Tigers Polymers (TYO 4231) - Dirt Cheap Consistently Profitable Japanese Net-Net with Negative EV Trading at 0.3x P/TBV, 7.5x P/E, with U.S. Manufacturing

71% of profits come from their U.S. business, 22% from Japan, 6% from SEA. (Q1-Q3 FY2025). The company only ever lost money in 1 year since 1985.

Tigers Polymer Corporation (TYO 4231) manufactures and sells various polymer and resin products, including hoses, sheets, and molded parts, primarily serving the automotive, electronics, and industrial markets with autos being the largest.

While the company is based in Japan, the majority of its profits come from the United States, where it operates a manufacturing facility in Ohio. The company also has an industrial hose manufacturing joint venture in Illinois with Kuriyama (TYO 3355). Given all the news about tariffs lately, a company like Tigers Polymer with U.S. manufacturing stands to benefit.

• Share Price: ¥668

• NCAV+Inv Securities: ¥1,321 per share

• Market Cap: ¥13.2 billion

• P/E (LTM): 7.5

• P/E (Management Forecast FY2025): 8.4

• Dividend Yield: 5%

Tigers Polymer has been operating in the United States in their Ohio facility since 1987. The company also manufactures in Japan, Thailand, and China, but the U.S. is currently their most profitable market. The Chinese business is currently marginally unprofitable.

The Good:

• The story here is pretty straight forward. Tigers Polymer is extremely cheap and trades at an undemanding multiple of 8.4x FY2025 earnings. NCAV + investment securities are ¥26.3 billion vs a market cap of just ¥13.2 billion. It’s stupid cheap.

• The operating business has been remarkably consistent over the years. The company only ever reported a net loss in FY2009 and it was a tiny loss of just ¥19.8 million. The company has been profitable since 1985 with only 1 FY loss.

• Tariffs have been in the news quite a bit this year and they could provide a boost to Tigers Polymer given their U.S. manufacturing.

• Dividend of 5% in FY2025. Management aims to pay out at least 30% of profits to shareholders.

The Bad:

• Tigers Polymer could be over-earning as it earned ¥3 billion in FY2024 and is expected to earn ¥1.6 billion in FY2025. The 2025 profit forecast is still well ahead of FY2020-2023 figures, but is slightly below pre-covid numbers. FY2025 profits were revised downward in November from ¥2.2 to ¥1.6 billion.

• High customer concentration with 41.5% of revenue coming from Hondo Motor Co in FY2024. Their #2 customer is Kuriyama of America at 14.7%.

• The company has a poison pill in place and has had it since June 2022, which makes it difficult for outsides to acquire a large stake in the company.

• The shareholder register is dominated by those friendly with management. The highlighted shareholders are almost certainly aligned with insiders. Shareholder concentration + poison pill make activism impossible. The ideal exit is an eventual MBO. In the meantime, shareholders can collect a decent dividend.

• The balance sheet has ¥2.7 billion of non-controlling interests, but given that we’re ignoring all the other asset values, it doesn’t change the story. This thing is cheap. It’s still a deep value net-net even accounting for this.

Conclusion:

Tigers Polymer is dirt cheap net-net with consistent profitability and I like the U.S. manufacturing side of the business. There are plenty of cheap auto parts manufacturers in Japan, but not too many in the U.S.

This is a 1/2 basket sized position in my cheap Japanese basket. I bought this position in April 2025. I also own shares in Kuriyama Corporation which has a joint venture with Tigers Polymer in the U.S.

Disclosure: I own shares in Tigers Polymer (TYO 4231). The security could be sold at any point in time without prior notice. This is a small position as part of a broader basket of cheap Japanese companies so I haven’t dug too deep into this name. If I missed anything important, feel free to share in the comments. None of this is investment advice. Everything in this post is my own opinion and I could be wrong. Do your own due diligence.