Investing in Tachibana Eletech Isn't Hard

Tachibana Eletech (8159:TSE) recently reported impressive earnings for year ending March 31, 2012. Earnings increased 18% yoy, despite revenue increasing only 4%. I had worried that the company is a low margin business, but now the management appears to be tackling the margin issue.

I summarized the 2012 results in the chart below.

In an earlier post I mentioned the company as a net-net with good earnings. I calculated net-net or net current asset value (NCAV) as current assets minus current liabilities. But Tachibana, and possibly all Japanese companies, reports assets as the sum of the following components:

1. current assets
2. property and equipment and
3. investments and other assets 

And I had previously considered the last component as non-current. However, upon reading the 2012 report I realized 90% of it is marketable securities or government bonds. They are very liquid and therefore should be treated as part of net-net. When I did this, the net-net value is much better than I previously thought! The above chart reflects this.

Tachibana Eletech is an industrial company specializing in supporting manufacturers. The Factory Automation (FA) Division is its main division accounting for almost half of its sales. The other main division is the Semiconductor Division. The Japanese expertise in manufacturing could be very useful for developing Asian countries. And the company is trying to increase exports. However, its Overseas Division is only 17% of sales right now.

For 2013, the company is targeting a 3% increase in revenue and 5% increase in income. In good times this is achievable, however an economic downturn could easily make both numbers negative as was the case in 2009 and 2010.

The company's ROE is 6.8% and its earnings yield is 10.7%. Its dividend yield is 2%. In summary, I think Tachibana 1) has a decent growth story, 2) trades at small P/E multiple and 3) its book value is not priced into the stock. I estimate its intrinsic value as 1450 yen per share. It is trading at 1100 today. To me, investing in Tachibana is a no brainer.

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Disclosure: I added to my position in Tachibana after reading their earnings report.