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  "documentTitle": "Lasertec Corporation (6920)",
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  "authorName": "Scorpion Capital",
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  "presentationDate": "2024-06-05 00:00:00",
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  "notes": "The slide uses investigative reporting techniques to build a case for corporate fraud.",
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      "text": "Fake capital expenditure press releases are a trick we see often in corporate frauds, to create the illusion of customer demand, expansion, and growth.",
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      "text": "Our request to see the finished goods bay at headquarters was also refused – given color we received from customers that it was so full with inventory that it had no space left. However, in a telling comment, the IR rep confirmed its role as a storage facility for excess finished good inventory.",
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      "text": "We note that the 2022 capital expenditure for the Innovation Park was by far the largest in Lasertec's history, dwarfing any other spending since 2000 – illustrating its level of importance. We show the annual spending in both JPY and USD.",
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      "text": "We note three other unusual circumstances around the Park, in addition to its suspicious timing. First, the press release at closing stated that Toshiba used the site and its 5 buildings as a training center – but that Toshiba would continue to use the facilities for another year after the closing of the purchase. We have never seen a company make the largest capital expenditure in its history, and then agree to not use it for a year – especially if it was meant to “respond to customer demand.”",
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      "text": "The timing of the announcement was suspicious. The stock had collapsed rapidly over 6 weeks, falling 40% from a peak of 36,000 in Jan 2022, to 21,000 on the day of the release on Feb 25, 2022 – a highly unusual moment to announce an expansion 5 times the size of headquarters, especially after sales plummeted that quarter. We suspect that management panicked and concocted a press release in a bid to halt the decline. Fake capital expenditure press releases are a trick we see often in corporate frauds, to create the illusion of customer demand, expansion, and growth.",
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      "text": "We hired a local investor relations/corporate access consultant who met with Lasertec's Investor Relations and Corporate Planning department at their headquarters on March 13, 2024. Prior to the meeting, Lasertec's IR representative agreed to a brief tour of their clean room at headquarters, but strongly refused multiple attempts asking for a tour of the clean room (Fab 4A) at the Innovation Park – we find it unusual that one clean room was offered but the other refused. We then asked for a brief, general tour of Innovation Park without entering Fab 4A – also refused. In a final attempt, we asked for simply a video clip of Fab 4A, which was also denied. We were told that a shareholder flew from Switzerland to see Fab 4A and was “extremely unhappy” at being similarly denied even a video. We quote from our consultant's write-up of the meeting:",
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      "text": "11. Lasertec's new \"Innovation Park\" in Yokohama is a fraud (cont'd)",
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