It's time for us to start Tokyo Electron financial announcement of the Third Quarter of fiscal year ending March 2026. Thank you very much for joining us today despite your busy schedule. I am Yatsuda of IR Department, serving as a moderator for today's session. Now, I'd like to introduce our today's attendees. Toshiki Kawai, Representative Director, President, and CEO. I am Kawai. Thank you for joining us. Next, Hiroshi Kawamoto, Senior Vice President, General Manager of Finance Division. I am Kawamoto. Thank you very much. Before starting the presentations, let me explain the flow of today's session. First of all, Kawamoto and Kawai will make presentations. After that, until 6:30 P.M. Japan time, we will have a question and answer session where we entertain questions from the audience. This meeting uses two channels of WebEx for the simultaneous interpretation between Japanese and English.
As we explained in our email, you are kindly requested to use apps on PCs and mobile terminals if you wish to ask question, but if you are not going to ask questions, you can use telephones. Since this conference is intended for institutional investors and analysts, we would appreciate your understanding that we receive questions only from institutional investors and analysts as usual. We will post the audio contents of this conference in Japanese and English on our website within a couple of days. It would be appreciated if you could also visit our website. Now, Mr. Kawamoto will present the consolidated financial summary. Mr. Kawamoto, please.
Good afternoon. I am Kawamoto, Finance Division. I'd like to present the consolidated financial summary of the third quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2026. This slide shows the quarterly financial summary.
I will mainly refer to the figures in the blue box. In the Third Quarter, we generated net sales as JPY 552.0 billion, 12.4% decline quarter-over-quarter. Net sales in the third quarter were tentatively at a lower level due to such a reason as shipment timing, but in the fourth quarter, net sales are expected to rise as planned. Gross profit was JPY 235.8 billion, 17.2% decrease from the previous quarter. Gross profit margin was 42.7%, 2.5 % drop quarter-over-quarter due to the product mix change and the like. Operating income was JPY 116.1 billion, 26.7% decline from the previous quarter.
Operating profit margin was 21.0%, declined by 4.1 % quarter-over-quarter, mainly due to increase of fixed cost ratio against net sales, along with the decline of net sales. Income before income taxes dropped by 4.8% to JPY 153.3 billion. Net income attributable to owners of parent was JPY 118.5 billion, 4.3% decline quarter-over-quarter. In the third quarter, we sold part of strategic shares, recording extraordinary income of JPY 37.2 billion. Capital expenditures in the third quarter were JPY 30.3 billion. This is a graphic representation of the financial summary shown on the previous slide on the chronological basis for your reference. This slide shows net sales by region.
As for competition in the third quarter, proportion of sales in Korea rose by 6 % from the previous quarter to 27.1%. Proportion of sales in China dropped to 31.8% as expected, 8.5 % decline quarter-over-quarter. This shows SPE new equipment sales by application. In the third quarter, from the bottom of this chart, sales to non-memory customers accounted for 56%. Non-volatile memory accounted for 8%, and DRAM accounted for 36%. Though SPE new equipment sales declined from the previous quarter, sales to DRAM customers were strong, recording 12% increase quarter-over-quarter. This slide shows the Field Solutions sales. In the third quarter, Field Solutions sales were JPY 161.6 billion.
Thanks to increasing utilization ratio of customers' fabs, sales of spare parts were strong, and following the second quarter, modification sales remained at a high level. This slide shows balance sheet. Total assets were JPY 2,635.0 billion. Cash and cash equivalents were JPY 418.4 billion, decreasing by JPY 36.7 billion from the previous quarter. Notes and accounts receivables were JPY 401.5 billion, declining by JPY 9.8 billion quarter-over-quarter. Inventories were JPY 725.3 billion, increasing by JPY 4.9 billion from the previous quarter. Tangible assets were JPY 573.9 billion, increasing by JPY 12.6 billion from the previous quarter.
For the liabilities and net assets shown on the right-hand side, liabilities were JPY 629.7 billion, declining by JPY 32.6 billion quarter-over-quarter. Net assets were JPY 2,005.2 billion, rising by JPY 0.6 billion quarter-over-quarter. This slide shows the cash flow. The cash inflow from operating activities in the third quarter was JPY 83.1 billion. The cash inflow from investing activities was JPY 1.2 billion as a result of acquisition of tangible fixed asset and sales of investment securities, among others. The cash outflow from financing activities were JPY 122.3 billion due to dividend payment. Free cash flow was +JPY 84.3 billion. This concludes my presentation. Thank you very much. Now, Mr. Kawai will give you the business environment and financial estimates. Mr.
Kawai, please.
I am Kawai. Thank you very much for joining us today. I will present business environment and financial estimates. Let me start with business environment. Currently, calendar 2026 WFE market is expected to grow by more than 15% year-over-year. Although we need to closely watch our customers' clean room space, status of parts, and material procurement by SPE vendors, and response to manufacturing labor force . Considering current strong inquiries, we can expect more than 20% growth year-over-year. As for the momentum, driven by growing demand for AI applications, investment for leading-edge semiconductors is expected to increase continuously in the mid and long time span, along with technology innovation. For DRAM, investment not only for HBM, but also for commodity DRAM, is increasing sharply.
Due to the supply constraints, we receive a lot of further delivery pull-in requests for NAND, along with increase of demand for SSD for data centers, namely enterprise SSD, utilization rate of customers' fabs is going up, leading to new investment. For logic, pursuing device scaling to 2nm and 1.4nm, further investment growth is expected in the future. The needs for advanced packaging and testing are accelerating day by day, they become more and more important. For mature nodes, investment is expected to continue almost at the current level. Driven by these factors, calendar 2026 WFE market is expected to hit the record high, exceeding $130 billion in size at least. WFE market for high-end devices, mainly for AI servers, is expected to grow with CAGR of 10% toward calendar 2030.
As further scaling, more stacking, and higher performance are required, Tokyo Electron has made a great achievement since April in this fiscal year alone in the product field of etching, coater/developer, film deposition, and cleaning, as shown in this slide. Also, the testing and advanced packaging areas are growing significantly. In the next fiscal year, our prober business is expected to generate sales of more than JPY 100 billion in total. In the 3D integration area, including bonder and laser-related system, referred to as process between front-end and back-end, we expect cumulative sales of over JPY 500 billion by calendar 2030. Regarding etching for display, our share has reached more than 80%, providing a big business opportunity. Due to the expanded used SPE business opportunity, as well as growing utilization rate of customers' fab, field solutions opportunities will be increasing.
It has been our industry consensus that semiconductor market will grow to $1 trillion in size in calendar 2030. According to the latest WSTS statistics released in December 2025, however, the market is expected to reach $975 billion in calendar 2026, getting very close to $1 trillion. Market growth is accelerating. As much drastic market growth is expected, SEMICON Japan, held last December, we released two new product designed to improve productivity and environmental performance. The first one is CLEAN TRACK LITHIUS Pro DICE state-of-the-art system, developed through further evolution of our coater/developer with over 90% global share, featuring world-class productivity and innovative defect control technology. We have started delivering this system to multiple customers, including for EUV lithography applications. The other is EVAROS thermal treatment deposition system.
By using a novel multi-zone control heaters, it has achieved high thermal uniformity and drastic reduction of temperature rising and lowering, lowering time. Further enhancement of productivity is realized by throughput of up to 200 wafers per batch and shorter wafer transfer time. CO2 emissions per wafer can be reduced by 25% from the conventional system. The number of patents Tokyo Electron held at the end of 2025 was 26,029, world number one in the SPE industry. The Clarivate granted us the top 100 Global Innovators 2026 award, recognizing our continuous effort to create sophisticated inventions. We received this award 6 times in total in the fifth consecutive year. To continually create innovative, high-value added, one and only number one technologies, we will keep investing in R&D actively. Next, I will present the financial estimates.
Reflecting the current strong business environment, we have revised the FY 2026 full year financial estimate upward. As shown here, we expect net sales of JPY 2,410 billion, gross profit margin of 45.3%, and operating profit margin of 24.6%. We have decided to additionally sell strategic shares in the fourth quarter as well. Reflecting these factors, net income attributable to owners of parent is expected to be JPY 550 billion. This slide shows fiscal 2026 SPE new equipment sales forecast by application. The SPE new equipment sales in the second half of this fiscal year have been revised to JPY 900 billion by taking account of active demand for AI servers.
As shown on this slide, in the fourth quarter, SPE new equipment sales are expected to grow by more than 30% from the third quarter, driven mainly by sales to logic and foundry customers. This shows our plan for R&D expenses and CapEx. Following completion of Miyagi new development building in April, construction of new development building in Kumamoto was completed in October, and in November, production and logistics center in Iwate was also completed. In Miyagi, we also plan to complete the production building at the end of next July, which adopt next generation smart manufacturing concept. R&D expenses in CapEx in fiscal 2026 are shown on this slide. There have been no changes from the financial announcement in October 2025. We believe that by implementing these investment for growth as planned, we have made our service ready for the significant market growth ahead.
We have established agile responsiveness to support semiconductor technology innovation and production capacity to meet rapidly growing demand in calendar 2026. Leveraging this solid foundation, we will capture future opportunities for monetization to maximize our corporate value. This slide shows dividend forecast. Reflecting the revisions of financial estimates, we have revised full year dividend per share upward from JPY 533 to JPY 601, increasing by JPY 68, which hit all-time high. In the board of directors meeting today, we decided to implement share repurchase up to JPY 150 billion. This decision was made by giving comprehensive consideration to our growing capacity to generate cash, as well as enhancement of cash position capital efficiency expected based on our expanding business opportunities in next fiscal year and onward. We will conduct appropriate balance sheet management.
This is my last slide, showing total return amount. In this fiscal year, total return amount is expected to be JPY 426.2 billion, beating the previous record of the last fiscal year, setting the new record, combining dividend estimates and share buyback announced today. This concludes my presentation. Thank you very much for your kind attention. Now, we will have question and answer session until 6:30 P.M. Japan time. You can ask question either in Japanese or English, but our speakers are on the Japanese channel. Please allow us to take audio questions only in Japanese. If you ask a question in Japanese, please click the Raise Hand button on WebEx. For details, please refer to the instructions attached to the invitation email. I will call the name of the person one by one.
Our secretariat will contact you in advance, so please check the WebEx chat box. When asking a question, you are kindly requested to unmute your microphone yourself. When your question is answered by our attendees, please hit the Raise button, Raise Hands button once again to remove the Raise Hand signal. For question in English, please use WebEx chat box and give your affiliation, name, and question in text and send it to our secretariat. We will refrain from answering questions if your name and affiliations are not given. We will translate your English question, and on the Japanese channel, I will read it out in Japanese, and speakers will answer in Japanese. On the English channel, question and answer will be simultaneously interpreted into English on the real-time basis. As we would like to take questions from as many participants as possible, we'll take one question per person.
If time allows, we'll take additional questions. Now, the first question is from Mr. Yoshida of CLSA Securities. Thank you very much. I am Yoshida from CLSA Securities. Regarding slide 12, WFE market trend, by application, if you have any growth rate, could you share that with us, please? As for China, how do you view the China? Thank you.
Thank you. So this is Kawai. Let me answer to your question. The growth rate by application. WFE market growth is expected to more than 15%, as I said in my presentation, so 20% or more growth is expected for DRAM at present. China market is expected to remain flat, so centering AI servers, the investment in other areas than China is expected to grow drastically. That's how we view the market trend. For NAND, it remains flat or slight increase is expected.
The investment outside China is increasing. Logic market is outperforming WFE market. About 15%-20% growth is expected for logic. Thank you very much. For NAND, in that sense, the NAND market expected to be flat or slightly increased, so growth rate is a bit lower than the other applications. However, your company, the sales of the cryo etching will be increasing or recognized, so by increasing share, you can expect increase of sales by means of the share increase. How do you view that trend? So for NAND, the utilization rate of customers' fabs is now increasing. Therefore, the new equipment investment will start in the future. So at present, the customers have been increasing their retardation ratio, and after that, they will shift to the new equipment investment.
So we can see some sales for cryo system, but customer design rule and investment, that may come next year rather than this year. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Yoshida, for your question. Next question is from Mr. Nakamura of Goldman Sachs Japan. Mr. Nakamura, please. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I have a question regarding the trend of the gross profit margin. The third quarter gross profit margin was not a little bit low. Are there any temporary reason, just like the valuation loss of the inventory? By fourth quarter, we can expect the increasing trend of the gross profit margin. For next fiscal year, gross profit margin is. How do you view the gross profit margin in next fiscal year?
This is Kawamoto. Let me answer to your question.
So third quarter, as you pointed out, gross profit margin was not so good. That's true. There are several factors. So sales, net sales, as I said, was a bit lower. That's one thing, and also, the product mix is another factor. In addition, as Kawai said earlier, toward the growth, we have invested a lot for growth. In this fiscal year, production buildings and development building have been completed and start operation. It is also true, the fixed cost increases. So third quarter, the gross profit margin declined a little bit, but when it comes to the fourth quarter and onward, we can expect the improvement in gross profit margin. For the financial estimates, the gross profit margin forecast is remain almost the same as the previous financial announcement. It is not true that the special valuation loss was recorded.
So next year, for introduction of the new equipment, we are going to establish plan to improve the Gross Profit Margin furthermore. So we are now working on. We are going to start budgeting next year, so we try to come up with some plan to improve the Gross Profit Margin, relatively speaking. So we can expect the sales increase. Earlier, I talked about the result by equipment. We got grown some POR, and some equipment expected to grow furthermore. We presented those plan for each product. The product portfolio this year, next year, and two years from now, those product will be incorporated, and we can provide the opportunity for high value added to the customer. So this is how we can further improve Gross Profit Margin.
In addition, recently, customers' fabs utilization rate is increasing; therefore, we can expect the growth of the field solution sales as well. So now, new equipment sales opportunity, and number two, field solution sales increase. Based on those factors, it is possible for us to improve gross profit margin. So now we are in the inflationary trend, and costs are increased because of the pulled-in delivery, so we need to do some adjustment. And in order to improve gross profit margin steadily, we are now discussing what we can do, and we believe we can improve gross profit margin.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your answer. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Nakamura, for your question. Next question is from Mr. Shimamoto of Okasan Securities. I am Shimamoto of Okasan Securities.
Thank you very much. On page 12, WFE market.
So 2026, you said 15% or more growth is expected. So 15% or more, what is the potential for more than 15% growth? Especially, there are some factors, so the clean room space is limited. That's one thing. As for delivery, it depends on your production capacity, I wonder. So in order to bring 50% or more growth in WFE marke. As for the current constraints, how would you-- what sort of action do you take?
Thank you very much for your question. At present, based on the inquiries, maybe 20% or more growth can be expected for WFE. As far as our company is concerned, we are prepared. We are now preparing for such kind of drastic increase of the inquiries. I said 15% or more. This is global WFE rather than our WFE.
So some of the companies may not be able to address increasing inquiries. So as for the global WFE market, I said 15% or more growth is expected. That's how I explained. In order to improve the growth rate furthermore, for one thing, the clean room space of the customer's fab should be secured, and how fast customer can increase the space of clean room. If they can accelerate the pace to increase the clean room of their fab, they can purchase the new equipment earlier. And DRAM, in particular, shortage is one of the concerns in the future, but whether some manufacturers may not able to secure the materials, cannot purchase the materials. That's one other factor. For the foreign exchange, foreign exchange rate is increasing and decreasing, so it's so uncertain what happens to Forex, foreign exchange market.
The proportion of made-in-Japan equipment accounts for about 30% in the global WFE market. Therefore, if there is a drastic change in foreign exchange rate, that might be impacted. Based on those factors, the global WFE market is expected to grow 15% or more. But based on inquiries, we can expect more than 20% growth in WFE market. I hope I answered your question properly.
Thank you very much. So your capacity doesn't have any problem as far as your capacity is concerned?
Yes. Thank you. Mr. Shimamoto, thank you very much for your question. Next question is from Mr. Hirakawa of BofA Securities . Thank you. I'm Hirakawa of BOF. Earlier, you talked about the WFE market growth. You said China market remained flat. Are you referring to DRAM? I just wonder. So let me just confirm, get clarification.
So WFE market in China, what sort of growth do you expect of Chinese market in 2026 by application? And against that, what is your sales to Chinese market, increasing or decreasing? Could you share your current forecast with us, please? I said flat earlier. So memories and logic have been replaced. So that, that's what I mean by flat. Last year, memory including DRAM and NAND, and this year, more like logic increased. Therefore, last year, memory investment increased, and this year, logic investment increased. So top line, Chinese market in this year remain almost the same as last year. And our company, as the Chinese market remain flat, then our sales to Chinese market remain flat. That's how I view the trend. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Mr. Hirakawa, for your question. Next question is from Mr. Yamamoto of Mizuho Securities.
I am Yamamoto of Mizuho Securities. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
For the improvement of the gross profit margin, I want to ask about your strategy for pricing. So it's so uncertain about the foreign exchange, but now yen depreciation is going on. So as many people said in the past, on page 13, so the new POR for leading-edge product has been increasing. So this is, this is how you can increase the price. I think once you get the order, then if there's the same equipment, I don't think you increase the price. But when it comes to the new equipment, if you have the technology competitive edge, you said that you want to set up the price to meet the technology competitive edge. So what is your pricing strategy? And when the pricing strategy changes, what sort of impact does it have on the gross profit margin? Thank you.
Our company's technology should be leveraged, and we can expect the continual technology innovation and growth, market growth continue. That's the way we try to sell our products. That's our sales strategy. In that sense, so we should see the market where continuous technology innovation is expected, so device scaling and technology innovation, we can launch new models. That's what we mean by that. From that viewpoint, for a new model, we need to optimize price of the new model. We need to do it properly. So this is how we can improve the gross profit margin, which is important for us to aim at increasing or improving gross profit margin. Because of inflation, the, there are soaring cost of the materials and components. Here in Japan, we declare a partnership.
The cost increase throughout the supply chain should be embraced by setting optimum pricing. For customers, we provide the solution to improve their productivity for the customers. This is how we can improve the gross profit margin. And recently, now there are requests to pull in delivery from the customers. We may ask partner companies to work hard. That could be the cost increase, so we need to take care of those cost increase because of the pull-in request for delivery and inflation. Some of the materials or parts' price is going up, so even if model is not changed, we need to discuss with customer so that customer can understand the reason why we need to increase price when the material cost increases. And now device scaling is going on, and utilization rate and productivity enhancement.
We should provide methods to help customer to improve their productivity. That is another area of value-added solution. So, for example, ultimate uniformity to improve the yield, or reduction of particles and other defects, or the maintenance cycle extension solution, the solution to reduce maintenance time or duration. So for existing installed base, we can provide some solutions to improve the condition, and we can provide value added. This is how we can improve gross profit margin. So not only new products and appropriate pricing to take care of inflation and providing effective solution to the customer, so by taking those actions, we try to improve the gross profit margin. Thank you very much. For example, quantitatively, do you have any target of the gross profit margin when you set the pricing? Some other companies are doing such kind of solution approach.
So current gross profit margin, so 35% of the OPM cannot be achieved for the mid-term management plan, and also, so 35% target for operating profit margin for mid-term management plan, I think you can have certain strategy for pricing. So do you have any target of the gross profit margin for 50% under the leadership of the Kawai? Do you set-- Do you have any quantitative approach to improve gross profit margin?
Exactly. So mid-term management plan, 35% operating profit margin. In order for us to achieve this target of OPM, 35%, gross profit should are in our mind, therefore, we are working based on that assumption. So we are working on based on what you said. But Tokyo Electron, not only just increasing price, but we try to provide value to the customer.
At the same time, we try to improve gross profit margin, and at the same, we are going to achieve our mid-term management plan. We try to brush up our technologies, and we try our best to meet your expectation by improving gross profit margin, and we are focusing our effort on that area. Thank you very much. Mr. Yamamoto, thank you very much for your question. The next question is from Mr. Yoshioka of Nomura Securities. I am Yoshioka of Nomura Securities. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. My question is regarding WFE market growth potential. On page 12, I'm just looking at page 12. Leading semiconductors, mid-term, long-term expansion trend is expected. That's what you said in your presentation. When you look at the investment by the chip makers, I think you can see some investment plan for long-term period.
My question is, 2027 or 2028, 2028. At present, do you expect a certain level of visibility of the growth, or, and if yes, if that is true, what sort of applications are expected to contribute to the growth in 2027 or 2028? I want to understand, or I want to ask about your view on WFE market in 2027 and 2028. It's too early to say anything about quantitative thing, but it is definite the high level will remain and continue, especially memory customers. We are doing good communication with memory customers for next year trend, and as I said earlier, the clean room space of the customer is one of the challenge. So we're working very hard to pull in the construction of new fab.
So top-to-top communication with the memory customers and logic customers, and through the conversation with those customers, next year, the high level WFE is expected. It's so difficult to see what happens in year 2028, but Edge AI is growing now, therefore, the demand application for Edge AI is expected to grow. ICT industry is expected to grow. Furthermore, huge amount of wafer fab is planned to be constructed by year 2030, and AI, Edge AI application is also a driver, therefore, high level of demand is expected to continue. Thank you very much. I understand your view for the future market, and the technology innovation will continue. For example, from GAA to CFET, the trend or VCT to 3D DRAM, and the number of layers or stack, number of layers for NAND will be increasing, so high performance and low power consumption should be pursued.
And there is a demand for the process in between front-end and back-end process. CFET and 3D DRAM, maybe that should be 2032 or 2033. So drastically change, drastic change of equipment expected in those years. Then quantum computing, six G or AI gener-- AI with robotics, those demand are expected further beyond. Therefore, technology innovation of semiconductor expected. We need to closely watch the energy consumption. That's one thing, and cash flow. Now, you, you can see the massive investment, so we also need to closely watch cash flow. But in the future, you can see long-term growth trend remain unchanged. Thank you very much. I understand this strong trend of the growth. Thank you very much, Mr. Yoshioka. Thank you very much for your question. The next question is from Mr. Shibano of Citigroup Global Markets Japan. I am Shibano from Citigroup Global Markets Japan.
Thank you very much. So I have a question for the business performance in the second half of this fiscal year. So you said toward next fiscal year, there are strong requests from the customer for the delivery pull in. On the other hand, over the past three months, the October-December period, against the plan, I think the progress is rather low compared with your plan, and the second quarter, China was rather strong. Therefore, Third Quarter looks soft because of this very strong Second Quarter. But October to December performance, compared with your guidance three months ago, are there any gap between the result and the guidance? And from January to March, you just expect the high sales. Now, what is the progress of shipment, the current status of shipment, and what is the confident level to achieve the higher level of sales?
If you can meet the request for pull-in delivery, you may be able to further enhance your sales more than guidance. Is that possible?
As for your first question, so for second, third and Fourth quarter, performance is as planned. There is no difference or gap. There are some seasonality, but last year, from the SEMICON West last year, we expect the increasing demand, and now momentum is coming in, so the budget finalized at that time is to be implemented in January to March period. Needless to say, there are upward revision of the financial estimate because of the pulled-in request for delivery, and we are sure we can take care of the pulled-in request for delivery. That's the reason why we made upward revision. Customers want us to further pull in the delivery.
So including such requests, we are now taking actions, but there is a possibility that our estimate can be revised upward furthermore. So in some cases, the sales is re-recognized after the completion of the startup. So there are some positive or negative impacts, but there is slight possibility of the further upward revision. But we are sure that we can achieve the figures that we have revised this time.
Thank you very much. That was very clear.
Mr. Shibano, thank you very much for your question. So we receive all questions. We have 10 minutes to go, so maybe second round of question. Could you hit the Raise Hand button if you have additional questions or if you have new question? So next question is from Mr. Hirakawa of BofA Securities. Mr. Hirakawa, please.
Thank you very much.
So JPY 150 billion, JPY 150 billion share repurchase is announced, and you conduct the share repurchase every year to keep good balance sheet management. So JPY 150 billion. Could you let me know the reason why you set up this figure, JPY 150 billion? As for signs of share repurchase, as Mr. Kawai said earlier in his presentation, we will see cash at the end of fiscal year or current capital policies, ROE or total return ratio, or total return amount. Based on those factors, we decided JPY 150 billion should be appropriate, so we made the decision to keep good, good balance. Let me add some comments. This is Kawai. So ROE or our capital policy, ROE 30% or more. In the previous fiscal year. Our ROE exceeded 30%.
Next fiscal year is our target year. Again, we try to achieve high, more than 30% ROE. We committed this figure. Based on that consideration, we thought JPY 150 billion should be appropriate amount for share repurchase. Just looking at the leading-edge area, the R&D investment accounts for about 10% of the sales, but in the area to drive technology innovation, in that area, at present, about 20% of R&D investment against sales is made, and cash in principle is leading to the investment for growth. On the other hand, the equity ratio is about 70%, but this time, the equity ratio is expected to be rather high. Of course, we keep investment for further growth, but equity ratio of 70% should be considered. And also, we need to pay attention to ROE.
Based on those factors, we decided the amount of JPY 150 billion. I don't try to get the commitment, but next fiscal year. So ROE of 30% to be achieved, that's your strong- Yes, of course. That's, that's really important, to achieve ROE 30% next fiscal year. Thank you very much, Mr. Hirakawa, for your question. Next question is from Mr. Nakamura of Goldman Sachs Japan. S- I'm sorry, this is my second question. So I have a question to Mr. Kawai, CEO. So JPY 3 trillion, OP margin 30%, by in year it ending March 2027, and what is the current status to achieve those target? So top line of JPY 3 trillion or ROE of 30% in year, ending March 2027, we are now following our midterm management plan target. That's the goal we want to pursue.
Of course, we need to pursue all the targets we have set. So JPY 3 trillion. We are now getting somewhat closer to JPY 3 trillion. We are now scrutinizing current status. For the operating profit margin, there are various situations in the past. So competition of the overseas market is rather high, or proportion of overseas market or proposed sales is rather high. I think the yen depreciation had big impact. So when we started midterm management plan, one, the one dollar was 120 yen, so that is one of the impacts. Also, the regulations, national regulations, is another factor, and the customer with high share, customer, those customer didn't proceed with their investment as planned, and also NAND investment was smaller than expected. So there are several factors to impact our plan, but we see AI demand is coming.
So, mid more than midterm management plan, we are now increasing R&D investment so that we can maintain the world-leading technology innovation power. We didn't see such kind of accelerated trend of AI when we established the plan. So because of those factors, operating profit margin does have some challenge, but we try to catch the current demand, and we try to promote penetration of our new product. We try to see the way to further improve the operating profit margin, and we would like to make every effort to improve the operating profit margin. For top line and ROE, our targets are within our reach. So then we need to take various approach to pursue the further enhancement of the operating profit margin. Did I answer to your question?
Thank you very much. That was very clear. Thank you very much.
Mr.
Nakamura, thank you very much for your question. Next question is from Mr. Yoshida of CLSA Securities.
So sorry, this is my second question. So WFE for this year, so first half and second half of this year, what is the proportion between the two? So clean room space limitation among customers more weighted in the second half. Are there any proportion between first half and second half of this year?
So that is rather even, according to my impression. Even now, you can see the drastic request from the customer to pull in delivery. So already started now. So customer try to improve the clean room space, and customer may ask us for the location to bring the equipment, the new area of clean room. But I think we receive inquiries or requests evenly throughout the year.
So when you say evenly throughout the year, demand is now coming, but the first half and second half of your, the year, are there any changes in application drivers? So drivers are from the leading-edge node, leading-edge technology. So both. Logic, DRAM are getting momentum, and I think NAND might be the second half. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your question. Thank you very much, Mr. Yoshida, for your question. Next question is in English. Let me read it out. "We saw very strong CapEx..." Sorry, Liping Fan from Huatai Securities. "We saw very strong CapEx from TSMC in recent quarterly result. The total CapEx from TSMC grew 80% year-over-year, which is higher than WFE market.
What is your view on this gap, and what is your capacity expansion plan now to satisfy future demand in 2027? For the data center, yes, the JPY 50 trillion, JPY 50 trillion of investment in the Japanese yen. So I think implementation proceeded this year. Then now you can see increasing number of applications, and customers are working hard to take care of various applications, and they are trying to catch up by introducing high-productivity equipment. That's the reason why we have many inquiries for the equipment with high productivity. For the gap in, or capital intensity, so semiconductor device value added is increased. Accordingly, capital intensity is slightly declining. But in the future, the device scaling is going on, and technology innovation is expected for various equipment. Therefore, capital intensity may be likely to increase slightly.
So what is very important, the two vendors and our customers, so OPM should be improved. The capital intensity does not increase so much. On the other hand, cash flow goes up. That means the investment will increase in the future. In particular, capital intensity is not-- We don't have big concern about the lower capital intensity. Thank you very much for your question. Another follow-up question: "We saw a 31% sequential decline in Chinese revenue this quarter. Do you view this primarily as a temporary inventory adjustment by Chinese customers in the mature nodes? When you expect the demand in China to recover?" From last year, now we can see quite a few new customers starting investment to improve in yield. So they are working hard to enhance the yield. That's the reason why they just refrain from new investment.
Because of regulations, the equipment is delivered earlier, and those equipment is now in the inventory or warehouse. Customer mix is another factor. Because of those factors, the third quarter. There was slight decline in third quarter. In the future, now there are quite a few customers, and we need to closely watch the trend of demands of customers in China. For commodity area, maybe in the future, WFE in China is likely to remain flat in the future. That's how we view the Chinese market trend. Thank you very much, Mr. Liping , for your question. Since there seems to be no question, we like to close financial announcement. Before closing, there is one announcement. From this quarter, we will hold a follow-up session for institutional investors after the financial announcement. Two sessions in total, one in Japanese, the other in English.
Japanese session is planned to be held at 10:30 A.M. to 11:30 on February 19th, 2026. English session is planned to be held at 8:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. on February 20, 2026. We would appreciate your kind understanding that neither sessions will use interpretation services. Yatsuda and Takagi of IR Department will attend the session as speakers, and this follow-up session will be held in webinar format. If you wish to attend the session, you are kindly requested to access the registration site from this URL or QR code to complete the registration in advance. Lastly, we'd like to continually improve our IR activities based on previous feedback, so we appreciate your kind cooperation in filling out the questionnaire survey before you exit the WebEx. Thank you very much for taking time to join this conference despite your busy schedule today. Thank you very much.