We already knew that Olympus Imaging's cumulative operating losses during the last twelve years totaled ¥103bn. That's $1.2bn. Last week Olympus published their consolidated financial results for the second quarter of FY2021 (July - September 2020). Included in this reporting is the forecast of the FY2021 loss from the soon to be divested Imaging Business, now considered as 'discontinued operation': ¥53bn. That's an additional $500m.
As they politely said when presenting their results, "We expect to record a loss for the current fiscal year due to expenses related to the divestiture of the Imaging business." Later on they added: "Total loss of ¥5.5 billion is expected due to the loss associated with the divestiture of the Imaging Business."
There are other interesting bits concerning the Imaging Business in Olympus's financial reporting:
- Olympus has begun to severely downsize their Imaging business:
- Imaging's headcount fell by nearly 30% between 31 March 2020 (4,270) and 30 September 2020 (3,031). In Japan, Imaging now has less than 400 employees.
- Between April - September 2019 and April - September 2020, Imaging's capital expenditures fell by half (-51.6%) and R&D expenditures by 30%.
- Consequently, Olympus expects the revenue of the Imaging business to decline significantly over October - December 2020 compared to July - September whereas October - December is usually the strongest quarter of the year. Last year for instance October - December revenue was 121% of July - September revenue. This year the forecast ratio is 78%.
Thanks Mistral75!
