During the period, the steady growth was generally observed in the developing countries like China, however, since the decline in export business to Western countries and individual consumption became apparent, decelerating trend of the economic situation continued. In the advanced countries such as U.S.A., disturbance in financial markets due to debt crisis in European countries and downturn of individual consumption because of the continuing weak employment situation also harmed their economies. As a result, the economic recovery in the world during the period entirely did not progress as expected. In Japan, in accordance with the rapid restoration of supply chain which had been shredded by the Great East Japan Earthquake, manufacturers' production activity was recovering and improvement trend of consumer confidence was also observed. However, the pace of economic recovery was very slow due to slowdown of demands from foreign countries and historic yen appreciation.

Under these business circumstances, in our electrical and electronics business sector, although the sales for SGS (Small Gauge Coaxial) connector to be used for tablet PCs and micro coaxial connectors to be used for wireless LAN for smartphones was going well, the entire business result for connectors came to severe because of historic yen appreciation and the slower growth of market demand related to notebook PCs and HDDs. In the field of automotive business, the production status, which drastically declined after the Great East Japan Earthquake, rapidly recovered from the beginning of the 2nd quarter. Thus, the sales for automotive components turned to recovery mainly due to demand increase of sensors. Regarding our equipment business, since the demand for semiconductor manufacturing equipment declined due to decelerating trend of the world economy, the business came to severe result.

As the result of consolidated operation of 2nd quarter of fiscal year ending December 31, 2011, net sales decreased by 15.9% year-to-year (vs. previous fiscal year) to 20,946 million yen, operating income decreased by 49.4% year-to-year to 2,505 million yen, ordinary income decreased by 41.1% year-to-year to 2,610 million yen and net income decreased by 38.2% year-to-year to 1,602 million yen respectively. With regard to the earning estimate for a full fiscal year ending December 31, 2011, we revised it as per "Notice about revision of earning estimate" published on November 4, 2011 in view of the current status of the economic situation although we are still devoting ourselves to improvement of productivity and cost reduction in stagnation of orders.

From now on we would be facing difficult and severe economic circumstances such as uncertainty over the financial crisis in European countries including Greece, adverse effects by unprecedented flood in Thailand, unexperienced yen appreciation and so on. However, we, Dai-ichi Seiko Group are going to make further efforts in cost reduction at manufacturing in order to withstand excessive yen appreciation and continue to engage in the aggressive R&D and sales activities for the advanced products to be ahead of the market needs.

All of group companies will strive aiming for contribution to all of stakeholders and prosperity of society, under fully driving corporate social responsibility (CSR). We look forward to having continuing supports and understanding from all of you.