June 21, 2006 Chairman Kondo regular press conference
Conference Summary
(Chairman)
Hello everyone. We start regular press conference in June.
I would like to talk about two points today and then move on to questions.
The first point is the current state of the business. Please listen while looking at the distributed materials.
First, Expressway Is the situation.
The status of sales.
May traffic increased by about 3%. Fee revenue is down 1.2%.
Look at the numbers in parentheses that can be compared with the previous year. The number of traffic is increasing, but the toll revenue is decreasing. This is a word that the discount effect by the spread of ETC has come out.
By the way, the ETC usage rate in May last year was 43%. This May, about 59%. The amount of time zone discounts has increased considerably. The increased discount amount is approximately 2.4 billion yen. This is equivalent to more than 4% of the total fee revenue. Assuming that there was no discount for this time zone, it can be said that there was toll revenue proportional to the growth in traffic.
Why did the number of traffic increase? Basically, it is directly proportional to the real growth of the economy, which is the recent trend.
The construction situation is the same as last month.
Next is the transition of the contract rate for successful contracts for the main types of work.
The number of cases was 1 in May. Pavement improvement work, 81.28%. 81.33% in April and May. You can see that it has been around 80% since the beginning of this year and has continued.
It should be noted that it was pavement improvement work.
The other day, I reported the analysis result of the successful bid rate in the second half of last year. Among them, the successful bid rate for pavement was 95%, and it could be said that “the principle of competition is not working sufficiently”.
The pavement improvement work in May is in the 81% range. It is a number that cannot be said that “the principle of competition has worked in the same way as other types of work”.
However, there is still one. It is still too early to say in conclusion. I would like to pay close attention to future trends.
Next is the status of ETC.
During the week from June 9th to 15th, the ETC utilization rate was 64.1%. The utilization rate is rising.
As you know, our goal is to increase the ETC utilization rate to 73% by March next year. Another 9%. If it goes up by 1% per month, it will be somehow achieved.
The number of setups during May is about 300,000 units on a nationwide basis. If this pace continues, you may be able to achieve your goal. However, recently, the number of setups and the usage rate are not necessarily in direct proportion. I expect a further increase in the number of set-ups, especially for weekend drivers. We must also make efforts.
The status of the service area.
Total sales, including tenants and direct management, increased 3.7% from the previous year.
What should be noted in terms of content is that food and beverage sales are not growing so much. For food and drinks, it is slightly negative at 0.2%. The sales department also increased by 0.6%.
So what has grown is the sales of gas stations.
There was an increase in unit price. Regular sales are up 9 yen per liter compared to last year. Sales volume also increased by 5.2%. This is thought to be due to the difference with the market price. On average, it was an average of about 5 yen. Both of these factors helped increase sales in the gas station sector by 13.9%.
This means that the sales of the service area increased the sales of the service station. The weather was more cloudy and rainy than in May last year. However, I don't think it has a big impact on sales.
This is the second report item. Paper is handed out.
Within our jurisdiction there are “management offices” whose main mission is to manage and repair 24 roads. This means that you want to change the name to “Maintenance / Service Center”. It will be August 1 because it will take some time to change the signboard. This is one of the major objectives of awareness reform.
In the background, there have been various opinions from customers that “the“ management office ”is somewhat unfriendly”.
After all, "management" is a difficult name to understand. I would like to clearly express in the name that we are conducting “maintenance work” for roads according to the actual situation of business or “service work” that provides safe, secure, and comfortable road spaces to customers. about it.
But don't just change the signboard.
We will strengthen customer service and have a desire to receive more opinions from customers.
It is a measure that includes such a determination that we want to establish a consciousness and system that can better respond to customers.
(Moderator)
So do you have any questions?
(Reporter)
The general meeting of shareholders is approaching. Can you tell us about your enthusiasm for that and what matters will be handed over to the new president?
(Chairman)
The general meeting of shareholders is scheduled for the 27th.
The new president is Mr. Yano as you have been informed. I am preparing for Mr. Yano to take over various operations.
Finally, the management framework is in place and an agreement with a new country is in place. This is the time when the true value will be questioned. In that sense, I would like to take over firmly, focusing on what has been done so far, and what we will be focusing on this year for the time being.
(Reporter)
At the last interview, you said that you want to relax for a while, but how has it changed since then?
(Chairman)
There is nothing. The situation has not changed.
For the time being, I still have a term, so I will do my best to complete my term.
(Reporter)
As I mentioned before, I would like to ask you if there are any points that you want to emphasize with particular emphasis, such as wanting you to take the lead command with these points in mind.
(Chairman)
As you can see, our company has two pillars. One is Expressway Business, which consists of construction and maintenance / service. The other is related business, which is mainly related to sales in the service area that I have talked about.
Basically Expressway The business is an agreement, and what to do is firmly decided. We will do this firmly. To that end, we have to pay the lease fee firmly, and the source of that is the revenue from the fee.
In the future, we will have to disseminate ETC as quickly as possible in order to streamline road management and develop related businesses. Under such a mission, it is necessary to increase toll revenue, that is, the number of traffic.
In short, it ’s up to now or will be built Expressway Is how many customers use it.
I hope that it will bring about economic effects and maximize its usefulness not only in industry but also in daily life. Of course, the construction, maintenance and service determined by the agreement will be done, but in addition to that, we must make such efforts. To that end, as a second pillar, I think this is something that we must actively develop related businesses.
Expressway This is an economically valuable infrastructure. Expressway There is not only an interchange but also a service area.
I want to open as many service areas as possible. We are now conducting an experiment called Smart IC using ETC, but we will make it an open area. Expressway In order to get on and off, I would like to make use of the service area as well as the interchange.
Interchange and service area. This is a base that plays the role of a “station” in terms of railways. How do you fully use this to develop your business?
Of course, the basics are to expand the current service area business, Large It ’s like diversification. by this, Expressway Increase the number of traffic, Expressway We will create a system that maximizes the economic effect of. It is how to increase this synergistic effect.
Internally, we say “comprehensive power”, but there are two pillar businesses, and we believe that we can develop in the future only when two of them demonstrate their full power.
What to do specifically. The first five years are as shown in the “Challenge”.
I have talked about various things, but the most important thing I want to say to the new chairman is that it is “demonstration of comprehensive strength”. However, as a precondition, “consciousness reform” is necessary as in the name change to the maintenance / service center I mentioned earlier.
"Exercise comprehensive power", "Consciousness reform" as a prerequisite That is extremely important. I would like to talk to the new president about this point.
(Moderator)
So today's regular press conference is over.
(Chairman)
Thank you very much.
