The United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union came as a surprise to the world’s stage, with stock and financial markets suffering the immediate impact.
That has unsettled Nintendo’s shareholders, asking president Tatsumi Kimishima about how it will affect the company and what they plan to do about it.
While Kimishima assures that stability will return, the strength of the yen means that they will risk foreign exchange losses if it continues – which will impact on earnings. They will keep a “close eye,” and will wait to see how regulatory agreements drawn up by the EU will affect Nintendo UK.
“The ‘leave’ vote has destabilised stock markets and financial markets,” Kimishima explained to shareholders. “The decision to leave the EU and the ongoing preparations for doing so will gradually lead to a stabilisation in financial markets and exchange rates, but it is clear that the yen is trending strong for now.
“The book value of Nintendo’s assets denominated in foreign currencies will take a hit compared to last fiscal year-end due to foreign exchange losses if the strong yen continues, and this could have an impact on our earnings. We will need to keep a close eye on the way events unfold.
“Another conceivable impact of the Brexit vote is that Nintendo has a base in the UK and sell goods from there. Tax systems, product safety standards and rules, information privacy, and all sorts of other agreements are established by the EU for all of Europe, and at this point in time nobody knows how those agreements would change if the UK were to leave. For now, what we need to do is closely watch developments and prepare appropriate measures.”
