< The 2015 All-Japan Research Team
Hideyuki Maekawa
Credit Suisse
First-place appearances: 1
Total appearances: 7
Analyst debut: 2009
Although he slips one position to the No. 2 spot he held in 2013 and 2012, Credit Suisse analyst Hideyuki Maekawa still earns high marks for ”his strength on the semiconductor and semi equipment side and for knowing their technologies in detail,” as one fund manager puts it. Improving shareholder returns — as evidenced by equipment makers Disco Corp. of Tokyo and Kyoto-based Screen Holdings Co. — and enhancing free cash flow, as Toshiba Corp. is doing, are issues of paramount importance for Japan’s industrial electronics companies, contends Maekawa, 42. Also crucial are corporate initiatives to adjust to global sectoral consolidation to strengthen market positions, cost advantages and product advantages, he explains. He recommends that investors buy diversified conglomerate Toshiba. In addition to focusing on free-cash-flow management, notes Maekawa, the executive team has restructured its loss-making television segment (by lending its brand name to partners and ceasing in-house development and sales of its own new models) and personal computer segment (by focusing more on business-to-business sales, rather than business-to-consumer). In addition, the Tokyo company’s NAND business, with a chip size that is 15 to 20 percent smaller than its rivals, has a technology advantage that translates to a cost advantage, he says.