Monthly IR Report Dec
18 December 2003 - 6:00PM
UK Regulatory
RNS Number:4060T
Takefuji Corporation
18 December 2003
A Few Words of Apology
We would like to offer our profound apologies and regrets for all the concern
caused to general public, especially to our customers, shareholders and
investors by these developments including the fact that Mr. Yasuo Takei,
Chairman and Representative Director of Takefuji Corporation ("the Company"),
has been in custody since December 2, 2003 on suspicion of having infringed the
Telecommunications Business Law with regard to intercepting telephone calls.
On December 8, 2003, Mr. Takei tendered his resignation to an extraordinary
meeting of the Board of Directors held by the Company, and his intention to
resign was accepted. Although this is an astonishing turn of events for us, we
take the present situation with a full sense of the seriousness and will make
every endeavor to cooperate with the ongoing investigation in order to ensure
that the full truth of this matter is made clear as soon as possible.
Going forward, all the directors, employees and myself intend to devote
ourselves to implement effective measures aiming to renew our management
structure and to strengthen our compliance with laws and regulations. Moreover,
we continue to value and foster trust and good relationship with individual
customers of the Company getting back to one of our original principles of the
"Customer First". As president, I pledge myself to lead this effort on behalf
of the entire company. We will try our utmost as to reform as soon as possible
all aspects of our company's activities, which have fallen in any way short of
proper social and ethical standards. We remain at the same time committed to
those valuable and positive aspects of our corporate history which have
supported our growth as a firm, and will put all our strength into the business
operations to make the Company beloved by all more than ever.
Our all branch offices are open and conducting business as usual. This incident,
regrettable though it is, should cause the business no material adverse effect
given the strength of our capital base - our equity ratio at the end of
September 2003 was 45.8% on a consolidated basis - and access to diversified
funding sources.
Your continuous goodwill and support for our endeavors will be appreciated.
Akira Kiyokawa
Representative President
Takefuji Corporation
* Notification of Purchase of Treasury Stock
We would like to announce that the Company acquired its treasury stock in
conformity with Article 210 of the Japanese Commercial Code.
Details of Treasury Stock Buyback are as follows:
1. Purchase period: November 4, 2003 - November 14, 2003
2. Number of shares purchased: 437,000 shares
3. Total purchased value: Yen 2,752,224,400
4. Method of purchase: Purchase on the TSE
5. Reason of purchase: The Company acquired its treasury stock in
consideration of its agile capital strategy from the viewpoint of its capital
efficiency.
(Reference)
1. A program of buying back shares was approved at the 36th Annual
Stockholder's Meeting on June 27, 2003 as follows:
a. Type of shares to be acquired: Common stock of Takefuji Corporation
b. Maximum number of shares to be acquired: 13 million shares
c. Maximum amount of acquisition: 130 billion yen
2. Aggregate total of treasury stock purchased after the resolution at the
36th Annual Stockholder's Meeting on June 27, 2003:
a. Aggregate total number of shares purchased: 1,255,000 shares
b. Aggregate total purchase value: Yen 8,499,268,100
3. Aggregate total of treasury stock purchased as of November 30, 2003
a. Total number of shares issued: 147,295,200 shares
b. Total number of shares purchased: 5,805,000 shares
* Loan Business in November
The performance of the loan business for the month of November 2003 was as
follows. For the period from November 11 to December 10, 2003, we achieved our
goals in terms of debt collection on a company-wide basis, and succeeded in
remarkably improving delinquent loans in the year-on-year comparison. On the
occasion of those incidents and a series of media coverage, we continue to
devote ourselves for our customers, shareholders and investors holding on one of
our original principles of the "Customer First" across the Company as a whole.
And we are pleased to announce that we set up our 8th regional branch in Okayama
as of November 1, 2003 and established a new organization consists of 8 regional
branches nation-wide. We believe such reorganization will strengthen and enhance
our loan business operations with regard to marketing as well as debt collection
November 2002 November 2003 Ratio/Number of change
Outstanding cash 1,750,115 1,672,117 -4.5%
loans (*)
Installment accounts 2 189 9,350%
receivable (**)
Number of loan 2,934,338 2,776,136 -5.4%
customer accounts
Number of new loan 24,661 22,917 -7.1%
customer accounts
Number of branch 1,906 1,892 -0.7%
offices (***)
Manned 529 528 (-1)
Unmanned 1,376 1,363 (-13)
Internet 1 1 (0)
Number of unmanned 1,906 1,892 (-14)
loan contract
machines (Yen-musubi
machines)
* Unit: millions of yen.
** Installment accounts receivable: credit card balance. Unit: millions of yen.
*** Increase/decrease in branch offices is shown in terms of the number of
branch offices rather than the rate of increase/decrease.
* Update on Credit Card Business
Acquisition of Member Stores: Our target has been to acquire 10,000 member
stores in the first year since a launch of our Credit Card Business. At the end
of September 2003, we have already acquired 27,171 member stores at a pace much
higher than initially expected. On a regional basis, the Kanto area accounts for
more than 58%, followed by Chubu/Hokuriku, Kinki and Kyushu/Okinawa areas. This
is largely because taxicab companies, for which we have been promoting a
nation-wide campaign since this summer, are concentrated in urban areas. At the
same time, we have been acquiring member stores in local regions based on an
original idea of the credit card business aiming for penetrating into local
community. In terms of industry type, we have wide-ranging member stores such as
goods retail stores, laundries, restaurants and service retailers in addition to
taxicabs. Moreover, the number of member stores where Takefuji's
"Keitai-Kureka" (see the topic below for details) is available, has been
steadily increasing.
"Keitai-Kureka" featured in the monthly "Credit Age": The December 2003
issue of monthly "Credit Age" published by JCFA (Japan Consumer Finance
Association) introduced our company's "Keitai-Kureka" in its feature article
"Mobile phones finally evolving into e-wallet" as the system that put
electronic settlement service via designated mobile phones into practical use
for the first time in Japan. Since our electronic settlement system uses
infrared communication system, infrared data communication equipment is
indispensable for making a settlement. However, it was supposed to cost a great
deal to build the infrastructure because the member stores have seldom been
equipped with such communication device. Nevertheless, we were able to install
the most-advanced terminal, on which IC cards and infrared communication system
are available, in each member store anticipating IT innovation in the future as
we entered credit card business relatively late as of October 20, 2002. That is
to say, latecomer's advantage enabled us to establish the most-advanced
infrastructure at lower cost than our peer companies. As a result, we became the
first to make electrical settlement via mobile phones fit for practical use in
this cutting-edge sector.
* Report on our Overseas IR Tour
Our 3rd series of overseas IR presentation meetings for this fiscal year was
held with 13 companies in 2 cities in the U.S.A. from November 12th to 14th,
followed immediately by the 4th series of meetings for 22 companies in 5
European cities from November 17th to 21st, 2003. We intend to continue
proactive information disclosure and vigorous IR activities so that we can
deepen the understanding of Takefuji Corporation among both overseas and
domestic shareholders and investors.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
MSCUWSARONRUARA