Ajinomoto Co Inc

Thank you for joining the IR briefing for the third quarter of FI 2025 ending March 31st, 2026 of Ajinomoto. I'm Goto of IR office. We have Mr. Kashi, the general manager of IR office, participating as the speaker. This session will be a 60-minute session. Mr. Kachi will present on the disclosure material followed by Q&A. Please refer to the materials through the homepage of Ajinomoto IR site. Mr. Kachi's presentation will follow the presentation material. Please also refer to the financial summary and also a forecast. session will be recorded and to be posted on our IR site. We would like to start Mr. Kaji, please. Hello, everyone. First, please turn to page two. This is the summary. For the first three quarters of FY2025, sales, business profit, and profit attributable to owners of the parent company all reached new record highs. In the seasonings and foods business, despite negative factors in solutions and ingredients, higher sales and profits were achieved overall, driven mainly by Japan and overseas seasonings as well as the Japan coffee business. In the bio and fine chemicals business, Functional materials recorded significant increases in both sales and profits. Biopharma services and ingredients achieved higher sales and substantially higher profit, excluding the impact of the divestment of Ajinomoto Altea Inc. For the full year FI25 forecast, both business profit and profit attributable to owners of the parent company have been revised upward. Looking ahead to FY26, in addition to achieving sustainable growth of seasonings and foods, we aim to realize significant growth in the bio and fine chemicals business and challenge ourselves to achieve the 2030 roadmap ahead of schedule. Before going into the detailed explanation of the cumulative results through the third quarter, I would like to start by highlighting the key points of the third quarter.

Please turn to page 15. Page 15.

This page shows the results for the three months from October to December. In the three months of the previous fiscal year, we achieved record highs in sales, business profit, and profit attributable to owners of the parent company. In this fiscal year, during the October to December period, all businesses, including seasonings and frozen foods and healthcare posted sales and profit growth, enabling us to further accelerate our growth momentum. As a result, we significantly exceeded the hurdle set in the previous year and achieved new record highs. Business profit increased significantly to 115% year-on-year. Please return to page three. As a result, while both sales and profits were flat year-on-year through the first half, the acceleration in growth during the third quarter led to higher sales and profits on a cumulative basis through the third quarter, reaching new record levels. The sales amounted to 1,164.1 billion yen, representing 101% of FY2024 and 101% excluding currency translation. Business profit was 145.9 billion yen, 105% of FY24 and 105% excluding currency transition. Please turn to page four. This slide shows the gap analysis in business profit between FY24 third quarter cumulative results and the FY25 third quarter cumulative results. The left-hand side, the $4.8 billion increase in profit due to change in gross profit due to change in sales was driven by higher sales in overseas seasonings, the domestic coffee business, functional materials, and others. Regarding the $18.6 billion increase in profit next to that due to change in gross profit margin, improvements in gross profit margins in overseas seasonings domestic coffee business as well as the functional materials pharmaceutical and food use amino acids and biopharma services cdmo contributed as for sga expenses we are expanding investments in intangible assets in other areas to support sustainable growth in line with the 2030 roadmap please turn to page five This slide shows an analysis of business profit by segment for the FY25 third quarter cumulative results compared with the same period of the previous year. For reference, the lower part of the slide presents an analysis of the differences between the initial full year FY25 forecast and the actual results of FY24. In the seasonings and food segment, sales increased overall driven mainly by Japan and overseas seasonings and Japan coffee business, more than offsetting the decline in solutions and ingredients. Business profit, which had declined through the first half, rose significantly in the third quarter, resulting in higher profit on a cumulative basis. In frozen foods, while sales were roughly flat year on year, excluding foreign exchange impact, business profit declined, unfortunately. However, in the frozen foods business, for the three months from October to December, effective measures taken in Japan proved successful, resulting in a return to sales and profit growth. As planned, the frozen foods business shifted into a profit recovery phase in the third quarter and performance is steadily improving. In healthcare and others, Sales were flat overall. However, excluding the impact of the divestment of Ajinomoto Altair, underlying sales increased steadily. Business profit rose significantly overall, supported by a substantial increase in profits from functional materials, as well as steady profit growth in pharmaceutical and food use amino acids and CDMO operations. Please turn to page 6. I would like to provide some additional details regarding seasonings and processed foods. First, please see the left-hand side on Japan. In coffee products, the effects of aggressive price increases have become evident, resulting in a significant increase in sales. In addition, within seasonings and foods, the core menu-specific seasonings achieved close to double digit percentage sales growth making a major contribution to overall sales growth, and the growth has accelerated across Japan as a whole. For the cumulative results through the third quarter, sales were 110% year-on-year with volume at 95% and unit prices at 115%. Excluding coffee products, sales were 104% year-on-year, with both volume and prices at 102%. For the three months from October to December, this is for domestic Japan, sales reached 113% year-on-year with volumes 97% and prices at 116%. Similarly, excluding coffee products, sales were 108% year-on-year with volume at 106% and prices at 102%. Excluding coffee, for example, in October to December period, Each sub-segment product performance continue to be strong. Moving on to the overseas business to the right, the third quarter cumulative results are shown here, 104% on year and 102% for volume and unit price. Especially in three months from October to December, The growth is accelerating overseas, 106% growth in sales, out of which 104% for volume and 102% for unit price.