Review of Fiscal Year Ended June 2013

In this past fiscal year, we continued our efforts to create new business and reinforce core business while following the fundamental strategy of concentrating our resources on the areas of excellence and high growth potentials.

The condition of our business environment in the past year was favorable. In the semiconductor industry, our largest marketplace, the level of capital expenditures remained high, thanks to strong sales of smartphones and tablets. Leading companies made significant investment for further scaling in order to make IC chips more capable and energy-efficient.

During this period, our sales increased to 13,607 million yen, up 19.4% from the previous fiscal year, and our net income increased 22.3% to 1,969 million yen. The sales of our semiconductor-related business surpassed 10 billion yen for the first time in our corporate history. Semiconductor mask inspection systems, particularly MATRICS X810HiT series, were the largest contributor to this achievement. We also won a significant number of new orders for the mask inspection systems. We also received an order for our new FPD mask inspection system. As a result, the amount of our total orders reached 16,189 million yen (up 84.7% from the previous fiscal year), the highest in our history.

On the financial side, we paid off the balance of syndicated loans borrowed for the construction of the new headquarters building in 2008. As a result, our equity ratio improved further to 80.4% as of the end of the fiscal year.

Status of New Medium-Term Business Plan

Our "New Medium-Term Business Plan" spans a 9 year period from July 2009 to June 2018. It is divided into 3 phases (Phase 0, Phase 1, and Phase 2), each of which is three years long.

[The New Medium Term Plan]

Phase 0
(Step1)
July 2009
through June 2012
Get Ready for Next Chapter
  1. (1) Focus on selected business areas where we excel (semiconductor-related business).
  2. (2) Reinforce our financial strength.
Phase 1
(Step 2)
July 2012
through June 2015
Take on New Challenges
  1. (1) Reinforce our core business.
  2. (2) Create a pillar of new business.
Phase 2
(Step 3)
July 2015
through June 2018
Open New Chapter
  1. (1) Further reinforce our core business.
  2. (2) Create a second pillar of new business.

The fiscal year ending June 2015 is the final year of "Phase 1 - Take on New Challenges". In core business, we will continue our efforts to promote our main product lines - semiconductor mask inspection systems, mask blank inspection systems and FPD mask inspection systems. To create new business, we are currently focused on semiconductor wafer inspection products and have already seen good results in SICA, BGM300 and LX330. Drawing on these successes, we will work hard to create a pillar of new business.

In the past fiscal year, our overseas sales ratio exceeded 80%. In order to respond to this new reality and to be more competitive in the global market, we will review and modify the way we conduct business. More specifically, we will enhance our customer support capability at our subsidiaries in the United States, Taiwan and Korea. We will also establish a common infrastructure among the headquarters in Japan and these overseas subsidiaries. Furthermore, we will reinforce our sales force dedicated to sales promotion of wafer-related inspection systems in the United States and Taiwan.

Through these efforts, we will establish a solid foundation for future growth.

Upward Shift of Target Dividend Ratio from 30% to 35%

Our fundamental policy is to given shareholder interests a top priority. In this spirit, we have set the target of our dividend ratio at around 30% on a consolidated basis. At the outset of the fiscal year ending June 2015, however, we have decided to make our dividend policy even more in favor of shareholders and therefore shift the target of our dividend ratio upward from 30% to 35%.

Finally, I would like to reiterate the resolve of all in the entire Lasertec organization that we will continue making further contributions to the progress of society. We sincerely ask for your support.

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