Nidec to book ¥632.1 billion impairment for fiscal year ending March 2026, swinging to a ¥564.6 billion net loss

Nidec announced on the 2nd that it is changing the presidents of four subsidiaries, including Nidec Techno Motor. All of the new presidents come from outside the company, with their appointments effective as of the 1st. At Nidec Techno Motor and Nidec Drive Technology, Takeshi Nishiyama, a senior managing executive officer from Sony, took the helm at age 57, while Yuji Tanaka, a senior executive officer at Nidec, assumed the post at age 61. At Nidec Powertrain Systems, Chairman Katsuhiro Wada, formerly of Omron, took over at age 63, and at Nidec Machine Tool, Senior Executive Officer Kenji Hamanaka, formerly of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, took the position at age 55. Amid a string of misconduct cases, the group is also overhauling its personnel appointments to push forward with management reform.

Nidec Corp shares tumbled as much as 18% to 1,888.0 yen on Thursday after auditor PwC declined to vouch for the accuracy of the company's long-delayed annual report. The report, released Wednesday for the fiscal year ending March 2026, showed a substantially wider operating loss of 518.9 billion yen, or $3 billion, driven by an impairment loss of 632 billion yen tied to its automotive and commercial products divisions. PwC added a disclaimer stating it was unable to obtain sufficient and appropriate evidence to form an opinion on the financial report, compounding a reputational crisis that began over a year ago when Nidec admitted to improper accounting and governance practices. An independent investigation found misconduct including non-disclosure of impairment losses and delays in recognizing inventory depreciation, and the company acknowledged material weaknesses in internal control, saying it will undertake initiatives to fix governance and compliance. Nidec must submit a report on internal controls to the Tokyo Stock Exchange by end-October or risk de-listing, and on Wednesday it also announced the abrupt resignation of CEO Mitsuya Kishida, with CTO Michio Kaida to take over as CEO and president.

Nidec confirmed on Wednesday that it is in final-stage talks to sell its electronic parts subsidiary, Nidec Components, to U.S. private equity firm Carlyle Group, in a deal expected to be worth more than 100 billion yen, or $636 million. The sale would mark the first divestiture of a major subsidiary by Nidec, the world's largest maker of precision motors, and is largely aimed at accelerating a turnaround by streamlining operations. Nidec Components was founded in 1967 as Copal Electronics and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nidec in 2014. The company is reportedly facing an impairment charge of 1 trillion yen, or $6.3 billion, as it grapples with the fallout of a major governance scandal over the past year, and on Tuesday announced that President and CEO Mitsuya Kishida had resigned effective immediately. Nidec also confirmed it will release its long-delayed third-quarter and fiscal 2026 earnings on Wednesday, and its shares surged 6.5% on Wednesday, on track to snap two days of steep losses.

Leading auto parts maker Joyson Electronics recently held an earnings briefing, saying its intelligent driving business is gradually entering the stage of mass production and delivery, and has already entered the supply chain systems of leading domestic and overseas companies. According to the company's semi-annual report, in the first half of 2026 the intelligent driving business entered mass production and delivery, with domestic and global customer project nominations being advanced at full speed. Overseas, the company has secured mass production project nominations and project validation cooperation from European, Japanese and Korean original equipment manufacturers, and its products will serve global markets including Europe and Asia. In the intelligent computing center field, in response to the higher requirements that AI data centers place on highly reliable power supply and distribution, energy management, thermal management and system integration, the company is accelerating the development of products and integrated solutions such as AC/DC power conversion units, high-power DC/DC power conversion units, fully immersed liquid-cooled power cabinets, and coolant distribution units. Huatai Securities is optimistic that the company's intelligent driving business is gradually entering the mass production stage, while new businesses such as emerging intelligent agents and AI data centers continue to expand, which is expected to open up long-term growth space. Guotai Haitong Securities expects that strategic emerging industries such as emerging intelligent agents are likely to create a brand-new growth curve for the company.