to start to make contributions profit-wise to the Nidec Group so that they can eventually achieve the double-digit operating profit ratio in thereafter, next year and onward. How about the automotive? I believe you have just talked about ACIM business. I just talked about ACIM, AMEC, AMEC's organic business unit that has been integrated into ACIM business unit.
How about the MOEN, which is more profitable than the other business of ACIM business unit? I believe our profit ratio seems to be down. Is this because of the restructuring cost? I believe when it comes to quarter three and quarter four performance, you have best business and alternative business, other businesses as well. How much contribution do you think these businesses can make?
At the beginning of this year, when it comes to MOEN and ACIM business units, we have decided seasonal factors are different from the past. Prior to that, we have had the restructuring efforts and organizational changes so that we can start a very good pace from the beginning of this year, calendar year. We are making results for that. When it comes to Q3, in Q3 ACIM has suffered some loss. We have this 10% decrease has been recorded when it comes to sales. In this area, profitability is very high. That is one of the reasons for the loss. When it comes to Q4, we have positive seasonal factors, including HVAC, whose business is going to be more profitable.
When it comes to structural reform, which has been repeating, which I have been repeating, when it comes to, especially in the area of ACIM business, the effects of the restructuring will take effect from Q4 and thereafter. That's my prediction here.
And lastly, for the overall picture, I think you will be disclosing the midterm target when you announce the full year results. But for the initiatives that you are rolling out, if they work out for all the segments, I think on a quarterly basis, that will give you an incremental profit of like JPY 60 billion. And when would you aim for JPY 70 billion? What kind of a trajectory are you foreseeing for the consolidated performance?
Well, we want to achieve double-digit profitability as soon as possible. From FY 2025, we'd like to achieve that target. But having said that, we need to have specific initiatives. And after that, we believe we can achieve JPY 10 billion each quarter. So would that be like back end of next year? Yes, like JPY 60 billion-JPY 70 billion toward the back end of the next fiscal year.
Yes. Any other questions? Are there any questions? Oh, the person on the left.
This is Manabu Akizuki from Nomura Securities. I want to confirm some numbers first. Looking at the free cash flow, Q3 was very good. On the other hand, looking at inventory level, I think because of the currency, superficially inventory went up. But I think in reality, inventory level came down. In Q2, you had a build-up of the inventory. So with that, you reduced the production. Q3, the profit went down, is my take. Is that the correct interpretation? You mentioned about the U.S. Motors, and there is a change in the mix. But was the fact that I mentioned reflected in your numbers?
Yes, as you pointed out. With the currency, at the first glance, inventory looks like it went up, but we have seen some improvement in reality. In Q3, we made the effort led by myself, Kishida, to reduce the inventory across the different business units. So we expect to see further improvement going forward.
Will that trend continue in Q4? So is inventory coming down in Q4 as well?
Yes. And that will kind of accelerate in Q4. The current level is still far deviating from the optimal level. So we have accelerated our efforts, but it's not enough yet.
And then, you may have to sacrifice the operating profit to a certain extent. Also, the OP shortfall, how are you going to compensate for that shortfall? Sorry to be short-term minded, but could you give me a sense of what you plan to do?
Yes. Looking out into Q4, we are doing restructuring initiatives, including the business base consolidation. So those are undertaken. As we consolidate the basis, we will have some idle spaces, which can be divested to generate cash. Also, some of that will be put into practice in Q4 to compensate for the shortfall in OP.
I see. Now, looking at the strategy, I have a question to Mr. Kishida. The headquarters restructuring is something that you intend to achieve. I think this is something new. What are the intentions? You mentioned about augmenting the CFO functions, but from your perspective, where do you want to augment from the current organizational structure? What kind of initiatives would you be rolling out?
Yes. Over the last 10 months, I went to many different business spaces across the world and met many good talent. I felt that we should not just have the team in Japan put together the strategy.
And also, we have to work out a new compensation structure across the globe. So there are many things that we need to revisit. So I confirmed that by visiting the business spaces. So what I'd like to do is, from April 1st, I want to first work on the globalization of the HR capacity. And for the strategy team, like the M&A strategies and as a business strategies, we have different teams working on these initiatives. We would like to consolidate that so that the global talent will be coming on board to that team. So that's the second initiative. And third is to work on the CFO functions. Mr. Samura is leading the way, and we have close exchanges with the CFOs of different businesses across the world. But conceptually, Mr. Samura would like to have an integrated operation of different CFOs from different bases.
Also, we would like to build a true and genuine global CFO organization. And we think we can start the discussion over that measure.
And I'm sure that you will be talking about the Makino Milling Machine TOB in the next session. But from a different perspective, I have this question. For the Machine Tool business, I think I can ask the question in the second section of this meeting. But by getting together with Makino Milling Machine, Nidec's production technology will be elevated. And I think that can be achieved through this transaction. But more specifically, by having Makino come on board the group, what would be the positive impact for the Nidec organization?
Yes. Mr. Nishimoto-san, please.
I'm sorry. This is Nishimoto from the Machine and Automation Business Unit. Within the Machine T ools business, machining c enter accounts for 40% of our business.
Globally, the Machine Tools market is 11 trillion JPY, and 40% is machining c enter. And Makino's machines are highly precise, and they are addressing a very big part of the market. Nidec uses a huge amount of M achine Tools from Motors and others. Also, we are a mass consumer of the Machine T ools. Also, by working together with the machine tool company, this would dramatically change the speed of business development. As an example, Nidec Machine Tool, the former MHI M achine T ool, joined the group in 2021. And from thereafter, we are making gearboxes and reducers. And also, we were not able to get the optimal machine tools when we needed. So when the economic cycle is good, we were not able to procure those machines. And we were not able to cooperate with the machine tool companies. But with the Nidec Machine T ool, we were able to improve that.
For the robot applications, we have the small-sized reducers. Now we have a global market share of 25%. We started from scratch. This was accelerated by the gearbox team of the former MHI Machine Tool company. For the press business, the important press machine is the five-axis press machine and the horizontal boring mill. MHI was doing this, and also PAMA was doing this. We acquired these companies. After that, the business became more sophisticated, and we were able to manufacture what we wanted to get. For the gear machines and the large-sized ones, it's 2%-3% of the market of the machine tool industry. Makino is making the best quality machining centers in the industry. If they work together with us, we can be like the pilot case for Makino machine for them to make external sales.
There will be a lot of benefits. On top of that, for Nidec, as Kishida mentioned earlier, for the W ater Cooling S ystem, we have Takisawa in the group for the lathes. We have been able to manufacture quick coupling together with Takisawa. Also, we were able to reduce the number of machines required. If Makino comes on board, we believe that the opportunity will be huge.
To be more specific, we are now better as the user of the machines, and we can aim high when it comes to profit. We are truly excited about this opportunity.
Thank you very much for your answer. Thank you.
Does anyone have any questions from among the securities analysts ? The person over there, please.
Thank you very much for your explanation. This is Goto of Mizuho Securities. I'd like to give you one question here. When it comes to organic, AMEC organic, which has been integrated into ACIM business unit, which has been a quarter ago, do you have any new findings about what has been a problem and what has been improved since then? What is your opinion about that, Mr. Kishida?
According to your explanation, you are confident that this new organization will be able to achieve a 10% operating profit ratio. Now you can understand the reality, and you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.
This is probably a very basic thing about the business, but there are two things that I'd like to mention here. Where risks and issues have been visualized on a global basis, which is a very huge gain for us. When it comes to visualization of risks, we have some risks related to our customers. We have internal risks. All of these risks have been visualized. All of these risks have been something we can see now. As a person involved in the business, this is a very important step forward.
One more thing that I'd like to add is that we are currently able to make solutions to solve these risks-related issues. So far, we have this organic business of AMEC business unit, and we have issues in Poland and Mexico. We have been very region-specific so far. But now, as the new part of the new organization is in business, we can make global solutions for Nidec as a group. There is one factory, not just for one specific region, but we have operations system in which we can offset some problems of one specific factory by borrowing some resources from other places. That's a major step forward, in my opinion.
Is there any other questions? Now, we'd like to entertain questions. Please go ahead, sir, person in the middle.
Thank you very much. This is Nitta of Nikkei. When it comes to Machine Tool business, they have mentioned for this fiscal term, your products have been increased, and the sales have increased. In specific areas, which specific areas? In which specific areas do you have been able to enjoy the increased sales? If that's okay. Mr. Nishimoto-san, do you want to answer the question?
Well, Samura-san, please answer the question.
You need to be very aggressive in answering questions. When it comes to regions, when it comes to this overall machine tool market, it has been fluctuating, changing very steadily. And the order intake has been growing very dramatically. On the order intake basis, it has increased by one and a half times, including Japan and all around the world, and China and the United States. All the other areas have been enjoying the increase in the order intake.
When it comes to sales, they will be recorded only in the next fiscal year and thereafter. Please look forward to that.
Thank you. Now, we have 5:45 P.M. now. Therefore, we would like to finish the first section of this presentation, and now we would like to go into a second section about our intent regarding the acquisition of Makino Milling Machine. We would like to have this second session until 6:15 P.M.
This is Nishimoto speaking. I'm in charge of the Machinery and A utomation department, and Mr. Araki will be making a presentation together with me. Please take a look at this information over here. This is a summary of our letter of intent, and please take a look at this part. Please go to the next slide, and this is about premium 40%. It's about 41. 9% to be exact. We had this profitability power.
That's what we need. And synergies are what we can expect from having this company joining a Nidec Group. This is the type of premium that we believe is very appropriate when it comes to given this type of synergies. I'd like to give you some explanation over here about my business unit, Machinery and Automation business unit. We have six different business units in the Nidec Group. And we have this sixth one, the youngest one business unit. It's this my business unit, Machinery and Automation, which was established two years ago, April two years ago. We have a Machine Tool business, press machine business, and a gearbox business. When it comes to Machine Tool business, we have Nidec Machine Tool. This joined the Nidec Group August 2021. Nidec OKK, which became a part of Nidec Group, February 2022. PAMA, February 2023, and Takisawa, November 2023.
You can see the overall sales on this slide, JPY 224.4 billion for the past fiscal, previous fiscal year, 17% for Gearbox business, 30% for Press M achine business, and 53% for Machine Tool business. One thing that I'd like to explain here and emphasize here is as follows. It was 51 years ago Nidec was founded by four people, and it has grown to this size, M&A. Also based on organic growth, the same thing can be said about our business unit, Machinery and Automation business unit. First, we purchased the largest press machine company in the United States, Minster. Almost all these companies are founder-owned. They own the companies. We convinced these owners, which was usually difficult to do, but we eventually. These flower marks indicate that these companies are owner-owned companies. Blue ones are the reducer companies, manufacturers.
Yellow ones are machine tool companies. The orange ones or brown ones are machine tool companies. When it comes to M&A at Nidec, in principle, we have the owners of these purchase companies act as such even after the purchase. These people stay there at the top. We have Arisa on top of that. This person is the owner's son. We have Vamco, which is the last one. This person has been the president since before being purchased by Nidec. All of these companies are people from the leaders of these companies are the leaders even before being purchased by Nidec. In Press M achine, Japan accounted for 60%. Now, Japan is down to 8% of the entire Press M achine business. Reducers, 20% now, which used to be 60%. That's for Gearbox business.
When it comes to Machine Tool business, we are in the middle of a change. Makino Milling Machine is yet to be included in this chart. We are in the middle of the change. Japan used to be 43%. Now, it's down to 35% according to the chart. And this number is going to go down further in the future. Please go to the next slide. This is about the sales and operating profit of the Machinery and Automation business of the Nidec group. When it comes to sales, it's a little over JPY 20 billion in 2012. And as you can see, the numbers have been growing larger and larger towards 2023, as you can see. And here's the business strategy, including why we decided to purchase Makino Milling Machine. One-stop solution is a very important factor for us when it comes to purchasing Makino Milling Machine.
We have been able to offer everything from small ones to large ones, lathes to other milling machines and other products at one stop when it comes to our customers. The larger, the better, because the purchasing power, it becomes larger as we grow larger. Investment capability will become larger. We can diversify our risks by purchasing many machine tool companies. When it comes to reducers and other products, we have been able to diversify our businesses in Europe, Asia, and in the United States, as well as other parts of North America. We have quite a few customers. We are not depending upon automotive customers alone. This is how we like to secure very good, stable businesses.
For the product, this is a product mapping for Machine T ools. Vertically aligned indicates the size of the market. The upward section is larger, and the downward section is smaller. The horizontal is the level of precision in the functions. Left-side commodity rate is highly advanced. We have the PAMA, Nidec Machine T ool, and Nidec M achine T ool. These are highly profitable, but the market size is small. Makino Milling Machine is addressing the machining centers, which is a huge market and highly profitable. Not just with the product lineup, we would like to create a synergy in other areas. Chinese companies are catching up very quickly. Taiwanese companies and also the mainland Chinese companies are addressing the general purpose and low-price machine tools. These are the mother machines for manufacturing machine tools.
If we cannot manufacture this in Japan, what's going to happen? As Kishida-san said, we will not be able to manufacture something of high quality. We have to work together to protect our competitive edge. Right now, these products are mapped in different sweet spots, but we should not lose against the Chinese players. We want to establish a strong machine tool company. This is revenue size. DMG MORI is the largest company, followed by Okuma, Makino Milling Machine, and JTEKT. It's not indicated here, but Haas and also Yamazaki Mazak in Japan are private companies, and they also have similar revenue sizes. If we join together with the Makino Milling Machine, we will be the second largest, and there will be a much bigger investment capacity. We have acquired many machine tool companies, and each time we were able to generate good synergy.
There were multiple loss-making companies, but they turned into profitable companies. Nidec Machine Tool now is generating over 10% operating margin. For distribution channels, we have a very strong distribution channel, especially in China. Machine tools are selling very strongly using our existing distribution channel. As Samura-san mentioned earlier, compared to two years ago, the sales of machine tools in China have increased by 1.5 times. Nidec is using a lot of machine tools, including the cooling system. We can be the pilot case. We can be the showroom to sell to the customers. This will be a huge benefit for Makino Milling Machine. This slide explains the potential synergies with Makino for technology and development, sales and services, and production and management.
For production, Makino is strong in Asia, but Europe and the U.S. are markets where they do not have their own production sites. We have strong production capabilities in these regions. What's important for building this plant is securing the people and also partnering with the local municipalities. Procurement is very difficult. Starting from scratch is very complicated, but we have this production basis across the globe. Makino will be able to capitalize on the production capabilities. Next slide indicates that there is very little overlap between Makino Milling Machine and Nidec. With OKK, there are some overlaps, but the product types are different, like highly resilient products. We have different product offerings. Great synergy can be expected. The market addressed is very different. We are stronger for the large size. Makino is also strong in pharmaceuticals and aerospace.
Robots and energy is something that we overlap, but these are growing markets, so working together, we can grow in this market as well, and on top of that, not just in the machine tools, but Nidec is making a variety of products where machine tools are required, so working together with us, Makino can also grow, and this is a similar explanation. This is a bit specific. Makino is strong in the machining center. Compared to our five-axis milling machines or the boring machines, their machining center is relatively small, so by having a wide range of product offering, we can be a one-stop solution for the customers in procuring the necessary products, and this is our global production footprint. Makino is strong in Asia. We also have bases in Asia, but we also are strong in Europe and U.S. as well.
And regarding how we have conducted these M&As at Nidec and also why we are successful in our M&A strategy is that we maintain the existing management team. Even after acquiring a company, we do not break them down. Like HR, accounting, sales, and procurement development, everything stays in place. And they will have the independent strategy to come up with competitive new products. Some people may think that this is very inefficient, but we were very persistent in maintaining our post-integration strategy. So that's all from me. I'll hand over to Mr. Araki .
Yes, this is Araki speaking. After announcing the TOB at the end of December, as you can see here, on January 10th, Makino Milling Machine set up a special committee, and there was a request of arranging a meeting.
On the 15th of January, from the special committee, they sent a request letter to extend the date of the commencement of the TOBs. On the 17th, at Makino's T echnical C enter, we met with four members of the special committee. Regarding the response to the request letter, we have made a press release. Also, yesterday, we received another request letter. As a process, yesterday, for each market and regions, we are proceeding for the approval. We got the clearance under the U.S. antitrust law.
We have made a proposal when it comes to the M&A method. I believe this has been a focus for everyone. I'd like to give an explanation on that. When it comes to M&A in general, this is all very known for non-listed companies. When it comes to proposals for listed companies, there is no statistical data on this. First of all, we need to understand what type of discussions need to take place and what type of conclusions that are made. These things are highly disclosed to the public in many cases. In the United States, in such a circumstance, when such a proposal is made, you have to be able to disclose. That's a legal requirement to disclose such information to the public upon being made such a request.
But there is no such legal requirement in Japan. Back in August of 2023, there has been a directive issued by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. They have developed guidelines for us to follow as companies. There are mainly three principles guidelines. There's the principle on the mutual profit and the trust of what we need to respect the shareholders of the companies to be purchased. The transparency principle is also an important factor. We made a takeover proposal, and we made the announcement on this proposal that we made. We have stakeholders. Stakeholders are the core part of the shareholders, but we have other shareholders, including employees, business partners, customers, suppliers, as well as people of the local community of the company to be purchased. All of these stakeholders have to be able to express themselves.
We need to understand how they feel about this type of purchasing. We need to establish secure places and opportunities for these people to express their opinions about such a purchase. Based on these guidelines, based on these three principles, we would make sure to follow these guidelines. So this is how we come up with this strategy method to purchase this company, Makino Milling Machine. Nishimoto-san has already explained this part when it comes to the special committee. What he has explained is exactly what we explained to the people of the special committee. This is the first time for us to explain this to the public. This is the type of proposal we have made, and this is what I want you, everyone here in the public, to understand. We have already met with them once so far only.
But if possible, we'd like to meet with the current members of the executive management of the company, Makino Milling Machine. We'd like to meet with them more frequently by having such opportunities. That's what we strongly hope for. By having dialogues frequently, we would like to eventually make sure that we will be able to convince Makino Milling Machine, and eventually, they will be able to make their final decision about our offer to them. As has been explained by Nishimoto-san a few minutes ago, this offer is a very mutually profitable merit mutual for Makino Milling Machine and Nidec. I'm truly convinced of that. Next slide, please. We have received their opinion letter, as has been explained in our press release recently. There are some important points of it here that I included in our reply to them.
These are the points that have been part of their questions to us, for us. We have explained this to them, and these are all technical information. So if you have any questions, please let me know after. We have Mr. Iwakura-san of the company, which has been serving as our partner and advisor for us.
Now we'd like to have a question and answer session here. If you have any questions, please raise your hand and receive the microphone from our staffer. Please. Pass on in the middle. Thank you. In the front row.
This is Nitta of Nikkei. Thank you. When it comes to this method over here, Japanese M&A is going to change because of this new method. Kishida-san, I'd like to ask you a question over here. What is the merit, and what is the determination about utilizing this method?
I believe you may go on to have received some kind of request for postponement of a dialogue with you from Makino. One thing that I want to say is as follows. When it comes to this method, this is a relatively new method. That's for sure. But in addition to that, when it comes to our M&A, this is a very different method from our past method that we have utilized. Here's why. So far, our M&A so far has been targeting two companies that are on the verge of a collapse. We were able to turn these businesses around. But from this time onward, we are trying to purchase an already successful company. We're not sure about the market's reputation of such a company, but we are targeting an already successful company.
We would like to further create a better corporate value by purchasing such an already successful company. We would like to grow our businesses, but not only that, we would like to further enhance the competitiveness of this industry compared with the rest of the world. We would like to go one step further upward. That's what we are aiming to achieve. We truly respect the managing capability of the company's executive management, Makino Milling Machine. And we would like to continue to have and consult with the members of the special committee of this company, Makino Milling Machine. That is all. Thank you.
Thank you very much. There's one more question for you. If you fail to obtain approval from the company, what if you receive opposing opinions from them? What are you going to do?
We will do our very best to try to work to convince them with sincerity. Even if you are opposed, we would like to continue to work on purchasing the company, even if there are some opposing opinions.
Next, other questions from anyone? The person in the front row? To the left, please.
This is Takayama, Goldman Sachs. This is my second attempt to raise my hand here. Related to the previous person's question, you are going to meet with the members of the executive management going forward, and you'll continue to follow your plan, even if there are some opposing opinions, according to what you have just said. If there is any other company of your interest, are you still going to stick to Makino Milling Machine? You usually target the EBITDA, the number of 8-12.
Do you continue to have the same strategy when it comes to EBITDA, or do you really disregard such EBITDA ratio, and you are going to stick to purchasing Makino Milling Machine no matter what? What is your strategy for that?
Araki-san, please answer the question.
This is Araki speaking. As has been explained by Nishimoto-san a few minutes ago slightly, but this is not about every single case. But we have been able to turn many businesses around. We have such cases a lot in the past. It's not an apples-to-apples comparison when it comes to this purchasing offer and our past purchasing offers. But this company, Makino Milling Machine, has already established a company. And this is going to be a TOB takeover bid. Still, the EBITDA ratio is less than 10. And we have had analysis internally, and this premium is necessary and sufficient.
Compared with the other issues of turnaround-related issues, on the surface, this EBITDA ratio may be higher than the past cases, but it's still an appropriate level, and the market value is the value that we have, and when it comes to true value of the company, you have to think about all the other different assumptions based on which the true value changes, but when it comes to Makino's standalone value, you need to think about synergies with us. That's a different valuation I'm talking about. When it comes to standalone type method comparison, market price is the base of our evaluation of the company.
So I guess you have some discipline on the price, and you feel that this is a sufficient level as a TOB price?
Yes.
I see. And also, it may be a little bit too early to ask, but if this is completed successfully, I think your portfolio will reach the next level. Also, to achieve your ideal vision, what are the other pieces of business that you want to acquire? So for the largest, I think you have Takisawa, but you may want something larger. So what are the gaps that you want to fill in for your business portfolio for the machinery business?
Well, at this point, for the large, Takisawa is generating a synergy that's higher than expected. The Takisawa's product lineup will be increased going forward.
Not just utilizing the existing products, but as Kishida-san mentioned, the cooling system and also the quick couplings were produced. And also, at this point, we don't have an intention to buy a large company, but for machining centers. Also, earlier, we talked about 40% of the Machine Tools business with machining centers, and 30% is lathes. And then we will be discussing and coordinating together with Makino to determine the direction going forward. Because Makino's European sales is about 8%, so we will be in discussion with them. And if they can grow, we will work together to grow. But if that's not the case, we have other options. And after announcing this Makino potential transactions, I was approached by a few different companies who have their sales in Europe where they purchased.
Of course, we will not decide on a standalone basis, and we will discuss with Makino. And when we bought the former MHI Machine Tool business, we did not mention this earlier, but after the acquisition, Nidec goes through a very thorough communication. As you know, Mr. Nagamori visited Takisawa 26 times, and I went over to their office more than that. And the second time Mr. Nagamori visited them, he talked about, "What do we need to do to grow your business? Do you need a plant?" And then the plant was built in China. And then he asked Takisawa, "Which company do you want to acquire?" So this kind of discussion takes place with the acquired company to identify the missing parts to fill that in. And then we work together with Araki's team for M&A opportunities.
So we tried to have a very thorough discussion together with the partner for the future direction. And for the others, I cannot disclose at this point. But there are a few options on our mind, but we cannot share this at this point.
Yes, maybe we can entertain one more question. The person in the middle, please.
My name is Yoshida from Mergermarket. I have two questions. Regarding this approach, you mentioned about the transparency as a positive implication. I think going forward for the future TOBs, would you consider this approach? Also, may I confirm your policy on that? And also, my second question is, you talked about how the existing management team is maintained after the M&A. Did you communicate to the Makino's management that you want them to stay?
The first point after Takisawa, we want to make this a successful transaction so that for us, this will not just be a common M&A practice for ourselves, but this will be a common practice for the market in Japan. The second question, yes, I definitely want them to stay. They have a big organization in Singapore, and we want them to stay. In China, they have a strong team. We want them to stay as well. Then I, myself, and Nagamori-san will visit them to talk to them, to communicate their intention to work together.
Mr. Araki, then, this will be your basic approach without the prior communication?
Yes, this is the standard that we'd like to apply going forward.
Maybe the last question from the person in the back row, please. Can you raise your hand again?
My name is Kobayashi from Jiji Press. I also have a question around this approach. Can you explain the reason why you did not give them prior communication?
For the Takisawa's case, so you did not want to have a hostile aspect like you had with Takisawa. So the prior communication have implied some hostility. And Mr. Nagamori made a comment that even if there is a white knight, Nidec is intended to acquire Makino and the white knight as well. That's the view of the firm. When we make proposals behind the curtain, they may accept, but we never know how they will respond. Also, ultimately, even if we can reach an agreement, this kind of process will take time. So for that, we decided to take this approach this time without making the prior communication.
Regarding your second question, I don't know under what circumstances Mr. Nagamori made that comment. In the machine tools market, to proceed with the market consolidation and structural reform, there is a possibility that we may take a similar approach. I think it's what Mr. Nagamori intended to mean. He was not talking about any specific deals or issues.
Now we'd like to conclude today's session. Thank you very much for joining us despite your busy schedule. Thank you very much for your attendance.