Ibiden raises annual profit forecast and plans about 151bn yen substrate expansion

Ibiden raised its forecasts for the year to March 2027 on 29 October 2026 and now expects operating profit of 133.0bn yen, against the 127.0bn yen it forecast on 4 August, according to its forecast revision notice. The Japanese maker of IC package substrates also lifted its revenue forecast to 565.0bn yen from 550.0bn yen. The new operating profit forecast is 114.4% above the 62.0bn yen reported for the year to March 2026, the company's first-half results summary shows. On the same day its board approved about 151bn yen of capital spending to add capacity for high-performance IC package substrates.

The company said orders for high-value products, mainly for generative-AI servers, rose in its electronics business in the six months to September and the product mix improved, and the weaker yen helped, so the segment's revenue and operating profit beat its previous forecast. It expects server demand to stay firm and demand for products used in switch ICs to grow. First-half revenue rose 34.3% year on year to 262.5bn yen, operating profit 84.6% to 60.1bn yen and recurring profit 88.9% to 61.0bn yen. Operating profit in the electronics segment rose 96.7% to 50.0bn yen. The company's dollar exchange rate for the half was 159 yen, against 145 yen a year earlier, and it assumes 154 yen for the full year.

The interim dividend of 10 yen a share compares with the 7.50 yen the company planned in August, and Ibiden now forecasts 20 yen for the full year. Both figures are on the basis of the two-for-one share splits of 1 January and 1 October 2026. The company said its policy through the year to March 2031 is a payout ratio of about 20% and progressive dividends from a base of 10 yen a share a year.

The new investment centres on the Cell6 factory building at Ibiden's Gama site in Ogaki, Gifu prefecture, plus other plants abroad, according to its capital spending notice. Ibiden said it expects demand for high-performance substrates for CPUs to rise as AI moves from training towards inference and then agentic AI. The plan is for a staged start-up and the start of mass production from fiscal 2029, and the company said the effect on this year's consolidated results will be minor. Its results summary forecasts capital spending of 210.0bn yen for the year to March 2027, against 43.4bn yen in the first half.

Ibiden shares closed at 9,859 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange at 15:30 JST (07:30 CET) on 29 October 2026, up 2.03% from the previous close of 9,663 yen, according to Kabutan. The filings were published at 15:20 JST (07:20 CET), during the last ten minutes of trading. Kabutan reported at 15:32 JST that the stock briefly fell more than 4% just before the close and then recovered. The shares were quoted at 9,500 yen at 23:44 JST (15:44 CET) in PTS trading, according to Kabutan, about 3.6% below the Tokyo close by Polstob's calculation. PTS prices can still change before Tokyo trading resumes.