Why Does UNIQLO Parent Have No Intention To Launch Acquisition Activities?

Fast Retailing, the parent company of Japan's fast fashion giant Uniqlo, has a cash balance of 1 trillion and 120 billion yen (71 billion 350 million yuan), which is more than three times five years ago, but the group said in the near future that it had no plans to use the pen money to carry out any new acquisition activities.

XXX has always existed in the image of industry subversive, but with it becoming one of the giants in the apparel industry, the group will be the next Japanese company to sacrifice capital efficiency to hoard capital.

In January this year, Xun marketing group issued a profit warning after issuing the latest financial report, saying that by the 2020 fiscal year of August, operating profit will decline by 5% to 245 billion yen, rather than the expected growth to 275 billion yen. (see "ornate ambition": the latest quarterly report of UNIQLO's parent company: warm winter, exchange rate and political problems are dragging the Asian market, and the US has finally started to make profits).

The quarterly report also pointed out that in the first quarter of this fiscal year from September 1, 2019 to November 30th, the group added 28 billion 500 million yen in cash and cash equivalents, and the book balance exceeded 1 trillion yen mark.

Hidehiko Aoki, a retail industry analyst at Nomura Securities, said: "fast cash should be used to invest in future targets. If there is a goal, it will be a reasonable choice to remain mobile."

The "hoarding" of cash flow stems partly from the challenges that UNIQLO faced in the early years. The brand began to expand rapidly after opening its first store, but soon there will be a shortage of operating capital, all of which are "fast forward and fast out".

Tadashi Yanai, chairman and chief executive of fast forward marketing board, recalled the experience of his early years, pointing out: "at that time, we created revenues and profits, but we did not have enough cash reserves."

Later, UNIQLO grew rapidly, pushing the sales of XXX group soaring year by year. In the last fiscal year of August 31, 2019, the group's total sales reached 2 trillion and 300 billion yen, 70 times that of the company just 25 years ago.

The continuous growth of cash flow also lies in the group's change in attitude towards large takeovers. In early twenty-first Century, XXX group bought several local and overseas brands (including the US brand Theory, the French brand Comptoir des Cotonniers, etc.), and the high-end brand J Brand, which was acquired in 2012, is the last brand of the Group acquisition.

But so far, the performance of several brands that have been sold quickly has not been much improved. Among them, the French fashion brand Comptoir des Cotonniers suffered from asset impairment and serious losses in recent years. "The fact is that only the performance of UNIQLO's brand has a substantial impact on the group," said a former executive of Xun marketing group.

At present, fast Marketing Group's energy and resources are mainly in the field of technology development, in order to achieve 30% sales target from the online, but the group has not considered the acquisition of Internet brands. "We hope to achieve growth without spending (acquisition)," Ryui Masa said.

Xun points out that it plans to add about 100 stores a year in the Greater China market, and will continue to expand its market in Southeast Asia. For XXX group, emerging markets will be the main driving force for the current sales of 10 trillion yen. "The next 100 years will be the era of Asia," Ryui Masa said.

However, there are some "shortages" in physical stores, which are easy to be influenced by consumers' more online shopping, and are easily influenced by force majeure. For example, in response to the recent new type of pneumonia, UNIQLO was forced to temporarily close nearly half of its stores in the mainland market. And China is already the brand outside the Japanese mainland, the largest number of stores in the market, the long-term panic impact caused by the epidemic is bound to have a negative impact on the group's performance.

At the same time, more direct selling mode, social networking, good at collecting and using data, and rapid adjustment of garment production companies based on consumer demand (i.e. Internet brand, English short name DTC brand) are emerging all over the world, but Liu well does not regard it as a threat.

"It's not so simple to make what consumers want," DTC said. "It's entirely out of the interest of entrepreneurs." Ryui Masa said, (DTC) direct selling brands are hard to develop into a large scale. "The highest annual sales of these brands are expected to reach only 200~300 billion yen (about 13~19 billion yuan)."

Fast Retailing is also building closer ties with consumers in its own way. For example, the semi annual magazine LifeWear, launched in August 2019, invited Kinoshita Hyoho, a leading Japanese media leader, to try to attract more attention to consumers of sustainable fashion through advocacy, durable products and ideas. (see "ornate ambition": UNIQLO launches semi annual magazine "LifeWear", Kinoshita Hyoho, Japan's leading media leader)

Ryui Masa announced last year that he resigned as an outside director of SoftBank Group. In January this year's fast selling shareholders meeting, he said: "from now on, I will put 100% into the company."

Tadashi Yanai, who is just over 71 years old, has also indicated that she hopes to be replaced by a woman for consideration of the future development of the company. "Women are more suitable for this position. They are more tenacious, attentive to details, and have a good sense of beauty."