Restructuring The Business Could Unlock Meaningful Value For Fujitsu

As I wrote about Fujifilm (OTCPK:FUJIY) last week, that company is a relatively rare example of a Japanese conglomerate that has moved reasonably quickly to transform itself in response to changing market realities. If Fujifilm is the "after" picture, Fujitsu (OTCPK:FJTSY) is more like the "before" picture, as weak profitability in its manufactured products continues to weigh down the margin and cash generation potential of its more competitive services operations. Fortunately, management is not blind to these realities and has already initiated a process to transform the business away from its legacy hardware operations.

As of now, the Street isn't buying the notion that Fujitsu will move itself away from low-to-no profit businesses like PCs, phones, servers, and chips and re-base itself around IT services. Even though I believe the business restructuring efforts will likely lead to no net long-term revenue growth (as growth in the IT services business is canceled out by sales and divestments), I think lifting the burden of these lower-margin businesses will allow for FCF margins to improve into the low-to-mid single digits, supporting a fair value more than 25% higher than today's price.

Readers should note that Fujitsu's ADRs are not particularly liquid. With that said, I would suggest investors consider buying the Japanese shares (6702.T); most of the better brokers now support international trading and the hassle/costs are not too onerous.

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Restructuring The Business Could Unlock Meaningful Value For Fujitsu