Hitachi Ltd Ord

The scheduled time has come, so we will now begin the briefing on Hitachi Limited's financial results for the year ended March 31, 2024, and the progress of the Mid-Term Management Plan 2024. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to attend today's briefing. CFO Kato will first explain the financial results for the year ended March 31, 2024, then President Kojima on the progress of the MMP 2024, followed by a Q&A session. The presentation materials are available on Hitachi Limited IR website and news release website, so please take a look. Let me now introduce the two speakers. Keiji Kojima, President and CEO of Hitachi Limited. Tomomi Kato, Senior Vice President and Executive Officer, CFO. Mr. Kato will first explain the overview of the financial results. Please wait for a moment while we switch screens.

Cut us on over to you. From this time onward, Kato will be presenting on consolidated business results. Thank you for attention. Let me explain the contents. Page one, please. So first, key messages of the consolidated results. And next, FY2023 results and forecasts, followed by performance by business segment. And lastly, appendix. These are the contents. So let me present the key messages. First, FY23 results. Due to robust orders by DXGX Tailwind, Lumada business expanded and cash generating capability also enhanced. As a result, three sectors achieved higher revenues and profits. especially with the penetration of cash flow management, we were able to have record hardcore FCF and ROIC, an indicator for capital, was also improved. And there are six KPIs I would like to explain. In the Three sectors revenue grew by 12% green energy and mobility. A digital service and systems have grown mainly and excluding forex impact. 8% growth was seen adjusted EBITDA year on year increased by 20%. And EBITDA margin on an adjusted basis went up by 10.1% improvement over last year. And. net income on a consolidated basis increased to 589.8 billion, and because of less cost from restructuring, it was better than the earlier published forecast. Core cash flow increased by more than 155 billion, and it had a record high of 571.4 billion yen. And conversion ratio was 97%. So most of income was turned into cash flows. And ROIC, because of SEMO and with reduced interest-bearing debts, it improved by one point to reach 8.7%. Next, FY24 forecasts. The 24 MTPs are to be met, so we're expecting increased revenue and profit for three sectors. Core cash flow is expected to be 1.5 trillion yen, exceed target by 0.3 trillion yen in the first quarter. Half, three sectors. Revenue is expected to grow by 5%. Excluding Forex, 8% growth is expected, which is on par with FY23. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to grow 20%, excluding forex impact. The growth expected is 23% in adjusted EBITDA. So just like FI23, 20% growth is expected. And adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to grow to 11.5%. And in the lower half, on a consolidated basis, net income to grow to 600 billion yen. Core free cash flow is said to be 480 billion yen. On a three-year cumulative basis, it is to exceed the NTP target, although there are changes in capex and NTP. ROI, because of increased EBITDA, is going to rise year-on-year to hit 9.5%. So it's going to be close to 10% that is expected under MMP. Lastly, shareholder returns. So core free cash flow is to be strengthened. And with additional sales of policy holdings, we are expecting to see increased shareholder returns. In terms of dividend, the total dividend is, is going to increase 15.3 billion, and we're going to pay 144.5 billion yen. So 24% growth in dividend to be 180 yen per annum. With respect to share buyback, it's going to be increased by 100 billion yen from FY23 to hit 200 billion yen in FY2024. Now, let me give you FY23 results highlight. First, revenue. On a consolidated basis, because of restructuring of SAML and listed companies, it went down, but for the three sectors, it grew by 12%, as I said earlier, excluding Forex Impact, the growth was 8%. With respect to Adjusted EBITDA, with business restructuring, there was a reduction in operating income, but growth in income surpassed because of the three sectors, and so it increased. Lastly, net income. Because of the restructuring of listed companies, that cost decreased. That's this number. Next. Let me explain the changes to revenue and adjusted EBITDA year-on-year. At the top, revenues. On the far left, that is the actual for FY2022. Let me explain from left to right. So divestiture of Hitachi Metals and HCM and Hitachi Astamo divestiture in 2023. Because of these divestitures, revenue went down, but Forex had a positive impact on revenue and there was organic growth as well, especially CX Hitachi Energy. DX Front Business, IT Services, these were the ones that grew. And the bottom half, Adjacente Bida, similar trend is seen here. So others increased by 130 billion. Changes in business scale, selling price change had positive impacts and they offset the negative factors such as soaring material prices, depreciation and so forth. So Adjacente Bida grew year on year. Next, financial position and cash flows. At the very top, in the first line, total assets, 12.221 trillion, so down 280 billion year-on-year. There was positive impact from Forex, but because of ASDEMO, assets went down. So overall reduction was seen. For total liabilities, because of ASDEMO, equity method, and other factors, there was reduction by close to 1 trillion. So as a result, DE ratio went down to 0.2 times. So financial health went up. But leverage-wise, this may be too low. Inclusive of acquisition of the GTS business, we believe that the ratio will rise to a desirable level. Now, cash flow management, this has penetrated and most of the numbers went up. Hitachi Energy, because of advances, increased as a result. Operating cash flow and investment cash flow improved by more than 100 billion year-on-year. Record highs were seen. Next, revenue by market. So three sectors, mainly from left to right. First on Japan, increase of 8%. The largest growth was seen in DX, digital system and service. Front business, IT services also grew to achieve 11%. Next, North America, in terms of the three sectors, up by 22%. Mainly, Hitachi Energy, because of healthy growth in Borders grew and so DSS or GEM, 44%. Next, Europe, 16% growth. Hitachi Energy grew and became a driver. So GEM, 22%. And for other sectors, 32% growth. GEM, so 40% growth, especially Hitachi Energy. had Middle East projects and rail projects in Latin America, and because of Forex impact, 32%. And the ratio of three sectors was 59%. Next, let me move on to highlights of forecasts for FY24. As I said up front, Almost all KPIs of MMP 2024 expected to be achieved and core FCS to be achieved with 1.5 trillion yen. Acquisition of Talus GTS is planned to be closed in the first quarter of FY24. So we are expecting that to be factored in in the revenue forecast. Because of ASTEMA's impact from 23, revenue is going to go down by 7%, but excluding Fork's impact, growth is expected to be 8%. This is on par with the growth result in FY23. Next, on adjusted EBITDA, because of ASTEMA's equity method, there was negative impact on operating income, but on a consolidated basis, increase is expected. Net income to rise year-on-year, So because of ASTEMO in FY23, non-operating sales, 120 billion, that's not going to factor in, and yet we're going to see an increase. So three sectors because of ASTEMO and excluding its impact from the equity method, that is excluded. Next slide. affects the assumptions 140 yen to the dollar is retained. It's different from the actual rate, but there could be sudden change. And in anticipation of that, we decided to retain 140 yen. With one yen change, adjustability will be affected positively by 1.2 billion yen. Next, factors affecting year-on-year changes in revenue and adjustability. for FY24 at the top revenue. On the far left, the actual for FY23 is plotted from left to right. During FY23, Because of SEMO, revenue is going to go down. With acquisition of Thales GTS, however, we are expecting increase in revenue and negative impact from Forex and others include organic growth. Mainly, GX-related business, Hitachi Energies, services and platforms for DSS, and connective industry, CIs, Hitachi Hitech, In terms of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, there's going to be customer demand to be recovered in that area. And bottom, just to be done, we're going to see similar trends as those in revenues. For Palace GTS, the acquisition cost is excluded. And others, 160 billion yen increase in others. So increase in business scale and selling price changes are going to be positive factors, and they will offset soaring procurement costs and increased investment. So adjustability on a consolidated basis is also to grow.

Next, performance by business segment. First, digital systems and service, DSS. For the entire FY23, revenue grew by 9%. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 12.8%. So revenue and profit increased year over year. Revenue was front business and IT service growth and services and platforms. Global logic grew more than double digit and on dollar basis, it grew by 15%. Next slide. FY24, DSS overall, 4% increase, but excluding FX, it is plus 5%. So it will be the same growth rate as FY23. The three subsegments are expected to grow, especially global logics, excluding FX, will grow by 15%. And profit margin on a standalone basis will maintain 20%. Next, green energy and mobility, GEM. GEM overall fiscal 23 revenue grew by 24%, excluding FX, 16% growth. so both revenue and profit grew year on year revenue hitachi energy and railway bu grew by double digit so both grew sales revenue and profit next fy24 gem overall 12 growth but excluding fx 16 growth so It will be the same level of growth as FY23. Hitachi Energy and Railway BU will grow by double digits. Railway BU, TALIS, GTS, signal-related business is included. Others, Hitachi Energy and Railway BU... Excluding MA related expenses, expect more than 10% margin. Hitachi energy related cost is the new IT system after carve out will stabilize this year. Next is Connective Industries, CI. CI overall FY23 revenue grew by 3%. Adjusted EBITDA margin, 10.5%. So both revenue and profit grew year on year. Revenue, smart life and eco-friendly systems and Hitachi high-tech grew. And the water and environment where air conditioning and industrial products grew. FY24, CI overall, Revenue will grow by 3% and plus 5% excluding FX. And so the growth rate will rise vis-a-vis FY23. Building BU has adjustment in the China real estate market and water environment will also see a decline. But other BU's will grow, especially Hitachi Hitech. The customer investment in semiconductor manufacturing equipment will recover, so revenue will grow by 5%. In all BU, more than 11% profit margin is expected. Next, Lumada business. First, left side graph shows FY23 revenue. 19% growth year on year and profit margin 15%. So this is one percentage point improvement. Digital engineering and four quadrants all had more than double digit growth. In FY24, 14% growth and profit margin 16%. So another one percentage point improvement. Next bar graph on the right, FY24, Ratio of overall revenue will be up to 29%. Adjusted EBITDA will go up to 41%. Lumada business growth and profitability improvement will contribute to the growth of revenue and profit of Hitachi overall going forward of the appendix, the order by segment. Page 21, please.

First, on the left, DSS. Orders went up by 9% year-on-year. Front and IT services mainly grew. Next. GEM, Green Energy and Mobility, year-on-year, saw an increase of 25% in terms of orders. Hitachi Energy, HVDC projects grew and growth was 41%. And railway is down, but that's because of large turnking project. And orders amount to 1 trillion, which is greater than yearly revenue. So orders themselves are growing for rail. And on the right, connective industries. It's flat overall, but for industrial and digital solutions are receiving robust orders. water environment, as well as industrial digital and green products, including industrial products. They grew quite robustly. That concludes my presentation on the consolidated results for the year ending March 2024. Kato-san, thank you very much. Next, progress of mid-term management plan 2024 will be presented by Kojima. We will be switching the screen. Kojima, over to you. To continue, Kojima, I would like to explain the progress we're making with respect to 2024 MMP, medium-term management plan. Now, Leveraging the results of structural reforms, we would like to achieve organic growth to enhance corporate value under 2024 MMP. And there are KPIs set for that, and they are as described here. Today, so centering around main KPIs, what progress we have been making in achieving our targets under 2824 MMP as well as the other initiatives. Next slide, please. First, sustainable management that we are proceeding with. Let me explain the status of that. Next slide, please. So, sustainable management that supports our business, that's what we are focused on. First, in terms of reinforcing governance, we have promoted our commitment to business growth by better linking shareholder value and executive compensation. And disclosing information to stakeholders, that is also reinforced and strengthened. Next, with respect to our environmental initiatives, And we want to contribute to customers decarbonization efforts, and we are in track to substantially over achieving our goal of helping customers decarbonize their businesses and our efforts to become carbon neutral in Hitachi business activities are also smoothly underway, being also on track to exceed our goal. Lastly, Human capital. We are strengthening our diverse talents. And in 2024, half of four executive vice presidents appointed are non-Japanese. So we're promoting globalization of management leadership. With respect to digital human capital, we are expected to achieve a midterm plan, a target in FY 2024. Next. So diversity and globalization of management, we have begun on our efforts since April 1st under this new organization. We will boost our global competitiveness, accelerate growth through digitalization and achieve sustainable growth. Next slide, please. I will now explain the status of each of the major KPIs of 2024 MMP. So as Kato-san earlier explained, in terms of the overall situation, so the financial structure that we are targeting under MMP, Hitachi Zone tried to largely achieve this structure through organic growth. And let me explain each of the KPIs. So let's take a look at the next slide in terms of revenue. With regard to revenue, We have tailwind from GX, and because of that, we have seen major growth in Europe and the US. DX is also growing steadily on a global basis. There's tailwind for DX as well. So capturing that in each sector, in terms of both orders received and backlog, the business is growing quite substantially, especially in GEM, Green Energy and Mobility sector, there has been infrastructure demand expanding in Europe and United States. Our business is growing, and robustness of Hitachi Energy's orders far exceeded our expectations when we formulated the 2024 MMP. As a result, revenue growth is expected to exceed our target of 5% to 7% per annum and reach 10% per year. Next on profit, let me use the next slide to explain profits. This was explained by Kato-san. What drives our profits is our Lumada business, as we have explained so far. The graph on the left-hand side shows that revenue from Lumada business is growing steadily, and Lumada's share of Hitachi's overall revenue is also expanding. As is on the right-hand side graph, Lumada business, which has been profitable, is driving Hitachi's overall profit growth. Now, let me give you a few examples of businesses that are driving Hitachi's growth, Lumada business. So, an example in Japan. So stable supply of electricity and decarbonization, we want to contribute to that. We have this next generation nationwide load dispatching system for that purpose. So this is a project that combines Hitachi's mission-critical SI know-how and Hitachi Energy's OT know-how, including power network management. So the example in the middle especially in Europe. This reduces maintenance costs through management of rail car and equipment conditions, mainly in Europe. It's referred to as railway smart maintenance. In this case, Hitachi Rail's condition monitoring, Hitachi Digital Services' data collection and analysis, and cloud computing technologies are combined to provide solutions to customers. In Saudi Arabia, A project to build a smart city that operates on 100% green energy called NEOM is pursued. We are involved in that. We are promoting proposals for a high voltage DC transmission and conversion station, strong product of energy and a digital twin solution from Globalogic. We have already on this project. So these are just a few of the examples, but the number of social innovation projects is rising rapidly for global customers and regions. Next slide, please. As is on the right-hand side, as you well know, During the MMP 2024 period, there were various risks seen, those associated with economic environment, the pandemic and geopolitics. But under the 2024 MMP, we started a new risk management system led by Risk Management Committee and CRMO. And by strengthening this risk management system, we are now able to respond to risks earlier and reduce losses. That's what we've been focusing on. As a result, our net income is gradually stabilising. So we will continue to augment our risk management system to further stabilize our net income going forward. Next slide, please. So under MMP24, we are looking to expand a core cash flow. That's going to be our top priority. So we will focus on cash-oriented management as a result. Compared to MNP21, we are to grow core cash flow by 50% or more to achieve 1.5 trillion yen. In addition to improving CCC, which we have conventionally done, we have also been working to improve operational efficiency by using the conversion rate as an indicator of how efficiently we can generate core fee cash flow from net income, and this cash conversion is expected to improve significantly. On top of that, a review of contract terms for long-term projects and pricing for inflation and price hikes are also contributing to significant improvement. These efforts are being undertaken quite swiftly by Frontdesk and others. Next, please. This is about EPS and cash flow per share. So, owing to stable generation of net income and expanding of core cash flow, EPS and CFPS are expected to exceed the midterm targets, reaching ¥655 and ¥524 respectively. As a result of expansion of net income and our priority on cash-oriented management, we have been able to achieve even greater growth than in the past MMP. Next slide, please.

So as I mentioned earlier, this is core free cash flow expansion and also the sale of shares and other assets held. Cash generation in MMP 2024 will be 2.8 trillion yen, well above the MMP target of 2.3 trillion yen. And the allocation will be balanced between strengthening shareholder returns and increasing growth investments. so first let me talk about the strengthening of shareholder returns please turn to the next page so this time we announced a dividend increase to a level matching growth in profits and cash and share buybacks share buyback is following the additional asset sales in the previous year and is set at 200 billion yen. And dividend is now up by 20 yen, a significant increase from the previous increase of 5 yen through strengthened core free cash flow generation. The 20 yen dividend increase exceeds the previous dividend growth rate of 5 yen. This is in line with the 17% growth in EPS and 22% growth in CFPS over the three-year period I have just presented. In addition, dividend increase trend is maintained for 13 consecutive years with no dividend cuts. With the dividend increase this year, the 13-year dividend growth rate is now 12%. We increased our shareholder returns while adjusting the dividend level to match the company's sustainable growth. Please turn to the next slide. Next is on growth investments. have been executed or decided upon mainly in the form of medium-scale M&As to strengthen individual businesses around 800 billion yen, as shown on this slide. Going forward, we will expand our growth investments in order to generate further cash without slowing down the pace of growth. In addition to strengthening individual businesses, we expect to invest 1 trillion yen additionally to capture new growth opportunities. The main investments are shown on the slide. So next slide, please. And one more slide, please. So during the MNP 2024 period, we had big events, which is the emergence of generative AI and the drive of DX and GX, the market expansion in the marketing manufacturing sector driven by DX and GX. In addition, the orders and backlogs in the social infrastructure business promoted by Hitachi Group are expanding significantly, as I explained earlier. And opportunities are also being created to servitize the business by combining strong products and OT knowledge with digital technologies. All of these are new growth opportunities for Hitachi Group and present significant opportunities for sustainable growth. so we will capture them without fail. Please turn to the next page. First, generative AI. With the emergence of generative AI, productivity is improving and IT infrastructure is expected to expand. Software productivity improvement will help to resolve the shortage of engineers. It will improve work efficiency in requirement definition, design, and test processes, and also improve quality by reducing human error. We will concentrate our investment in building capacity to utilize generative AI with a focus on global logic. In addition, 80% of our global working population is active as frontline workers. Improving the productivity of frontline workers is an area where Hitachi can fully utilize our IT, OT, and product strengths. And we will actively invest in this area, including the development of industrial metaverse. On the other hand, the emergence of generative AI is also rapidly increasing demand for data centers, as you all know well. In addition to hybrid clouds, Hitachi will provide power receiving, transforming, and cooling facilities. Based on our recently announced partnership with Nvidia, we will step up investment in the development of Hitachi IQ, a highly reliable data management solution. Please turn to the next slide. Next is manufacturing fields expanding through DX and GX. In the semiconductor manufacturing and battery manufacturing fields, due to the increasing demand for data centers and investment in gx the market size is expected to expand significantly towards 2030. in semiconductor manufacturing hitachi will strengthen its line building business along with top global products for manufacturing and testing to achieve this We will combine digital technology with strong products and solutions such as CD, critical dimension SEM, and building clean environments while accelerating growth through investment in downstream process, back end of the process solutions. In addition, with green as a tailwind, we can expect to create 5R cyclic services that connect manufacturing, reuse, and recycling for next generation batteries. so we plan to increase our investment in that area as well please turn to the next slide this is the servitization of social infrastructure business a very important theme for us hitachi has a wide range of businesses in the social infrastructure domain each of which has significant delivery track record in energy HVDC link installed has reached 150 gigawatt and railway serves a total of 18 billion passengers a year in industrial products. Approximately 200,000 screw compressors are in operation around the world. We will utilize these installed bases and invest to accelerate servitization. So we will concentrate our investment in this area. In energy, Hitachi Energy and Globalogic will work together as two key players to increase availability and advance maintenance with digital services for railways, TELUS, GTS, with its signal related business. If they join us, they have the topic global share and tell us and Globalogic will collaborate to roll out digital services for an expanded customer base and in industrial products, we will accelerate the digitalization of connective industries and expand our service business. Next page, please. This is the summary of our progress briefing today. We expect to achieve Core MMP 2024 KPI with organic growth driven by DX and GX and will allocate the cash generated in a balanced manner to strengthen shareholder returns and increase growth investments. In addition, we will target investments in new growth opportunities such as the emergence of generative AI and fast-growing manufacturing fields. we will realize further organic growth in the next MMP with investments in new growth opportunities. Please turn to the next slide. This is my last slide. Today, I gave an overview of MMP 2024 with the theme of the status of sustainable growth and capturing new growth opportunities. Regarding our future IR schedule, we will hold dialogues with investors and hold Investor Day, which will lead to the announcement of the next MVP starting next year. In particular, at Hitachi Investor Day 2024, scheduled for June 11th, I... And four EVPs and CFO will explain the form of One Hitachi, which realizes sustainable growth while capturing new growth opportunities as we did last year. And I hope you will deepen your understanding of our growth. We look forward to having active discussions with investors and would like to ask you to participate. This concludes the presentation on the progress of the Midterm Management Plan 2024. Thank you very much for your kind attention.

Kojima-san, thank you very much. At this moment, we would like to start questions and answers. Those of you with questions, please use the raise hand button on Zoom's screen. Among those who are raising a hand, we will designate the person. So please unmute and ask your question after stating your name and affiliation. If you no longer wish to ask your questions, please cancel the hand raise button on your screen. We're not going to show the video of the questionnaire today. We will take questions first from the Japanese channel and then from the English channel in that order. We will be taking questions from the press, institutional investors and analysts all at the same time. So let us take questions from those of you on the Japanese channel first. Those of you with questions, please use the hand raise button on your screen. The person from NHK, I cannot see the name, but the person from NHK, please. I'm Yoshi from NHK. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you. There are two questions I wish to ask, and both are directed to Mr. Kojima. In the presentation earlier, you talked about investment going forward, 3 billion yen of investment in generative AI. That's impactful. And I would like to ask a breakdown of that. So investment in human capital to recruit people, is that included? Well, what you have listed up is existing business. Existing business is to be strengthened, but is there a brand new business plan? Is that also a part of your initiative? So that's my first question. And my second question is as follows. This may not be directly relevant, but of late, the Japanese yen is depreciating quite considerably. I think your overseas sales ratio is over 50%. What is the yen's impact on your management? What is your view on that, if you could share that with us? Well, thank you very much for the questions. So to answer your first question about our investment in generative AI, while strengthening talents, human resources, and if necessary, we may decide to acquire small to medium-sized companies, and that's 300 billion yen. So rather than a brand new business area, First, we want to look to enhance our own productivity. That will be our top priority. So productivity in software development or increasing efficiencies of call centers. So those will be the main areas of focus. And at the same time, in the next phase, social infrastructure projects, including energy, industrial or railway projects, So, in those areas, how can we effectively apply generative AI? That's going to be the question. And so, for people who are working as frontline workers, how can we enhance their efficiencies? And we would like to make upfront investment in those areas. And your second question regarding yen depreciation, in our case, Our overseas business accounts for 60%. And with cheaper yen, the business overseas will expand, appear larger. But in terms of the overall profitability, In terms of profitability, actually, a stronger yen benefits us more. And overseas infrastructure business is of lower profitability. But here in Japan, centering around IT business, Japan's business is more profitable. So with cheaper yen, are we pleased across the board? Not necessarily, because there are pluses and minuses, both positive and negative impacts on our business. So the yin becoming stronger Well, BOJ may have the potential of raising rates, and so rates may go up and yen may become stronger. And for quite an extended period of time, we have been prepared to respond to such eventualities. So for a number of potential circumstances, we're going to control risks. I talked about risk management, and we have an established risk management system. So with that in place, we would like to respond. to such potential risks, I'm confident that we will be able to respond quite well. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Next, Harada-san, please unmute yourself and ask your question. Harada from Goldman Sachs. Thank you very much. i have a few questions if i may ask three questions first is on i t order it's very strong and it's been exceeding 10 since last year so year over year 10 growth in orders and dx demand is increasing and i think that's background to this growth So the industry growth is probably single digit, mid to high single digit is the sustainable level. So given that background, domestic Japan SI market growth rate over 10%, will this be sustainable going forward? And margin seems like it's improving. So next year, labor cost is expected to rise. And in your case, you will utilize generative AI to improve the efficiency of your operations. So will that start having positive impact next year? So let me go one by one. Yes, please. Thank you very much, Harada-san. So IT order, as you rightly said, is strong. Now the bottleneck is people. How much resource we can prepare and secure is the bottleneck. So the demand is strong. And we think the strong demand will continue for some time. Generative AI, of course, there's a direct need for generative AI. But at the same time, in order to utilize generative AI, The IT system needs to be modernized beforehand. So that is the big needs we are seeing in Japan. The cloud environment is still lagging behind compared to the US and Europe. So modernization needs is quite sizable. And therefore, for the time being, we think this growth rate will continue. And all our competitors say that the bottleneck is people, human resource. So if we can resolve that, the margin can improve. And that will be when the generative AI will be most effective. And so we will focus our investment there. Thank you very much. So from next year onward, you will offset the increase in the labor cost? Are you confident you can offset? Answer. Yes, we have to start producing results this year, so we'll do that. And at the same time, this is something unique in Japan. In Japan, fixed cost or... There's still some seniority system or the lifelong employment system. And therefore, there's a lot that the work that is contracted out, outsourced to contractor. And so this contractor part needs to improve so that overall improvement can be enjoyed. So suppliers need to improve. Entire supply chain needs to be improved overall. Thank you very much. And second point is power grid business. The transformer additional investment was announced. Globally, the supply demand is tight, I understand. And you are increasing too, but with the announcement of this new investment, How much production capacity can you secure? How many times more compared to last year or any color you could give on this point? And with the tight supply demand, the price is rising. South Korean players are now raising their prices, I think. So the long delivery time may not change, but the ASB increase impact may contribute to your business in the short delivery time business or not. May I answer that question? Yes. Thank you for the question. As you rightly said, when the transformer is the one that is in biggest shortage when data centers are built around the world. This is the bottleneck for sure. 150 billion yen was announced, investment we announced. Our recent orders, our frame agreement, particular customer, Multiple projects are bundled together for a particular customer and the investment is committed and capacity is committed. So that's the type of arrangement. In that contract, we offer service as well. We need the capacity to fulfill that contract and to secure that capacity we are making the investment. And therefore, it's not that we are building more than the contract we have. So, Harada-san, you're right. The long delivery projects are the big portion. And so we are trying to put the capacity in place for that. Thank you very much. So short delivery time projects. In first quarter last year, there were some short-term projects when things improved. Unit price is rising or not? Well, unit price is improving generally. for us and for our competitors but a bigger factor is the capacity of full capacity we cannot produce because we're at full capacity so we receive orders and now i think the average delivery timing is three years delivery period i understand third point

Well, Kojima-san explained on page 17 or page 18, the long-term outlook, you were pointing to market growth. So in view of what's to happen in 2030. And I wonder, the next MMP will start in FY25. So in that timeframe, Will what's described here are going to contribute to the business there, or will it start to be more effective toward 2030, closer to 2030? What is your expectation? Well, thank you for the question. Well, this is already happening, what's described on these pages. And we would like to obtain as many orders as possible in FY24. And in the next MMP, MMP 27, we believe that these areas are going to grow quite substantially, and they're going to be core drivers under suit. Thank you. Those are my questions. Thank you very much. Next, Umegaki-san, please unmute and start your questions. Umegaki from Toyo Keizai, thank you very much. I'd like to ask a few questions myself. And this may be a basic question first, but the performance in FY24, if you break it down in the first and the second half, how should we look at it in terms of CI? Hitachi Hitech is going to be the driver, the leader. And if semiconductor business is going to be the main, there will be focus in the second half. And so profitability will be greater in the second half if it could share that outlook with us. That's my first question. Kato will respond. On a qualitative basis, first half, second half split will be closer to the actual in FY23, but depending on the market, we're expecting recovery in the second half. So Hitachi has semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In the second half, I think customers' investment will recover. And in terms of digital engineering, FY2023, customers' IT investment grew, but compared to the past, the growth dulled and went down. So in the second half, we believe that this will come back again, recover. So such are the expectations for the second half this year. Understood. Next, Wakujima-san explained, page 14. $1 trillion investment for the future. What is the timeline? So by what time period are you expecting to make this amount of investment? And I think this is relevant to MMP 27. But in the CI sector, when we focus on the CI sector, what can we expect in the CI sector, if you could please elaborate? Thank you very much. Allow me to answer. What we're trying to spend money on, well, actually, it's in this fiscal year. And among what's described as an item, so flexible M&A when promising cases arise. This is opportunistic. So depending on the case, we could defer that opportunity and decide to make a major investment next year. But other than this, these are the items where we hope to make investment this year. And the CI sector, specific to the CI sector, among the items written here, are those that are relevant to Gen AI? It's not just digital, but... GEM, Green Energy and Mobility, as well as the CI. But mainly it's going to be DSS, Digital Systems and Services. And where the CI sector becomes the main player, Manufacturing fuels expanding through DX and JX. That's the area. And we want to make various investments in this area to strengthen our CI business. That's going to be a key point. So expanding investment for growth, page 14. What's that? On the second bullet, so manufacturing fuels expanding through DX and GX. This is the amount that is earmarked mostly for CI, if you could understand it that way. Thank you very much. That was exactly what I wanted to ask. Lastly, on page 19, you talk about industrial products and so forth. So growing manufacturing fields, more specifically, what are your specific assumptions? That's my last question. Understood. For compressors, for example. They're used for chemical-related business, ammonia, for example. In green projects, compressors are seeing increasing demand and they're being supplied to various brands, but we have not done a lot of maintenance work for compressors. We utilize third-party maintenance service, but depending on the cases, we may decide to acquire a maintenance servicer. So we want to turn into a maintenance service supplier, but if we are to do so, we have to leverage digital technology. Taking a low tech approach will not be beneficial for us in terms of profit. So that's something that we have in mind, considering to. become a service supplier. So rather than manufacturing per se, we would like to digitize maintenance service, for example, for railway and transmission distribution of power, the same thing. So how can we utilize this sort of technology to better provide services? And this is a major opportunity for the CI sector. And based on that, we're proceeding with this. And that's what I intended to explain on this page. Thank you, Undersuit. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Next question from Sakisaka-san. Please unmute yourself and ask your question. This is Sakisaka from Denki Shimbun Newspaper. Thank you very much. I have three main questions, so if I could go one by one. First is related to financial results. Hitachi Energy backlog compared to the third quarter. Q4, the backlog has increased further. How do you plan to resolve this? So your order-taking activity seems strong, but they may not be addressed as rapidly. It's a transformer manufacturing site. Investment is ongoing. When do you think you will hit the right balance? And the production is not keeping up. And so the production activity is being suppressed now or not? So how do you plan to work on the backlog to reduce the backlog? Thank you very much. Thank you, Sakisaka-san. Kojima will explain. As I touched on earlier, The demand is now strong in Hitachi Energy. So we are working with clients and sharing information and having close discussion to discuss how much capacity can be prepared when to address customers' needs. So these are all included in the contract. And therefore, we call this the frame agreement. So for one particular customer, over multiple years, we'll install facilities and equipment. Until now, the first facility, there was a bidding and then the next equipment had another round of bidding. But now, everything customer needs is integrated and the capacity, the total capacity, the total manufacturing capacity is calculated. so that can be completed. It is done in an extremely planned fashion. So unlike in the past, there is not much risk where we cannot resolve the backlog. In other words, we have to do this. As industry, as customers, we cannot have good agreement. And so we have this frame agreement. I think the competitors are also moving in that direction. So the entire industry, the supply and demand, is now being addressed, trying to hit the balance between supply and demand. Yes, thank you. My second question. President Kojima, in your presentation, page 14, So 200 billion yen investment in servitization of social infrastructure business. Energy domain servitization. What kind of investment are you planning in specific terms? Energy area. So it's the transmission distribution area, T&D. As I said earlier... the installed equipment, our installed equipment, the maintenance digital service will be offered to the installed base to increase the business. So the development investment, and in some cases, we will look for small size M&A with a great technology Because the order is so strong and backlog is big and we are using the frame agreement to commit to service, we need digital and Lumada to be fully leveraged. So the development and promising players will be acquired. So that's how we plan to use money. Yes, understood. Thank you. That is all from me.

Thank you very much. There seems to be no hand that we see on the English channel, so getting back to the Japanese channel. Inajima-san, Inajima-san, please unmute and state your questions. Inajima from Bloomberg, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Thank you. I would like to ask two questions. As it was asked earlier, I have a question regarding cheaper yen, inclusive of currency intervention. If there are any initiatives that you request of the Japanese government, earlier you talked about risk management system already being established, but more specifically, what kind of initiatives are you undertaking as Hitachi for risk management? And another question to Mr. Kojima. With U.S. presidential elections, if Trump is going to be reelected, I think the U.S. government policy will likely change substantially. So depending on the results of U.S. presidential elections, what impact do you foresee? What kind of preparation are you making in that event? That's all. So Kato-san will respond to the first question regarding currency. Well, in terms of currency impact, as Kojima-san explained in the presentation, over the short term, in terms of operating income, It's going to be positive, but long term, not necessarily. So ROIC that we showed for FI 2024, it's 9.5%. But there's a major difference from earlier forecast. And that's because of the currency. When MNP was put together, it was 110 yen to the dollar. So there has been considerable impact from currency and in terms of risk control. So that currency risk does not manifest. We would like to utilize the gains, if possible, and reducing the number of swaps with other currencies. So we're doing such a basic undertaking. So those are the measures for currency control. And about the U.S. presidential elections, well, it's not just in the U.S. In a variety of countries, elections are being held and regimes are being changed. Administrations are changing. And what will happen, of course, we run simulations for that. With respect to the U.S. presidential elections, what we focus on most is elections. those related to the environment, what kind of investment will be made in the environment, IRA and CHIPS Act. For the industry, the current administration has come up with very important initiatives as such. And so how will that change? That's what we're focused on. So far, how shall I put it? The states where Republican Party is strong, There are lots of states, Republican states, that are benefiting from the current policies. So even with the change of presidency, I don't think it will change all that much, considering that many states are benefiting. And inclusive of subsidies, we're not getting subsidies. So there's not going to be a lot of risk with respect to subsidies, but the environment, A.I., Would there be potential impediments that would impede market growth in those areas? That's what we're focused on. But according to the current analysis we have, I don't think presidential elections will pose a lot of risk or problem. And another aspect is with increased protectionism, if it's going to have major impact on supply chain, especially bilateral relationship between the U.S. and China, of course, there's such potential risk. So supply chain, how can it be closed and completed region by region, even before waiting for the outcome of presidential elections in the U.S.? We are preparing ourselves already. Thank you.

Next, Hirakawa-san, please unmute yourself. Thank you. B of A Securities, Hirakawa is my name. I have three questions. I joined halfway, so I'm sorry if my question overlaps. Three questions. First is, You're ending March 25 plan. You have a solid plan, I think. But EBITDA margin, 12% is the MMP target. This time it's 11.5%. So the reason you fell short of 12% what were different from your what you originally anticipated or you can achieve 12 but you are looking at various risk factors at the beginning of the year and set at 12 11.5 what is the background thank you so yes i will answer so the biggest difference from the initial plan is the fx exchange rate as I said earlier when yen depreciates profitability declines that is the overall structure so this exceeded our expectation one more point is railway and power grid growth we did not think they will grow this much Profitability wise, it was still on the way to improvement. So if that part becomes big, then the overall profitability will be difficult. So that is the biggest difference from when we originally developed MMP24. We do not think we can go for 12 if we tried. 11.5 is I think is a solid sure number. Understood. Thank you very much. My second question is MMP progress presentation. You're talking about new investment opportunities. You gave us much information on page 19. You talked about the energy area. Hitachi energy and global logic. It was not specific to global logic, but when you acquired Hitachi energy, Hitachi digital technology and Hitachi's synergy was to be generated. I think you said that you are seeking for synergy. So for lack of a better word, why... Is this a focus now? Maybe it could have been a focus earlier. Or now the time is ripe and you have cash flow. And so if you use the cash flow, you can speed up and take off. What is your thinking? From your perspective, President Kojima, Hitachi Energy and your synergy have been generated so far? Or could you elaborate? Maybe Hitachi Energy was so busy, but... Thank you very much for that question. So from the beginning, we wanted to make this a big business. And finally, we are starting to speak the same language. We're starting to understand each other, which I am a bit embarrassed, but IT and OT people take that much time. I realized that once again. Now, finally, they are talking and they're on the same page. Hitachi Energy, Claudio fucking CEO, had been driving this business from ABB days. And for product delivery, he is an extraordinary person, splendid person. And the reason the order is increasing now is because he is taking the lead. That is why we are achieving this much growth. In the next phase, as I mentioned earlier, service. So the service by digitalizing the installed base needs to be pursued. So Andreas, I introduced him already, right? When I showed you the leadership on page four. So he will assume the position from July 1st. On lower right, you can see Andreas Schierenbeck. He will be the new CEO of Hitachi Energy. In ThyssenKrupp, he was in elevator business and shifted that to digital service. So finally, power grid service will be digitalized on a full scale. And that is why Andreas is now on board. He will drive the business. And IT and OT, Hitachi Energy and Globalogic people are now communicating very effectively so we will make a big investment and in fy24 we want to launch this business in a big way thank you and last question maybe this is not a refined question but hitachi energy in the year ending march 24 hitachi energy had big order more than 40 percent growth Some part is FX factor, but this year's order, what kind of order can we expect? And in the stock market, data center is such a hot topic. In Q4, Hitachi order, order, Hitachi energy order, how much of that is related to data center? Can you analyze or break down? Thank you for the question. Hitachi Energy, simply put, is a company that has a conservative forecast. But this year, it is now becoming more sure. That said, from order perspective, FY24 will be pretty strong. I want to hear CFO's input too, but... That's our current view. And data center related. How much data center related orders we have? We have the numbers. But I want to refrain from sharing that with you today. But how should I say? Very big. Very high. So in terms of products, it's transformer related. That's similar to data center? Yes, exactly. Thank you very much. Thank you again. Oh, yes, Kato-san will add some more information. So in terms of growth rate, Hitachi Energy grew by 49% in FY23. So in FY24, keeping the same growth rate is not realistic. There are many large-scale customers. But in terms of the amount, yen value, excluding FX, this level of order can be expected. President Kojima just mentioned, we have a long-term basic contract framework agreement with the customers. And now the delivery timing is even beyond 2030. in some cases. And so we are working towards that and we think it will grow steadily. So this is our current view for FY24. Thank you. Thank you very much. I have one follow-up question.

So value-wise, amount-wise, there's going to be growth and there must be several drivers behind that. What would be the most important drivers, if you could share your thought on that? In principle, This is something that will grow over the medium to long term. We have lots of orders intake for HVDC for HVDC projects. I think they will continue to grow as they have grown so far and modernizing equipment, including transformers. So basic equipment orders will also grow as well. And our customers, the largest customers are utilities, power companies, and for industrial use as well, data centers that was mentioned. Data centers are also another area of high growth that we have high hopes on. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next, Izawa-san, please unmute and ask your questions. Izawa from Citigroup Securities. Thank you. Regarding capital allocation, I would like the latest update, if you could. In the presentation you made for M&A, 0.3 trillion yen. I think that was in Kojima-san's presentation. I think this amount is for the full year this term. And will that be the rule of thumb for Hitachi's M&A going forward? In other words, you will be investing 300 billion yen on a standalone basis for M&A going forward every year so that you will be able to add the revenue of that size every year. So part of cash flow growth and revenue growth will come from such M&As going forward. That's what I would like to know. So in terms of the background, going to the next question, equity prices are up. And PR is over 20 times. That's the level right now. You made a buyback of 200 billion yen this time, but cash on hand. Investing in equities with PR of 20 or more, is that the right thing? Or with rising equity prices, perhaps capital allocation should change. So share buyback and investment in M&A for growth. How would you like to adjust or change that balance between the two? If you have any thoughts on that, please. Thank you for the questions. Our basic thinking has not changed all that much. So core free cash flow, half of that will be invested for growth. And the remainder will be returned to the shareholders, including dividend payment. And when making a share buyback, selling properties or assets, Whenever there are proceeds from such a sale, we would like to return the proceeds to shareholders. And so the basic framework of our thinking has not changed all that much in that regard. And Izawa-san perhaps was referring to page 14. Yes. So 0.3 trillion for M&A when promising cases arise. Every year, roughly... about this amount, 300 to 500 billion or so will be allocated to potential M&A when such opportunity arises. With respect to Large M&As were not necessary of positive view, and that's because of major PMI risks associated with large M&As. But having said so, if we think that a certain case will offer great growth opportunity, we may want to increase our leverage to go after such a target. But when we want to also have stable organic growth, Agile M&A transactions can help our organic growth as well. That's part of the thinking. So that's what we mean here. In that regard, what's described on this page? Well, we have an idea of what we want to invest in, including bolt-on investments. But 0.3 trillion, that's a free reserve, if you will. And we will watch potential opportunities to decide whether to invest this amount or not. That's what it means here. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Next, Takahashi-san, please unmute yourself and ask your question. Yes, Asahi newspaper Takahashi is my name. First question, 2023 revenue and profit. The generative AI is my question. Compared with the previous year results, what is your view? So generative AI related revenue, including orders, has been increasing inquiry is increasing so we're seeing growth the amount is not disclosed but both order and the revenue they are growing in dss global logic is one company from early on customer inquiries have been coming in and has been contributing to revenue I have two more questions on MMP material. First, page 19, please. Railway business. So maintenance will be optimized, you mentioned. And the target area is my question. So it is mainly Europe, I think. So once again, what do you plan to do for Japan? Are you thinking of similar service in Japan? Thank you. Thank you for the question, Takahashi-san. As you rightly said, the main point target is Europe. Europe railway business is horizontal. And the service, there are many areas we can take the lead, so we will deploy a business there. But In other areas, we will roll out this business one by one. First target is Japan. And Japan's railway players are taking a look at this and they think it's advanced. They think they can utilize this too. So the next target is Japan. And U.S., will be further down the road. Business model-wise, the operators are doing the business in a vertical manner. So in the US, it will be new areas if we are going to enter the US. Thank you. Same material, page nine is my second question. So there are various risks, but China-related risk is my question. So from new installation to maintenance, you mentioned, so including business domain, could you elaborate on this point? Yes, thank you. So our elevator escalator business. China real estate market slowed down quite significantly. So new constructions of buildings, the order from new constructions dropped significantly. So we took two actions. One is from private sector operators From low-risk players, from low-risk customers, we took orders. And in China, we have quite a big installed base now. So maintenance or the remote monitoring, we're trying to shift in that direction. And another is renewal, not new construction, but renewal. So we switched over early on. Usually, China's elevator escalator would have dipped further if we did not take these actions. But we took very agile, flexible actions. China team moved quickly to address the risks. And so financial result was reasonably good. So that is what's expressed here. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. To continue, Wen-san, please unmute and ask your questions. Wen from Nikkei Cross Talk. So October 2023 in North America, Hitachi Vantara, went through restructuring. And earlier you talked about IT times OT. What is the expected role of Hitachi Vantara? Thank you for the question. So the biggest purpose of restructuring of Hitachi Vantara was to respond to generative AI. With respect to generative AI, LLM, a large language model, is attracting a lot of attention, but in actuality, data must be supplied to LLM. So data infrastructure below LLM, where data is managed, becomes critical. And Hitachi Vantara's data storage business It has lots of technologies for data management and they could form the basis for generative AI. That's what we thought. So as part of restructuring, we wanted to make the business so that it can address that need. And application on top of LLM, in our case, would be handled by social infrastructure times generative AI. Lots of important applications can be generated. And in order to address that, Hitachi services. So it's a combination of OT times IT to provide solutions. So... the bottom and the top of LLM. So Hitachi Vantara's data storage, data management solutions, and on the top layer, OTIT solutions. We're doing both. And we want to turn the impact of the advent of generative AI for our benefit. And that was the purpose of restructuring. Thank you. Well understood. There's another question I would like to ask. With the collaboration with NVIDIA, you made an announcement about Hitachi IQ, and that's part of your IT-OT trend. So, in the final year of MMP24, with IT and OT, what kind of outcome or result would you like to see, and how would that impact the subsequent MMP? Thank you for the question. So collaboration with NVIDIA, there are two pillars. So what we explained, and it actually corresponds to restructuring I talked about. So one is about data management at the bottom of LLM. Hitachi IQ, that's Hitachi Vantara's data management solution. So on Hitachi IQ, we're going to collaborate with NVIDIA. And we're going to make considerable investment in eDutchIQ for that purpose. That's what we said. And another aspect is IT times OT, power grid times generative AI and railway times generative AI. Those two we're going to pursue with NVIDIA. And NVIDIA, when it comes to social infrastructure, OT times IT. they have a strong desire to utilize generative AI for such infrastructure. So in that regard, the direction that we're pursuing is the same as theirs. And so that is why we made that announcement. Thank you. Lastly, so in the last fiscal year of MMP24, what is the kind of result you would like to produce? If there's an idea, Mr. Kujima, in your mind, if you could share that with us. Well, thank you for the question. Of course, in the MMP, to various investors, this is what we're going to deliver. We made that commitment, so we will follow through on that commitment. uh thoroughly and that's most important to us at the same time without waiting for the next mmp what i have already discussed for new opportunities we want to address new opportunities as they arise and we would like to make thorough efforts at that in this fiscal year so good growth opportunities so we are able to capture as hitachi we want to demonstrate that uh during uh uh fi 24 and uh the result will be reflected in the next mmp so that's what we would like to see realized thank you thank you next question

is the last hand we are seeing for now. So we would like to have the next questioner, the last one. Yasui-san, please unmute yourself and ask the question. Thank you. This is Yasui from UBS. I have two questions. First, this year's service platform, other than global logic, the revenue is big. Storage is growing. From around February, So storage can be Gen-AI. So will this grow this year and dip next year? In the medium term, storage will be needed. And with Gen-AI, storage business can grow. Is there a technological background that you could share with me? And second question. IT service is extremely strong, you said. And before using GenAI, system needs to be modernized, you said. So it overlaps, but it is very strong. The business is so strong. 10 billion becomes 12 billion. The customers are now increasing the budget. So why is it growing so much? I am not fully understanding this. It's an era of software. but it did not grow as much. But now it seems like we're seeing a further acceleration. So from a professional perspective, if you have some conviction that the market will grow or customers are willing to pay more, I'd like to know. Thank you. Thank you, Yasi-san. So to your first question, service platform, as you rightly said, we think storage will grow significantly. As I mentioned earlier, including data center, generative AI, data management infrastructure will grow. We think there are two technological growth areas One is the so-called hybrid cloud. There's public cloud and the on-premise private cloud. So when generative AI comes out, many customers think they have to use both. So cloud will be hybrid cloud. Our technology Is it virtual? We can handle it without them knowing where it is. So what exists within inside have tight security. So compared to normal cloud is, I'm sorry, I'm being technical. You have to access differently, separately. So it's a different kind of data you have to access separately, but you can access without knowing where it is. But if it's closed, the security is tight. So it's software-defined storage. I don't think our peers have this technology. So in hybrid cloud, we think we have a good opportunity. And that is Gen AI, become the Gen AI data infrastructure. We think this will grow strongly. And the other is... in service platform storage, mid-range was a bottleneck. There are two bottlenecks. One was the performance itself. And the other was this had to be sold indirectly and that channel was not well established. So we were fixing this thoroughly. And we think we will enjoy positive results for that. So we think this area will grow strongly this year. So for a storage platform, fiscal 24, we can show you a completely different situation. And regarding modernization, so Japan's IT service, why is it so strong, including the need for modernization? customers are now trying to increase labor productivity and this is imminent it's urgent because we are behind the us and european players in japan so the clients are willing to invest and resolve this bottleneck the labor cost the wage will rise in japan so IT is the key to increasing productivity and digital. So this is the big challenge Japan has. And therefore the old IT has to be modernized and Gen-AI will be adopted actively. Japan is finally realizing that they need IT to grow. And this notion is penetrated. IT was thought to be utilized to reduce costs, but this culture is changing, I think. Thank you very much.

Thank you. With that, We would like to conclude the session for Consolidated Financial Results for the year ending March 31st, 2024, in progress of Midterm Management Plan 2024. On the 11th of June, we're going to organize Hitachi Ambassador Day. As was mentioned by Kojima-san earlier, we will be informing you of the details at a later timing. Thank you very much for your participation over extended hours. Thank you very much.