Lixil Group Corp Ord

It's time for us to start the third quarter financial results briefing for fiscal year ending March 31st, 2026 for Lixell Corporation. This briefing is streamed live online. The materials for this briefing is on our website for the shareholders and investors. I would like to introduce to you the presenters. Kingi Asato, Director, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO. Mariko Fujita, Executive Officer, Executive Vice President, CFO. Aya Kawai, Senior Vice President, Leader of the Investors Relations Office. I will be serving as the MC. My name is Setoguchi from IR office. I would like to explain to you the proceedings for today. First, Fujita, the CFO, will be providing you the overview of the financial results for the third quarter. That will be followed by presentation by Mr. Seto to explain to you about the earning structure of Lexel. The presentation will be followed by Q&A. We are expecting to end the session at 3.45 p.m. I would like to invite Ms. Fujita, the CFO, to give you the financial results briefing. Hello everyone, this is Fujita. I would like to give you the overview of the financial results for the third quarter. This is a summary of results for the third quarter. Core earnings is 36.5 billion yen, and EBITDA is 98.4 billion yen. In Japan, LWTJ and Living have continued to do well with increase in revenue and earnings. The renovation product was robust, even though the new housing demand was sluggish. As for LHT, It was on par with the previous year, both for the revenue and earnings. The subsidy-eligible products contributed to the sales growth. In Europe, Middle East, and India has seen strong performance. China's sluggish business had been covered by the strong performance from Europe, Middle East and India. So there was a Forex losses and because of that financial cost had increased year-on-year. Just like Q2, the consolidated subsidiary decreased year-on-year due to changes in the corporate tax rate in Germany. Next, I would like to talk about the outlook for fiscal year ending 2027. This talks about business environment. Overall, commodity prices are going up. Forex as well as the government policies have changed from what we had first expected. The commodity prices had significantly increased. In January, there was a rapid increase and it is hovering high. In Japan, new housing starts every main week. but the subsidy for the window renovation would continue. As for Europe, we had expected in our roadmap that in fiscal year ending 2027, the housing market would recover, but the timing of the recovery is being delayed. As for Aimea, it's doing well, and China continues to be sluggish. Those are the outlook for fiscal year ending 2027. Next is performance highlights for the third quarter. Revenue decreased slightly, but core earnings increased year on year. Revenue was 1,138,500,000 yen. Core earnings and EBITDA as well as profit had improved. Next is consolidated business results. What I would like to highlight here is a gross profit. It was 1.3 points up year-on-year. Because of this, core earnings ratio had improved by 0.5%.

And here is the overview of business results by segment. LWTJ performed well. So the improvement in revenue in Europe and the Middle East has contributed, LHD improved, and price optimisation and renovation sales have contributed, enabling the segment to maintain the level from last year leaving. We saw a strong performance of the renovation area. And this is the business rules by the segment using the former segments. which I will skip. Next is consolidated financial position and the assets are in Europe. This has increased due to currency translation impact. Equity ratio is at 34.4%. Lastly is cash flow status as well as cash balance. Because of the accounts receivables and inventories increasing, operating cash flow has decreased year-on-year. However, as for the free cash flow, we have been able to maintain the positive territory. So that completes my report. Thank you very much.

Fujita-san. Thank you, Ms. Fujita. Next, I would like to invite CEO, Mr. Sato, to talk about Vexel's earning structure. Mr. Sato, please. So we have been talking about this to the investors as well as institutional investors, but I would like to give you the more detailed information to avoid misunderstanding. So moving on to the first slide. Compared to EBITDA, the core earnings as well as the net profit tend to be lower. So that's our structure. However, this is because of large depreciation. In the past, we had used a lot of cash for acquisition and because of that, our core earnings tends to be smaller because of the depreciation. So the tax expenses increase due to the unoptimal tax management, but we do have cash at hand, and our strength is not shown in those numbers. So going back to page 1, so in our case, PER, PBR, ROA, EBITDA multiple, had not been explained in a coordinated manner. PER, because the profit seems to be low, it tends to be very high at 65 times. PBR is 0.8 times. On that matter, there are assets whose utilization is not high, but it's generating cash. And as for ROA and ROE, the after-tax profit compared to cash, it is evaluated low on an accounting basis, and that has become a huge issue. So in improving these figures, so we would, of course, work to improve the business for the improvement of EBITDA, but at the same time, we are looking at the assets which are not generating cash, and we will be sorting that out so that we can have improved efficiency in the assets. So there will be less difference between EBITDA and core earnings. And we will also work on to better manage taxes. This is something that we will be working in the coming 1 to 2 years. It's not just about improvement of EBITDA, but we will make reforms so that we can have better core earnings. So EBITDA for cash earning power, I think that we are doing fairly well. This slide shows the comparison with competitors. On the far left is Lexol, followed by Toto, then Takara, Cleanup, YKK. Compared to those companies, you can tell that EBITDA, the earning power that we have, is very high. In the case of TOTO, they have semiconductor products. So we are not able to make apple-to-apple comparison with our competitors, but our EBITDA level is quite high. Thank you. The Moscow fortune brand, those are the highest earnings companies and their EBITDA is high. But from FY23 to FY25, the reason for growth, you need to have some footnote. So Giveret is using Swiss franc and has been appreciated from 140 yen to 200 yen. And euro is also being appreciated. So there are positive factors for Moscow as well. The Fortune brand, they are working centering around U.S. dollars, so the growth rate compared to the other two is lower. However, their profitability rate is very high, 70% gross profit for Gaborit. And Fortune brands and Moscow, and in the faucet, that's their main product. So So we have a bigger line of products, so our EBITDA level is quite good. So ROCA and Billeroy and BOC, in 2025, you see significant increase in the numbers. This is because they have acquired ideal standards. So Fortune and Moscow, they have been growing because of M&A. So considering that our organic numbers is not bad. So we want the world to understand our core earnings power. So we want to normalize our core earnings and EBITDA.

And lastly... and where we generate the EBITDA, and from our perspective, you know, we've been saying this, we have too much asset, and so we don't have to have too much capital expenditure. And investment tools are the soft element, like a brand or intellectual property or R&D-related investments. For those areas, there are essentially expenses, and because of that, they do lower the profit margin directly. But in the end, we are not investing in hardware, but we are investing in software that does lead to generating a large amount of cash in the end. So I'm sure some of you are fully versed in this type of information, so nothing new. But just in case, we wanted to provide this explanation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Sato. We would like to now move on to the Q&A session. We would like to take your questions now. If you would like to ask a question, please press on the raise hand button which is shown on the bottom of the screen. We will be designating you one by one. We will be using the Zoom audio as well as video for the Q&A session. In order for us to take more questions, we would like to ask you to limit your questions to per time. And also, we will be answering each question one by one. If you have additional questions, you have to press on the raise hand button again. So if you make a mistake of the raise the hand button, you would be able to cancel it by pressing on it again first. I would like to ask Fukushima-san from Nomura Securities to ask his question. Please click on Participate as Panelist. Please put your audio on, and if you would like, please put the video on as well. This is Fukushima. Hello. Thank you for this opportunity. I have two questions. My first question, the price strategy in Japan is my first question. As you have said at the onset, the commodity prices are going up. On the other hand, if we look at the competitive environment, YKK had acquired the subsidiary of Panasonic and there is big company who would be competing against you. Under that environment, how would you be pricing your products? How would you be profitable in that environment? So can I answer the first question? Yes, please. As you have said... What I am concerned the most about is the aluminum and copper prices, which have risen very rapidly. You may be aware of this, but it is not the increase in the demand. So there has been sluggish supply for aluminum. Last year, because the power, electricity prices had gone up, they decided to conduct maintenance. for a year and century because of the operational issues they had a shutdown and they decided to continue because of the electricity prices and also there's reluctancy from Rio Tinto and the supply of aluminum to Europe had dwindled and the price increase the premium had gone up the so because that's the situation and When the prices had gone up at this level for April, because we had assumed last year's levels, we have to think about whether we would be increasing the price. We have to think strategically, and we have to think about the competitive environment. One thing that works in our favor is that we are using scrap to 80%. So there will be a time difference in getting the impact. And the merger of YKK and Panasonic subsidiary, it is not an increase in the competition because the lineup is separate and the number of competitors would remain the same. the competitors like YKK so they were they had seen the less profitability when decided they decided not to raise the prices but gotten the share so for them so considering the the business environment the I don't think that they would be taking that choice again Thank you very much. So from April, you may not be able to respond to the price increase, but considering the ratio of scrap, you would not be facing a situation where the profitability will be deteriorating rapidly. You would still have some time. Well, there will be deterioration in the profitability, but it would not be in the extremes. and also we would be able to buy time to take new initiatives. Understood. Thank you. My second question, I would like to ask about the U.S. business. So the U.S.' 's standard, it is posting the – the ordinary losses and the operational losses and you would be stopping the outsourcing and you would be making the improvements. But as for the sanitary ware, I think last time you said that you would be increasing the prices to improve the profitability. So I would like to know the progress towards the next term. How... do you see the situation of the profit for the U.S. business? So having better product mix and better pricing that is being accepted in the market. So I think that the profitability will be improved. but the environment is worse than what we had expected and that's our concern in terms of the deterioration in the market environment one thing that concerns us is the the ceramics and and also the and also the housing distribution is 30 percent less and so there is an affordability issue. President Trump had said that he would be making huge announcement in January, but he has not been able to do much so far. So I don't think that there will be easy improvement in the demand unless something happens towards the midterm elections. The market recovery is being delayed than what we had assumed, but we have been taking measures for rationalization, so I think that we would be good for the next term. But the bathtub business losses would continue, so we would still be in difficulties, but we will be able to improve next year. competitors for the US like China or the Asian players so if they are not able to sell because of tariffs are you have been able to improve the share since November we had seen increase in the share so up to October the inventories that the players had acquired before the tariffs had remained. But from November, we have been able to take shares, but the demand is not increasing, so it's still sluggish. So thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Fukushima.

So I ask that you only ask two questions at a time and please ask each question one after another. So Miki from Citigroup Securities. Once the confirmation screen pops up, please click on Participate as Panelist. And please turn on your audio and the video is optional. Please ask your question. This is Mickey from City Group Securities. I hope you can hear me. Yes, I'd like to ask two questions myself. The first question, and you talked about the disposing assets not generating cash, but what type of asset reshuffle are you thinking of right now? For example, structural reform in Japan. And from 2019, I think you've done something quite significant and you worked on the international after that. But So in the meantime, so you had inflation or interest rate increasing, which has caused the business environment to change quite significantly. So do we expect a very large structural reform in Japan domestically over the next year or so? That's my first question. So, ATGISO, we have announced recently that we're going to stop. This is a subsidiary for Exterior Works, and so we will stop the operation of this entity. And we've announced that this will be embedded into the LCTL. But your question, it's very sensitive, so anything we haven't announced we can't talk about, of course, because from our perspective, whether it be Japan Domestic or PO4 International, as I said before, we want to look at those businesses with very low level of asset efficiency. So we have this course of direction to try to reorganise those or dispose of them but even if the default earnings is negative but we have already acquired and we have already paid the cash but on the other hand the cash distribution is still being done right now for those we won't sell unless there are buyers for that so it's difficult for me to give any further I suppose in response to your question I hope you understand Thank you. Well, then for the second question, and you did not adjust the earnings forecast, so whether it be core earnings or the net profit, when we look at the progress, and I think you're performing well against the full-year plan, so why didn't you not make adjustments? And segment-wise, is there any changes to the initial forecast? And So 45.5 billion yen, but 29.6 billion yen, there is a slowness in terms of progress. Is there a buffer? So maybe if you could explain about the situation there. so what we have not announced now we certainly cannot talk about that's quite obvious but for January to March quarter basically speaking there are increasing I suppose uncertain elements and the biggest one and the commodity price increasing to this level in January this may have some impact on a short term basis we need to ascertain that so that's one point and and subsidy in Japan and decision has been made to have that being provided but next subsidy and for this year the subsidy start in April the details have not been finalised as yet so we have not been able to engage in activities on that at this point in time not just the commodity pricing now but whether it be Europe or US or the world, is seeing a lot of developments, but for the demand for the new builds, I think people are waiting for the new policy to be announced. And so how will that reflect into the fourth quarter numbers? We don't have, I suppose, the conviction on that as yet. And also, something that I mentioned before, we need to implement various initiatives, address various things, And so, jumping to the conclusion. We can't announce what we don't know. That is where we have kind of arrived at. And the numbers right now is good. And probably the numbers until now have been better than we had thought. But the fourth quarter, this is going to be a quarter we need to be very careful about, be cautious about. And this is as a result of the commodity price, the global situation, as we have explained thus far, and also the new housing status in Japan too. This year, we expected about a 2% decrease, but we saw a 13.7% decrease from April to November. and this is unlikely from the impact of amendment or building standards acts abolition article 4 special provision so would there be a pent-up demand associated with going forward would we see further deterioration of the situation from where we are we don't see the signs of where we may end up with at this point in time and also the general construction companies may be announcing this but the projects are delayed all around the world as of March project that we had expected completion but the Japanese general construction companies are saying that they are likely to be pushed back into April onwards and the reason for that is a lack of the enforcement and in the case of Japan the facility providers lack capability or capacity not being able to address the demand and so this is happening in other countries in the different ways in the case of US and immigrant workers cannot go to the site or work that has led to the project not being completed leading to delay in the case of Europe politically and this inability to make decisions and there's been a lack of strong majority have not been able to make decision about policies which has led to delays in permit leading to the project delays and so overall there are projects being delayed. The demand does exist but the projects are being delayed. This is also a worrying situation for us as well. Understood. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mickey. The next question is from Goldman Sachs, Okada-san. Please click on participate as panelist. Please put your audio on, and if you like a video as well, please ask your question. This is Okada from Goldman Sachs. I have two questions for you. As for the European market as well as the Middle East market, it is doing well in the cumulative third quarter. Germany and France, which are the central players in Europe. Overall, the economy is weak, is what I have heard. The growing sales growth is in the positive, but I would like to know the background to it. And France and Germany are sluggish, but would they be giving a negative impact to the overall business? That's my first question. As for the market in Europe, we have the same view. The reason why... has been doing well is because of the high-end products like G4, G5 applied products, which are the color products. So it is replacing the nickel-chromium products, and even though the number of units does not change so much, the ASP is higher, and because of that, we have been able to grow in Europe. So going forward, the situation is mixed. So when we look at the project pipeline, we have very enhanced pipeline. But in Europe, the administration is unstable and the approval is now lagging behind in European countries. In 2026, we had expected that starting from April, there would be a recovery of the economy, but the policies which were supposed to be in place is not in place yet. So we believe now that the recovery will be towards the second half of the year. Thank you. You talked about the earnings structure. and you talked about tax management. And with regards to that, you talked about the potential of divesting assets. But is there a need to have negotiation with the competent authorities or with the accounting firms? And the reason why the tax management is not optimal is probably because of the acquisitions that you have made in the past. But could you talk a little bit more about that? we are working for optimization in this area we don't need to convince the tax authorities or the accounting firms but when we had acquired the companies in the past we did not think thoroughly and we were not able to get to the optimal tax management so we would like to fix that And we are not getting any warnings or anything from the tax authorities or the accounting firms at this moment. So how we distribute the products, how we allocate our technology, we need to scrutinize that. We believe that the burden is too high for Japan, so we need to sort that out. But to your question, we do not need to change the formalities that we have in place, but rather, it will be about where to place the earnings and where to allocate the technology so we need to review those things and it would take about one to two years on that yes I would like to make a supplementary comment on that matter as mr. Sato mentioned so so aware IP is as well as how the distribution system works so upon the acquisition we were not able to structure it in an optimal manner So we would work on to optimize that within our compliance framework. And the tax expenses which go beyond the effective tax levels, we would like to get it to the effective tax levels. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Ms. Okada. So next question is from SMBC NICOL Securities in Kawashima-san. Once the confirmation screen pops up, please click on participate as a panelist. And please turn on your audio. Video is optional. Please ask your question. This is Kawashima from NICOL Securities. I would like to ask two questions. The first question is in regards to the image for the medium term performance. And so you shared with us the image for the 2027 and 2028 March and the outlook and the commodity and the market condition I think you talked about, that external environment remains to be tough but positive impact, internal factors which is going well towards those. If you could share some information in that regard. Well, since that's not going as well as back then, well, the recovery in Europe, the economic condition, this has been slower than what we had expected. But something that has performed better than we had expected, that is conversion to the renovation business in Japan. And as I was explaining before, but the Japanese housing starts from April to November. The eight-month came down by 13.7% year-on-year, but we were still able to increase our revenue and profit. And the reason why we were able to do that was, firstly, and this is something that we always talk about, that the renovation business has higher profit margin, but SG&A also ends up being higher. and so that does have impact on profitability so we were using AI or DX digital transformation utilising digital technology and we have essentially worked on lowering the cost which has enabled us to improve profit margin and we've been able to do that in terms of demand cultivation and we were able to secure an extension of the subsidies on this occasion. So given the backdrop for us, how can we have the understanding of our customers in regards to the window renovation? I think we have a better idea as to how we can do this. So despite the poor market condition, we have been able to grow the Japanese business despite the headwind. I think this is a positive. And another positive factor and it does actually balance against what is good, but China is probably worse than what you had expected, but we were able to see improvement in the Middle and Near East, which was able to offset that negative in China, which is a pretty good thing. Thank you. The second question, and I want to ask about numbers. In terms of... the profitability structure as you have explained right now the depreciation is greater than investment and once they balance then due to decreasing the depreciation amortization we expect there to be a profit improvement but because of the effects in fact we are not seeing the decrease in the depreciation amortization cost But in terms of the tangible asset, how many years they are depreciated over, so that will have impact. But over how long period can we see the balance between depreciation investment and how – do you have any numbers in mind of improvement? And so the depreciation or the acquisition of the tangible assets as reported in the financial statement, I think there is probably 4 to 7 billion yen, sorry, 6 to 7 billion yen, the gap there. It's not easy to respond because of various things, but from our perspective, in terms of tangible fixed asset, what is the biggest factor for reduction? And that would be factory facilities. And there, from our perspective, and does relate to the previous question, but again, I can't talk about what we haven't announced as yet, but in Japan, sorry, overseas as well, to generate profit with a relatively small asset. That is the course of direction that we're trying to pursue. And so the facilities or the plans, we have the possibility of being able to... work on that aspect it's not just the how many years that we have those plants or being depreciated over but I think there are still a lot of room that we are able to work on to make improvements But if I start to talk about numbers, I end up talking more specific, so I can't really do so. But we are looking at the greater number than what you have referred to in terms of reduction of depreciation expense. So investment and the depreciation is not just a cycle there, but you're going to do something that is a little more significant. Is that right? Yes. Well, investment itself, so investment was a tangible asset. We are not thinking of doing anything major in that area, so conversely speaking, and by organising the assets to an extent, we will no longer require maintenance investment for that. That would lead to a reduction in the amount of investment required, and so in that regard, So we already have a structure of being able to generate cash, and so in terms of accounting a profit, in order for it to become more visible, I think there are things that we can do. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kawashima. We would like to move on to the next questioner from CLSA, Mochizuki-san. Please press on, participate as a panelist. Please click on participate as a panelist. Please put your audio on. Thank you for your time. I have two questions. The first question is related to the outlook for the next fiscal year. I think you have given some tips today, but the business environment is very bad. So if we look just at the net profit, is it okay to understand that net profit may be in the losses? So I don't know about whether core earnings will be going up or not. But if you are going to conduct structural reform, then there will be costs associated with it. So I thought that you may be in the net losses. So regardless of the numbers. So, well, we don't want that to happen. So in the past two years, we have... We have worked on the areas where it would incur losses first in the past two years. So in terms of the structural reform, the area where we would work on would have less losses. And also there is a possibility that it would generate the profit. So considering the net profit levels now, we cannot go lower than that. So we are not expecting the net profit to be in the negative, and we believe that we can increase the core earnings. But, of course, the difficult environment continues. But what I would like you to understand is that this fiscal year, we had in a very severe situation, even worse than last fiscal year. But we have been able to post better performance. In terms of next year, we don't believe it would be as difficult as the previous years. Of course, we need to wait and see how the commodity prices would impact us, but this is something that we have already experienced in the past. We would like to continue to work on things in a steady manner. Thank you. My second question is, Sorry, Kawaisan from IR has supplementary comment. So this year, 12 billion yen has been decreased from the tax system change, but this is one time, so it would not happen next year. So please understand that this 12 billion is a one-time thing which occurred this year. 12 billion... Yen less tax, right. That impacted net profit. But we would not have that kind of tax reduction next fiscal year. So please compare it, make the comparison without that 12 billion yen. But we will not be decreasing the net profit. That's what we are aiming for. So the tax cost, one time increase. Positive impact would not be there next year But you want us to expect that you would work hard to improve your performance. That's correct My second question is related to ROE So Sato-san, you have said that we should look at EBITDA in terms of your earnings power And the cost is different region by region and under EBITDA, but a lot of shareholders are focusing on ROA, and I think regrettably that your level of ROA is still low. So for the coming several years, I believe that it would be difficult to improve the ROE considering the capital cost. Do you think you would be able to improve it? Of course, we believe that we can improve it. We would work on to work on to reduce the depreciation and we will improve the tax management so that the net profit will be improved and thus better ROE and also for the denominator if we are able to sort out properly we would be able to get better and ROE will be improved but compared to capital cost there may be some difficulties So there are cash flows in the past, and how we view it is the issue here. For example, we had acquired something at 10 billion yen, and the cash outflow is 20 to 30 million yen. But the past cash outflow should... it's a past cash flow, but if it's generating 20 to 30 million in cash, that would be, that's a good thing for the shareholders. And if it's in the negative, like perma-stiliza, we should be divesting it right away, but even if it's inefficient, it may be generating cash, and if it's hard to sell, it may be better to keep it. So that's why I have been saying that please look at EBITDA. If we are to improve ROE, one way is to sell everything which are inefficient, but that would not be at all positive for the shareholders. Of course, capital cost is very important to us, but capital cost should not be looked at just with snapshot. And so sometimes we need to consider it as a sunk cost. So we should avoid putting too much cost into the sunk cost. Thank you very much. But, Motodaki-san, but I don't want to keep my company hovering low, and if it's optimal, we would be selling the assets where we can. So please monitor us. So we are supporting you, and I will do my best to write good reports. Thank you.

Thank you, Mochizuki-san. So the next question is from Morgan Stanley, MUFJ Securities, Yagi-san. Once the confirmation screen pops up, please select and participate as a panelist. Please click participate as a panelist. Please turn on the audio. Video is optional. Please ask your question. Thank you for the explanation. This is Yogi from Morgan Stanley MFJ Securities. I have two questions. First question is in regards to American Standard. So for the American standard, if we only look at the third quarter, then the amount of loss has deteriorated year on year. Now, this is due to demand-related reason only, or is there other factors that has led to that result? And demand and forecast remains to be quite tough, but for next fiscal year, to I think you expect turnaround to generate in profit but based on our forecast right now the timing of this is it likely to be later than what you had initially considered so please explain your thinking in regards to American Standard as for the third quarter what you say is right demand was quite significant but another factor is that ourselves in the second quarter we introduced a new system and the installation of the system did not go as well as hoped and so there were delay in shipment to the customers so that is what we have experienced in the second quarter and so as a consequence some of the orders were cancelled in the third quarter so we did have that kind of special reason but the third quarter overall was not strong mainly because of demand factors And for the third quarter and the fourth quarter, Home Repo, the Rose of Ferguson, they have downgraded their forecast more than we had expected. And so the demand is poor. That is without a question of fact. And that may have impact on turnaround next year. And so the fact that demand is weak, So we are implementing additional measures with that in mind, and that is what we are doing to reduce costs additionally, and so we don't feel that there is a need for us to change our position that we are going to achieve a turnaround next year. If possible, anything you can mention in terms of measures to reduce costs? Well, sorry, I can't. I can't talk about the initiatives in that area. Okay. My second question is in regards to your thinking about domestic business. So the new starts are quite poor right now, but the remodeling is all quite good, but I can't really expect a significant increase in revenue. But in terms of the cost of parceling, You have explained about this, but if this is delayed, then the impact of the cost increase, how can you offset that to achieve increasing profit going forward? So could you explain the factors to enable profit increase next fiscal year for Japan domestically? First, in regards to commodity pricing, and just to make sure, aluminium and copper accounts for the most largest portion. Aluminium domestic copper is more for international business. For international business, relatively speaking, we have G4, the product line-up, which is more premier, and G3 is upper mass. This is also the main area, so it's easier to pass on cost. But for aluminium product in Japan domestically on the other hand, so it's not that easy to pass on a cost. But competitors, they didn't actually increase the price when the situation like this occurred and they went after market share. But in the end they did not really generate good business performance in that regard. from the number gains and I think they will respond to that the next time so that is likely to see greater progress in terms of the cost of a pass on but for April we have prepared until December to see the price increase and so we probably have to do something additional to address that now in that regard what can we do additionally well what was successful in the past is for now, we have not been able to fully use our subsidy a couple of years ago, but last year in the second half of it we were able to utilise the subsidy at quite a high ratio. So how can we consume our subsidy? We now know how to do that, so we should be able to make a good start this first April with a new subsidy being provided. We have this strength of the digital and AI progress, and so we still are able to generate profit even if we go to a smaller project. I think we have advantage over others in that regard. Anderson, thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Mr. Yagi. The next question from Jeffries Fukuhara-san. Please press on participate as panelists button. Please put your audio on and video if you would like. Please ask your question. This is Fukuhara from Jefferies. Thank you for this opportunity. I have two questions. The first question. The raw material prices that you have mentioned, the copper and aluminum. Towards the end of the slide, there was a chart of the evolution of the pricing and you also have written the assumption for those prices. So in the recent days, there has been rapid increase in the copper and aluminum. Could you explain about how much impact that there would be in terms of sensitivity of the price fluctuation in those raw materials and in terms of the rapid increase of those raw materials, I would like to think that it would not be impacting the fourth quarter figures, but what's the situation? So please talk about sensitivity. Fukuhara-san, thank you very much. This is Kawai from IR office. And in terms of the sensitivity, we do not disclose that. So the... And it... and we do not disclose the amount of the procurement. So I would like to talk about that when you come for the IR meeting. So in terms of the fourth quarter impact, so the increase in the pricing in the third quarter will be impacting in the fourth quarter, and the price increase in fourth quarter will be impacting the first quarter. So when we look at the whole year, the project delays would be impacting the sales and the commodity prices then will have a full effect in terms of the impact. So in terms of how much? Well, we are calculating right now because this is ongoing in January. But what would be most beneficial for us is to increase the ratio of scrap. The scrap ratio at our company, the usage is a lot higher. So for aluminum, 80% is scrap. We had... We had tried increasing the ratio, and we have experimented the 90% aluminum scrap ratio, and we have succeeded in that. So by using the scrap, we would be able to delay the impact of the price increase. So that would be a competitive edge for us. So under the current environment, what we don't know is the consumer's behavior, whether they would place an order before the price increase or would there be more impact from the delay in projects. So there has been a rapid increase in prices of raw materials. So we have not decided the next step yet. That's my frank response to your question. Understood. My next question. So I think there are a lot of things that you still cannot say about the fourth quarter. But at the end of April, you have given us the outlook for the fiscal year in March. And for core earnings, you have item 65 billion yen, and you have not gotten to that level yet. So this 65 billion yen in core earnings for the next fiscal year, To me, it seems that it's difficult to accomplish, but how close would you be able to get to the 65 billion yen? I would not be able to provide an answer at this moment in time. But the environment surrounding us? is changing, and the delay in recovery of the European market is hurting us, and also in the short term, the commodity price hike. And also, we did not envision that the new construction starts would be declined so much. And also now we have clarity to how we would be using the subsidy and also how we can reduce the cost in a renovation business is something that's more clear to us. And also in the mid to nearest east, we are a forerunner there and we are doing better than we had first expected in that market. So we would like to reflect that into the next budget. I am not able to talk about the specific figures because it would be misleading. Thank you very much for your response. That's all from me.

Thank you very much, Mr. Fukuhara. So we have responded to all of the questions that we have been asked thus far. It seems that there are no further questions. So with this, I would like to conclude the Q&A part. So with that, we want to conclude the third quarter financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31st, 2026, the analyst and investor explanation meeting. So thank you very much for your participation. The meeting is concluded.