Nikon

Nikon Corporation (Japanese 株式会社ニコン kabusiki gaya nikon, pronounced "Nikon" (Inf.)) - A Japanese company specializing in the production of optics and electronic devices for image processing.

Nikon is part of the Mitsubishi Group. It was founded Kōgaku Kōgyō on July 25, 1917 under the name Nippon Kogaku K.K. (Nippon Kogaku Kabushiki Kaisha), renamed in 1988. The president is Kazuo Ushida. Headquarters in Tokyo.

Structure

By July 2018, Nikon's business is split between the following core divisions:

• Imaging Products;
• Precision Equipment;
• Healthcare (solutions for health care);
• Industrial Metrology and Others.

Business in Russia

To Moscow The Nikon representative office operates in. CIS

2024: Nikon resumed deliveries of spare parts to Russia in 2023. Russian subsidiary does not exclude the return and supply of products

As TAdviser found out, the Russian office of Nikon Corporation - Nikon LLC, founded by the Dutch legal entity of the corporation, does not exclude the resumption of deliveries of products to the Russian market in the near future. This follows from the explanations for his financial accounting, published in the database of the Federal Tax Service in early April.

In connection with geopolitical and economic events in Russia and in the world, since March 2022, the Dutch founder temporarily suspended the supply of goods and spare parts to Nikon LLC. In December 2022, the latter resumed selling goods that were in its warehouse. The reserves were fully realized by the end of 2023, according to the explanations to the financial accounting.

In mid-2023, the supply of spare parts from Nikon Singapore was resumed and their implementation was established for service centers.

Nikon.com

In October 2023, the company carried out optimization of business, personnel and expenses. Excluding separate divisions outside the Russian Federation at the end of 2023, the number of personnel of Nikon LLC was 8 people.

The timing of the resumption of deliveries of the main products depends on the development of external events, the company writes in explanations to financial reporting. When resuming deliveries, Nikon LLC plans to generate net profit during the next reporting year. And in case deliveries are not resumed within a year, the company has modeled the amounts of upcoming expenses and cash flows. According to Nikon LLC, the current margin of its financial safety is more than 2 years.

Before all these events in recent years, the Russian legal entity Nikon directly received revenue in the amount of 1.5-2 billion rubles, but in 2022 it collapsed to 184 million rubles and in 2023 decreased by another 27%.

At the same time, the management has no intentions to liquidate Nikon LLC: the Dutch controlling legal entity Nikon confirmed the lack of intentions to liquidate the Russian subsidiary.

At the end of 2023, Nikon LLC continued to operate separate representative offices in Ukraine and Kazakhstan, allocated for a separate balance sheet, although only one person works in them.

2019: Revenue decline by 23% to RUR 1.9 billion

At the end of 2019, Nikon (Nikon LLC) took 43rd place in the TAdviser Ranking: the 50 most profitable representative offices of foreign IT companies in Russia. The company's revenue in 2019 amounted to 1,913,338 thousand rubles, which is 23% lower than in 2018.

2018: Revenue - RUB 2.48 billion

Nikon's revenue (Nikon LLC) in 2018 amounted to 2,483,333 thousand rubles.

2010

In December 2010, Nikon extended the NPS (Nikon Professional Services) service to Russia, which allows you to repair professional equipment in 48 hours or get replaced during repairs, as well as carry out its annual free maintenance, cleaning and easy repairs.

2008: Start of operation of Nikon LLC

On July 1, 2008, Nikon LLC, a branch of Nikon Corporation, began operations in Moscow, providing and coordinating the sale and service of equipment manufactured by the Japanese company.

History

2022: Ceasing production of "DSLRs" due to competition with smartphones

On July 12, 2022, it became known that Nikon, which ranks second in the world in the production of photographic equipment, is stopping production of digital single-lens reflex cameras due to strong competition from smartphones.

Nikon SLR cameras have been released for 60 years, but faced with serious competition from smartphone cameras, the company is going to focus on the development and production of mirrorless cameras. However, Nikon SLR cameras will not disappear from the market at once.

Nikon stops production of "mirrors" due to competition with smartphones

Nikon will continue to produce existing SLR cameras for some time and no longer develop new models, according to a Nikkei Asia report.

Earlier, Canon, one of the market leaders in consumer photography equipment, said the EOS-1D X Mark III would be its latest flagship digital SLR camera, saying "market needs are rapidly shifting towards mirrorless cameras." At the same time, the company will continue to produce entry-level and mid-budget digital SLR cameras.

Meanwhile, Nikon has also retired two of its budget digital SLR cameras - D3500 and D5600. At the same time, Nikon said it wants to focus on medium- and high-end cameras designed for professional photographers and amateurs, as well as introduce more products for the younger generation, for which video cameras are the main focus.^[1]

2021: Purchase of satellite parts developer using 3D printing Morf3D for $91 million

In early April 2021, the Japanese manufacturer of photographic equipment Nikon announced the acquisition of a controlling stake in the American developer of solutions for the aerospace industry Morf3D. The deal is valued at $91 million. Read more here.

2020:10% staff cut

At the end of November 2020, it became known that Nikon is cutting 2,000 jobs or 10% of its workforce, due to a decline in the main camera industry and structural changes in the global semiconductor industry.

Nikon previously supplied between 70% and 90% of its chipmakers to Intel, but the company is now looking for new customers through a price-cutting strategy to reduce over-reliance on Intel. However, due to the coronavirus crisis, the search for new customers turned out to be a difficult task.

Between April and September 2020, Nikon sold nine chipmaking machines, half as many as in 2019.

Nikon fires 10% of state

Sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment have declined sharply, a Nikon spokesman said. - We will have to revise our business strategies, depending on the conditions of our main client.

In addition, Nikon at one time abandoned the development of advanced EUV equipment due to high costs. Thus, the Dutch company ASML became the only company in the world that succeeded in the commercial production of EUV equipment and easily bypassed Nikon in this regard by signing a contract with Intel. At the same time, Intel is considering transferring semiconductor production to another major manufacturer under a contract. If Intel cuts its own semiconductor production, Nikon is likely to be directly affected by falling sales of its chip manufacturing equipment.

Still, as China seeks to boost domestic semiconductor production after U.S. sanctions, Nikon still has an opportunity to attract customers among Chinese chipmakers.

Nikkei cites data from one of the analysts, who claims that in an attempt to ease its dependence on Intel, Nikon has begun to take active actions to attract new customers, including through the offer of discounts. However, Nikon President Toshikazu Umatate admitted that it is very difficult to look for new customers due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.^[2]

2019: Carl Zeiss and ASML to pay €150m to Nikon for stealing chip and digital camera technology

On January 23, 2019, it was officially announced that the Dutch manufacturer of chip manufacturing equipment ASML Holding and the German developer of optical solutions Carl Zeiss will pay Nikon 150 million euros to resolve patent conflicts.

The companies signed a binding memorandum of understanding that ends all litigation in Europe, Japan and the United States, including with the participation of the International Trade Commission.

Nikon sued 150 million euros from Carl Zeiss and the largest manufacturer of semiconductor equipment ASML

Nikon, ASML and Carl Zeiss agreed to enter into a final settlement and cross-licensing agreement and to terminate all litigation between the parties in February 2019. One of the clauses of the contract involves mutual royalties in the amount of 0.8% of sales of immersion lithography systems within 10 years from the date of signing the final agreement.

Nikon sued ASML and Carl Zeiss in April 2017, accusing the companies of illegally using their proprietary technology for lithographic equipment (used to make chips) and digital cameras. Then the Japanese company demanded that opponents compensate for losses from unauthorized activities and stop selling products in which, according to the plaintiff, Nikon's developments are illegally used.

ASML CEO and President Peter Wennink said that the lawsuit initiated by Nikon is unfounded and creates uncertainty for the semiconductor industry. ASML has repeatedly tried to extend its cross-licensing agreement with Nikon, he said.

As a result, the companies managed to agree. How much Carl Zeiss and ASML each pay Nikon is not specified. ASML only reported that the company reserved 131 million euros in the reporting for 2018 to resolve the dispute.^[3]

2017: Rising losses in the medical business

In early May 2018, Nikon summed up the financial year that expired for the company on March 31, 2018. Reforms, measures to improve the profit structure in the Imaging Products division responsible for photographic equipment, and maintaining the break-even business in the field of semiconductor equipment helped Nikon to increase net profit by more than 8 times. However, in the medical direction, the company's losses increased.

It became known from the report that last year Nikon received a net profit of 34.77 billion yen ($317 million), which is 776.6% higher than the result of the year ago. Revenue for the specified period decreased by 4.3% and amounted to about 717 billion yen ($6.55 billion).^[4]

Nikon financials

The losses of the Healthcare Business division, in which the Japanese vendor produces ultra-high-resolution microscopes and ophthalmic equipment, increased to 3.26 billion yen ($29.8 million) following the last 12-month period. In the previous financial year, Nikon's losses here amounted to 660 million yen. At the same time, the division's revenue increased by 1.8%, to 56.8 billion yen ($518.6 million). The growth of losses in Nikon was explained by investments in new startups and business areas, both in the segment of biological microscopes and vision diagnostics equipment.

Nikon's key revenue-generating arm remains Imaging Products Business, responsible for developing and selling digital cameras as well as accessories and software for them. Against the backdrop of falling global demand for interchangeable lenses and compact digital cameras, the company's revenue here decreased by 5.8%, to 360 billion yen ($3.3 billion). However, the focus on high-end and more expensive products helped to increase business profitability by 76.2%, to 30.22 billion yen ($275.8 million).

Financial performance of Nikon divisions

A similar trend is a decline in revenue and an increase in income - in the division of Precision Equipment Business, specializing in equipment for the production of chips. Sales decreased by 8.7%, to 226.3 billion yen ($2.07 billion), and the division's profit rose by almost 300%, to 53.4 billion yen ($487.3 million).^[5]

Notes