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Coronavirus, Climate Change Boost Air Conditioner Giant in Japan

Japanese air-conditioning giant Daikin Industries Ltd. might be one of the few companies that stands to benefit from both.

Coronavirus, Climate Change Boost Air Conditioner Giant in Japan
A file photograph shows employees working on the production line for air conditioners at the Daikin Industries Ltd. plant in Sakai City, Osaka, Japan (Photographer: Tetsuya Yamada/Bloomberg)

Companies worldwide are beset by the very near-term threat of coronavirus and long-term specter of climate change. Japanese air-conditioning giant Daikin Industries Ltd. might be one of the few companies that stands to benefit from both.

Nearing a market value of 5 trillion yen ($47 billion), the world’s largest maker of air-conditioners is riding an almost uninterrupted eight-year streak which has seen its shares surge more than 700%. It’s now the 19th largest stock on the Topix, worth more than Japan’s second-largest megabank. The stock has also beat the broader index by 15 percentage points this year.

Coronavirus, Climate Change Boost Air Conditioner Giant in Japan

The outperformance is helped by a sharp increase in interest in ventilation. Suddenly, everyone wants to know how air-conditioners work -- and how they can help prevent the spread of the coronavirus. As Japan enters its peak summer season for air conditioner installs, Daikin has been heavily advertising its latest model complete with the timely and unique ability to bring air from outside indoors.

Coronavirus, Climate Change Boost Air Conditioner Giant in Japan

With the pandemic turning everyone in germophobes, many consumers have been surprised to learn that most air conditioners only circulate air indoors -- heat, not air, is moved outside. Daikin’s Urusara X is different, with technology that allows it to bring in fresh air from outside. The company says it’s the only model with this ability.

“However, it doesn’t remove air indoors to the outside,” a Daikin spokesman cautions. He recommends using it in combination with periodically opening windows. Daikin, with an 18% share of the country’s residential air-conditioner market, has seen an increase in demand for the air conditioners, he said.

Coronavirus, Climate Change Boost Air Conditioner Giant in Japan

The most popular type of the model on Japan’s largest price-comparison site retails for a hefty 180,000 yen ($1,680), equipped with Daikin’s virus-killing air-purification technology.

Daikin is also thought to be a beneficiary of Japan’s long-delayed government handouts -- 100,000 yen ($936) a person. While many in the U.S. have been putting their government checks into trading stocks on Robinhood, droves of Japanese workers stuck at home -- often in rooms not equipped with air-conditioners -- are looking to keep themselves cool.

Japan was once dominant in the global market for so-called white goods such as washing machines and refrigerators. Air conditioners are now the market where Japanese firms are strongest, said Masayuki Kubota, chief strategist for Rakuten Securities Economic Research Institute.

Daikin has sales in over 150 countries, boosted by more than 100 manufacturing sites, which became advantageous when global logistics lines were disrupted by the coronavirus lockdowns.

“As a Japanese company that makes and sells globally with such competitive power, they’re unusual,” said said Masahiko Ishino, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute Co., “up there with Toyota.”

Coronavirus, Climate Change Boost Air Conditioner Giant in Japan

Seizing Share

The company’s management team, led by President Masanori Togawa, has impressed with its quick response to the pandemic.

“They have a good management team which is quite fast to react to various changes in the environment,” said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Takeshi Kitaura. “They are in a pretty good position for mid term growth.”

At its most recent earnings teleconference, Daikin unveiled an exhaustive set of steps aimed at capitalizing on the pandemic and seizing market share in a post-Covid-19 world, which met with almost universal acclaim from analysts.

“The firm’s competitive position could be even stronger in the post-Covid world,” wrote SMBC Nikko analysts Taku Ouchi and Asuka Sasao.

Still, the company’s forecasts for this year -- 150 billion yen in operating profit from 2.33 trillion revenue -- are well below the targets it set in a mid-term plan in 2018, leaving it much work to do to hit its goals.

“We’re watching how they’ll correct course in the post-coronavirus world,” said Ishino. “Now is the time to lay the groundwork to solidify the position of global number one.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.