Koito Manufacturing (7276) LiDAR business briefing: Looks to improve earnings by focusing on infrastructure, construction and industrial machinery areas

Research evidence excerpt

Koito Manufacturing (7276) LiDAR business briefing: Looks to improve earnings by focusing on infrastructure, construction and industrial machinery areas

J P M O R G A N Asia Pacific Equity Research

18 May 2026

Koito Manufacturing (7276)

LiDAR business briefing: Looks to improve earnings by Underweight

focusing on infrastructure, construction and industrial 7276.T, 7276 JP

machinery areas Price (18 May 26):¥2,796

Price Target (Dec-26):¥2,400

• Aims to improve earnings by halting development of automotive LiDAR, Japan Equity Research

narrowing down areas: Koito Manufacturing hosted a LiDAR business

Autos & Auto Parts

briefing on May 18. In line with its previous policy, it plans to turn the business

profitable ahead of schedule by halting the development of automotive LiDAR Akira Kishimoto AC

and focusing on the construction and industrial machinery and infrastructure (81-3) 6736-8646

akira.x.kishimoto@jpmorgan.com

areas, where it expects stable demand growth. Since turning Cepton into a

Wencong Zhang

wholly owned subsidiary, Koito has sought to grow its automotive LiDAR (81-3) 6736-8627

business for advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) using Cepton’s wencong.zhang@jpmorgan.com

proprietary micro-motion technology (MMT). However, the rate of demand JPMorgan Securities Japan Co., Ltd.

growth for LiDAR slowed significantly due to traditional OEMs lagging in

development in the ADAS area and rapid penetration of AI-based end-to-end

ADAS originating in the Chinese market, and Koito’s LiDAR business posted

a FY2025 loss of ¥9.5 billion. Koito reduced fixed costs by recognizing an

impairment loss (¥14.3 billion) in the LiDAR business in FY2025, and expects

to halve the loss to ¥4.2 billion in FY2026. It also aims to turn the business