Ajinomoto Co Inc

Now we'd like to move on to the second session, second part, in which we'll be explaining the results for the first three quarters of the fiscal year ending March 2025. This will be explained by the head of IR office, who is a corporate fellow and general manager for IR office, Mr. Kaji. And then we will take the Q&A, time for Q&A. We expect to finish the second session at 19.00. Mr. Kaji, the floor is yours. Good afternoon. Good evening, everyone. This is Kaji from the IR office of Ajinomoto. I would like to explain the results for the first three quarters of the fiscal year 2024. First of all, today's overall summary. This is today's main message. We achieved revenue and profit growth in the first three quarters of fiscal 2024. Sales, business profit, and profit attributable to the owners of the parent company or reached new records for the first three quarters of the year. Excluding the impact of Forza acquisition, business profit increased 16% year-on-year, so we are making steadfast progress towards the achievement of the 2030 roadmap. For each business unit, food and product business for Japan, Overall, we've been able to respond to the increased cost in Japan. However, overseas sauce and seasonings and quick nourishment are growing both in terms of sales and business profit and making good contribution to the stable business expansion. As for biofine chemicals business, in addition to the steadfast performance of functional materials, biopharma service and ingredients is also growing in line with the 2030 roadmap. We will aim to sustainably grow the food product business and at the same time achieve dramatic growth for bio and fine chemicals business so that we can achieve the fiscal 2024 four-year forecast and take on the challenge of achieving the ASV indicators and the 2030 roadmap. This shows the... Digest of the first three quarters of fiscal 2024, the April to December performance. Sales, as you can see here, has reached $1,151,107 percent of the 2023 level. Excluding the foreign exchange impact, the sales was 105 percent. So we were able to achieve growth in all business segments. For a business profit, 138.2 billion yen, 111% of the fiscal 2023 level, excluding the impact of currency transition, 107%, so we were able to achieve steadfast expansion. For the overseas sauce and seasoning, achieved a sustainable growth, and functional materials achieved a significant growth, driving the entire business growth. Profit attributable to the owners of the parent. 106% of the 2023 level, and EPS was about a 10% increase, achieved a 10% increase almost. This page shows the changes in business profit, the factors behind the changes in P&L. Overseas consumer business achieved a unique growth and also the quantity increase. And health care business achieved a sales growth. And also the price hikes of domestic food business. These had a GDP growth impact. And also the health care business achieved a growth margin improvement, which achieved an increase in gross profits. And also these... absorbed SGA increases from the foreign exchange and forged consolidations. So, therefore, we were able to achieve a $13.7 billion improvement in business profit. This is the gap between the year-on-year gap of the business profit by segment. You can see the changes from the full year forecast and also the changes from the same period last fiscal year. As you can see, the seasoning of food and health care achieved a significant steadfast progress vis-a-vis the forecast, but frozen food achieved a slight reduction in profit. Next, I would like to talk about the sales performance of each segment for the first three quarters of the fiscal year. Among food and seasoning and food, seasoning and quick nourishment combined, if I give you a breakdown of the sales of these two segments combined, for domestic business, food and quick nourishment combined, quantity decreased by one percentage point and unit price increased by 5%. For overseas, for both seasoning and quick nourishment combined, quantity increased by 2% and unit price increased by 3%. If you look at the table here, For the frozen food in Japan, this carries a different color of arrow, so Japan remains flat for frozen food because people are defending livelihood, and therefore we have seen the sales coming to a standstill recently, but we will try to overcome this through implementation of many different measures. For overseas frozen food, the... Asian-related food achieved favorable performance, offsetting the decline caused by the structural reform overseas. For healthcare business, this business was affected by the adjustment in the market overall last fiscal year. Functional materials is continuing to achieve steadfast sales growth, and also in addition to that, amino acid for pharmaceuticals and food recovered its strong sales momentum, and also CDMO was also favorable, so we were able to achieve high growth in sales. Now I'd like to go to the business profit overview for each segment. As you can see here, domestic food-related business, has been heading down, as you can see from the arrow direction here, because of the impact of the raw material prices, including the weak yen impact and also the increase of personnel and logistic costs. We are trying to offset this through the price hikes. However, the If you combine the sauce and seasoning and quick nourishment, i.e., the consumer food business, the profits of this business on a continuous basis has remained flat for the first nine months of this fiscal year. On the other hand, the seasoning and food and food business and healthcare business overseas remains very favorable, so we were able to drive profit growth overall in a steadfast fashion.

Here on this page. is the progress of the ASV KPIs by segment. For organic growth, it is trending in line with the business forecast, reaching close to 5%. For business profit, there are differences depending on the segment, but overall, we are seeing good progress against the business forecast. On the very right, for the EBITDA margin, Each segment is performing steadily against plan, and we will continue to engage in efforts so as to achieve the fiscal 25 ASV KPIs. From this page, I'd like to share some topics from Q3 of this segment. First, for seasonings and food, I'd like to introduce some high added value type new products. The Marketing Design Center has been central in Japan as part of our efforts to attempt to make new value proposals. In addition to Cook-Do Premium Mala Mapo Tofu that went on sale in August 2023 and proved to be a hit, we're launching the second series of products. We will launch from February Kiwami Premium for twice-cut pork and Kiwami Premium for spicy Mapo eggplant. The twice-cut pork is a seasoning for a meat dish that you can enjoy for its intense spiciness and richness. By using onions instead of cabbage intentionally, you'll be able to enjoy the tastiness of the meat and sauce directly. Also, the Kiwami for spicy Mapo eggplant is a melt-in-your-mouth Mapo eggplant with rich aromas and spiciness. Together with Kiwami Premium Mala Mapo Tofu, we aim to acquire new users going beyond the conventional cook-do users. Also, as you can see on the right-hand side, for Thailand's roti menu, the premium varieties of Palo and Lap have gone on sale since November 24, but the premium varieties are helping to develop new users, and are contributing to the expansion of menu-specific seasonings for Thai dishes, in addition to the sales of regular varieties. Not only will we strive to raise unit prices through price increases, but we will also work to expand high-value added products so as to increase sales volume and realize higher sales prices. The next page is about frozen foods. Although Japan currently is a little challenging, by implementing measures steadily, such as further price revisions, we will strive for a recovery. In the overseas markets, we are expanding our business mainly in Europe and the United States, but there are still many areas that are unaddressed. We are striving to expand area coverage at once, for example, utilizing the foundations of our seasonings and food product businesses. In the ASEAN region, following Thailand and Singapore, we have expanded into Indonesia and the Philippines. In fiscal 24, we launched Gyoza in Malaysia and Vietnam as well. In South America, in fiscal 24, we started selling Gyoza in Brazil too. Sales in ASEAN and South America have risen rapidly, and in the current fiscal year, Sales in the first nine months exceeded a billion yen. In the ASEAN region, we are collaborating with One Piece as part of our efforts to promote our value of our Gyoza and stimulate demand, and we will continue to strive to further expand our business. Next is about functional materials. The functional materials business, which has continued to perform well, achieved record high sales and operating profit in the first three quarters of fiscal 24, exceeding the sales for the same period in fiscal 23. The increase in business profit margin was mainly due to the improvement in the ABF product mix. In the PC market, there has been progress in the development of high-performance models, such as the release of models with Edge AI. And in the server network market, AI servers are driving growth so that environment remains favorable. The expansion of HPC, including AI, is positive not only for ABF volume, but also for the fact of improving the mix. We believe that the current favorable business environment will continue, and we will continue to take on the challenge of growth in the next fiscal year. Finally, biopharma services, or CDMO. In the third quarter year to date, Existing businesses, excluding Forge, achieved significant revenue and profit growth, even on a local currency basis. Forge also continued to achieve high sales growth. Omnicam in Europe achieved a significant increase in profit despite a decrease in revenue by improving the product mix. In Japan, double-digit growth in sales and operating profit continued, centered on nucleic acid-based drugs. Althea returned to profit in the third quarter due to the effects of the structural reforms implemented in the second quarter. Forge is also actively expanding its business, and at the end of the third quarter, the number of customers reached 52 companies. We'll continue to develop our unique asset-light CDOMO business based on our proprietary technology. So that was a quick overview, but that was our third quarter results. Thank you for your kind attention.

Thank you very much, Mr. Kaji. Now we'd like to move on to the Q&A session. The Q&A session, just like the first session, We would like to take questions. If you have any questions, please press the raise hand button on the screen. If you are nominated, please unmute yourself and begin your question. Those of you who are participating overseas, you can raise questions in English, and we will answer through simultaneous translation service. In the interest of time, we would like to limit the number of questions to two questions per one question at one time. We thank you very much for your cooperation. Please advise that we may not be able to accommodate all the questions because of the time constraints. Now we'd like to move on to the Q&A session. Please indicate by pressing the raise hand button if you have any questions. Now, the first question comes from JP Morgan Securities, Fujiwara-san. Thank you very much. This is Fujiwara from Nomura Securities. Okay, so previously, in relation to CDMO, you talked about the cumulative numbers for each region. So for the third quarter, if you just single out the three-month period of the third quarter, Europe, North America, and Japan, can you give us a breakdown for the performance of these regions? Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Fujiwara. As you may know, Fujiwara-san, for example, in Europe, Nucleic acid production has started, and the modality in regions are not really aligned with each other. So it's very difficult to give you the numbers by region. So if I try to mingle it together with the modality, for the third quarter, the three months, for Europe, if you look at the three-month period, we achieved growth in both revenue and profit. And also the profit margin is improving significantly as well as far as Europe is concerned. So that's partly due to the CDMO contribution and nuclear asset contribution. For Japan, if you just single out the three-month period, compared to the same period last fiscal year, we declined both revenues and the profit. As we've been explaining from before, the third quarter shipment was brought forward and that was included in second quarter, so this is due mainly to the shipment timing. For North America, Artea, in the three-month period, sales was flat, almost flat, and profit, as I mentioned earlier, increased year on year. For Forge, Sales increased significantly, but profit contribution was negative, still negative. The CDMO business, of course, the forge plan has not changed. But vis-a-vis your full-year target, the fourth quarter, can we expect an increase in profit? I think you have to achieve a significant growth in profit. So what is your confidence of achieving that? Well, right now, We have presented a four-year plan, and each segment is fully committed to deliver on those forecasts. Some businesses are facing a lot of difficulties, such as frozen foods, for example, in Japan and Asia. But we are still committed to delivering on the presented forecast, not only for CDMO, but each business is now working hard to deliver on the promises that they have made. My second question, just briefly, the coffee business that you just alluded to, in the third quarter, if my calculation is not wrong, it seems that you have turned into positive growth already. Is that correct? In the fourth quarter, a significant price increase that I think is expected. So in the price hikes that you have already announced, do you think you'll be able to achieve a recovery in the coffee business with all the price hikes that have already been announced? Thank you very much, Mr. Fujiwara, for your question. Regarding AGF and coffee business in Japan, as you rightly pointed out, for the third quarter, relatively speaking, we have been able to achieve a solid profit growth in the recent months because of the price hike implemented in the autumn period is now taking effect, and they are delivering good performance. And also, as part of our structural reform, the stick-type coffee has been emphasized, and stick-type not only coffee but also other products. uh cream or drink for example those are actually uh delivering a good solid sales number so so we are encouraging all these efforts but unfortunately again the raw material prices are increasing again. So we are still in this game of chasing each other. So this is still continuing. So if you could understand that, that would be appreciated. So from the third quarter, we thought that we are – it's too early for us to declare that we have already returned to a growth track. It's too early to declare that. So then – The price hike, a significant increase, was already announced to be implemented in March. But still, do you think you still need a catch-up to do? Well, when you look at the market trends recently, the price hike – for March, the assumptions thereof, even compared to that, the raw material prices have again increased. So you need to conduct another adjustment in the future. Yes, maybe if this situation continues, we may have to do additional round, maybe. Thank you. Thank you very much for your explanation.