JLL Japan Lifeline : Announcement on Revision of the Earnings Forecasts and Revision to Dividend Forecast for the Fiscal Year Ending March 2018 (128KB)

January 31, 2018

To whom it may concern,

Company name: Japan Lifeline Co., Ltd.

Representative: Keisuke Suzuki, President and CEO

(Code: 7575 TSE 1st Section)

Contact person: Shogo Takahashi, Executive Vice President,

Corporate Administration Department

(TEL. [phone])

Announcement on Revision of the Earnings Forecasts and

Revision to Dividend Forecast for the Fiscal Year Ending March 2018

Japan Lifeline Co., Ltd. ("JLL") announced that JLL revised the earnings forecasts for the year ending March 31, 2018 which had been released on April 28, 2017 and the dividend forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2018 which had been released on November 30, 2017, as follows.

1. Revision of the Earnings Forecasts

Revisions of consolidated forecasts for the year ending March 31, 2018 (from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018)

Net sales	Operating income	Ordinary income	Net income	Earnings per share
Previous forecast (A)	Millions ofyen 41,828	Millions ofyen 9,472	Millions ofyen 9,604	Millions ofyen 6,684	Yen 89.83
Revised forecast (B)	42,466	10,664	10,908	7,480	98.53
Difference (B-A)	637	1,191	1,303	795
Difference (%)	1.5	12.6	13.6	11.9
(Reference) Actual results for the year ended March 31,2017	37,181	7,685	8,010	5,350	71.90

Revisions of non-consolidated forecasts for the year ending March 31, 2018 (from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018)

Previous forecast (A)	41,770	8,907
Revised forecast (B)	42,403	9,793
Difference (B-A)	632	885	394
Difference (%)	1.5	9.9	5.4
(Reference)
Actual results for the year ended	35,952	7,739
March 31,2017

7,336 7,731

Ordinary	Earnings
income	per share
Millions of yen Millions of yen Millions of yen	Yen
98.59
101.84

Net sales

Net income

4,918 66.10

(Note) JLL conducted a two-for-one stock split of its common stock, with an effective date of January 1, 2018. Earnings per share are calculated by deeming stock splits to have occurred at the beginning of the previous consolidated fiscal year.

Reasons for the Revision

【Consolidated forecasts】

Based on the following reasons of the non-consolidated forecasts, the consolidated business results in respect of net sales and each stage profits are also expected to exceed the previous consolidated forecasts announced on April 28, 2017.

Therefore, JLL decided to revise the consolidated earnings forecasts for the year ending March 31, 2018.

【Non-Consolidated forecasts】

During the third quarter, since the robust sales of each product category were achieved, the non-consolidated sales were higher than forecasted. The overall delay of the execution of expense budgets including advertisement expenses classified under selling, general & administrative expenses resulted in the more-than-expected increase of operating income and other income items, which was much higher than expected.

For the fourth quarter, the release date of two new products, the endoscope ablation system and the sutureless bioprosthetic valve, is postponed from this fourth quarter to the next fiscal year despite the initial marketing schedule for various reasons such as the delay in procedures for acquiring insurance coverage, and the release date of the coronary drug-eluting stent were postponed from January 2018 to March 2018. However, since the sales of the existing products are expected to remain robust in this fourth quarter and only a part of unexecuted expense budgets will be implemented, we have revised the full-year forecast announced on April 28, 2017.

(Note) The above earnings forecasts are based on information currently available to JLL and assumptions deemed to be reasonable. The actual results may differ from the earnings forecasts depending on various factors.

2. Contents of the revision

Annual dividend per share
2Q End	Year-end	Total
Previous forecast (announced on November 30, 2017)	－	18.75 yen	18.75 yen
Revised forecast	－	28.75 yen	28.75 yen
Actual dividend for the current fiscal year	0.00 yen	－	－
Actual dividend for the previous fiscal year (fiscal year ended March 2017)	0.00 yen	30.00 yen	30.00 yen

(Note) The Actual dividend for the previous fiscal year is described based on the number of shares before the 2-for-1 split of the common shares conducted as of January 1, 2018. If calculated based on the number of shares before the share split, the year-end dividend shall be 57.50 yen per share, which is substantially equivalent to an increase of 27.50 yen.

Reason for the revision of the dividend forecast

Our basic policy for shareholder return is to return a stable and continuous dividend by considering the year's consolidated business performance and with due consideration of ensuring sufficient internal reserves for future demand on funds.

In accord with our basic policy, we expect to revise the annual dividend to 28.75 yen per share for the fiscal year ending March 2018, since the business performance is steadily progressing.

This resolution will be submitted to the 38th ordinary general meeting of shareholders to be held in late June 2018.