Sojitz Corp Unsp/Adr

Good afternoon. This is Makoto Shibuya, CFO of Solis Corporation. Thank you very much for joining us for the earnings briefing. Please refer to the Q3 FY2023 presentation materials posted on our website, specifically the first part titled Financial Results for the Third Quarter and Full Year Forecast. Let me begin on slide 5, which shows the summary of profit or loss. Consolidated profit for the period came to 75.2 billion yen. This is down 30% year-on-year, but well on track with regard to the initial full-year forecast of 95 billion yen. Now that we have upward revised the full-year forecast from 95 billion yen to 100 billion yen, Q3 results stand at 75%. The main reasons for the year-on-year decline in profit are the impact of year-on-year decline in coal prices and a slowdown due to sluggish demand for chemical products in general. The business environment has been characterized by uncertainty due to heightened geopolitical risks, persistent inflation, although slowing in developed countries, and continued monetary tightening by central banks there, and slow improvement in the Chinese economy. Against that backdrop, in our view, our progress is generally as expected, although some segments are better than others. New investments leading to new businesses and accumulation of assets have contributed to growth profit growth. There is good progress in laying the foundation for further expansion in the scale of our earnings. In light of results up to the third quarter, the current market conditions for coal and other commodities As well as the foreign exchange rates, we have revised our full-year forecast upward by 5 billion yen to 100 billion yen. In conjunction, the annual dividend forecast has also been revised upward from 130 yen per share to 135 yen per share. This translates into a payout ratio of 30% against the revised forecast. Cash flow and other management indices are also in line. With regard to the MTP 2023 target for PBR above 1x, our PBR was 0.79 at the end of December, 0.86 at the end of January, still short of 1. We will continue our efforts so as to show how we are progressing to go above 1x in our journey towards further growth. Let me provide more detail on slide 6 and beyond. Slide 6 shows the PL summary. Gross profit was 242.3 billion yen, down 21.1 billion yen from the same period last year. The main factor was a decline in coal prices for metals, mineral resources, and recycling. On the other hand, retail and consumer service and automotive segments were up thanks to newly consolidated subsidiaries. SG&A increased by 13.8 billion yen year-on-year. About 40% was related to subsidiaries added or removed from the consolidation base. About 20% was due to the weaker yen. For financial income and costs, the net costs increased year on year due to the impact of higher interest rates on the U.S. dollar. Share of profit or loss of investments accounted for using the equity method was 29.2 billion yen, down 7.9 billion yen from the same period last year. Major factors include reduced profit at a steel trading company due to lower steel market prices in the Americas compared with the same period previous year, and replacement of infrastructure-related assets. With all that, consolidated profit came to 75.2 billion yen. slides 7 and 8 shows a BS summary. As shown on slide 7, total assets increased by about 130 billion yen from the end of last March. Of this increase, just under 100 billion yen comes from the impact of the weaker yen on foreign currency translation related to overseas operations. There were also increases in inventories, goodwill, and investments, mostly related to newly consolidated subsidiaries and aircraft-related collection. Total liabilities also increased by about 80 billion yen. The increases-decreases are generally the same as on the asset side. 50 billion yen of the increase comes from foreign exchange rates. The end of the period fell on a holiday, which pushed up trade payables. As for shareholders' equity, even with dividend payment and share buybacks, the accumulation of profit and foreign currency translation differences resulted in an increase of approximately 60 billion yen to 897.3 billion yen. Slide 8 summarizes key management indicators and the full-year forecast. Slide 9 shows cash flow. Cash flow from operating activities was a good net inflow of 86.2 billion yen. Net cash from investing activities was an inflow of 25.5 billion yen. While there were outflows for new investments, there were more inflows thanks to collection from aircraft-related transactions, sale of infrastructure assets, and proceeds from disposal of cross-held shares. As a result, free cash flow came to a significant inflow of 111.7 billion yen. Slides 10 to 12 summarize results and forecasts by segment. Slide 10 shows gross profit. Gross profit increased year on year for all segments other than metals, mineral resources, and recycling, and chemicals. For the three segments of automotive, infrastructure and healthcare, and retail and consumer service, the increase is due to consolidation of new investees and the scale of earnings is expanding. Slide 11 shows the year-on-year comparison for profit. Slide 12 shows the full-year forecast and progress so far. On slide 11, profit for metals, mineral resources and recycling declined significantly due to the impact of lower market prices on the coal business. The decrease in automotive is largely due to withdrawal from the distributorship business in Thailand and efforts to expeditiously reduce high-cost inventory in the automotive sales business in the Philippines. For infrastructure and healthcare, the decrease is an artifact of asset sales in the same period previous year. For chemicals, there was slowdown in demand as well as one-time losses recorded related to collection risk of receivables. The decrease for consumer industry and agriculture business comes from building materials as well as an artifact of the strong performance of fertilizers in the Philippines in the previous year. On the other hand, retail and consumer service was up significantly thanks to recovery in domestic retail business, sale of a shopping mall, and negative goodwill associated with new investment. On slide 12, we present our full year forecast broken down by segment. In conjunction with the upward revision of the consolidated profit forecast to 100 billion yen, we have adjusted figures for each segment, reflecting the business environment and progress made up to the third quarter. Let me highlight the changes. Starting with automotive, as is true of dealership business in general, the supply of new cars has improved as the semiconductor shortage eased. This has squeezed profit margins for both new and used cars. For used cars, prices and volume have also been negatively affected. Rising interest rates are also negatively affecting sales volume. In addition, automotive sales business in the Philippines has been affected by sluggish sales caused by a weaker peso against the US dollar and intensified competition pushing down prices. Starting from this second half, we are implementing drastic measures to turn this around by expeditiously selling high-cost inventory and have downward revised the forecast. The aim is to complete this process in the current financial year rather than letting the impact continue into the next year and beyond. For metals, mineral resources, and recycling, we have upward revised our forecast, reflecting current solid conditions in the coal market. For chemicals, we downward revised in the second quarter to reflect one-time loss in the first quarter and the revision of the feedstock procurement contract for our methanol business in Indonesia. While the business environment remains challenging, cumulative earnings and improvements of individual businesses and stronger-than-expected market conditions for methanol has prompted us to upward revise this time by 1 billion yen. For aerospace and transportation project, the forecast has also been upward revised based on progress made so far. Slide 13 shows the status of cash flow management for FY 2023 and MTP 2023. are expected to total 450 billion yen during the MTP 2023 period. This is about 50 billion yen short of what was planned at the beginning of this financial year, mainly because some of the anticipated projects have been pushed back to next year or later. For core cash flow, we are expecting a significant net inflow on a six-year aggregated basis, including both MTP 2020 and 2023. Under disciplined cash management, we are steadily building up new investments for future growth, mainly in the focus areas that form the pillars of the growth strategy under MTP 2023. Please refer to slide 14 for the status of new investments and asset replacement up to Q3. Slide 15 shows returns from investments made under MTP 2017, 2020, and 2023. Returns from the previous two MTPs have steadily contributed to earnings, although there is some variation from year to year due to timings of monetization. Returns from investment during MTP 2023 may appear rather small to date. The three-year average ROI is around 3%. This is short of the approximately 4% planned when we formulated the MTP, partly because there's relatively more investment executed in the final year, but we have surely been building up businesses and investments for future growth. Slide 16 describes shareholder returns. For the current financial year ending March, based on our policy of a minimum dividend of 130 yen per share and a consolidated payout ratio of about 30%, and given the upward revision of the full year forecast, we have accordingly revised the annual dividend forecast from 130 yen per share to 135 yen per share for a consolidated payout ratio of 30.2%. In the first half of FY 2023, we conducted a buyback of 9.79 million shares worth 30 billion yen and retired approximately 25.3 million shares. With regard to remaining slides, slide 17 summarizes stock price, PBR, and credit rating. Slide 18 shows latest commodity prices, foreign exchange, and interest rates together with our assumptions for Q4. Slide 19 shows earnings trends separated by resource and non-resource businesses. Slides 21 and onward show detailed segment information. Slide 36 has supplemental information on shareholder returns in relation to the release on the next MTP made at the end of November. Starting from slide 37, we present recent topics and further supplemental data from slide 42, all for your information. Just to recap, we have revised our full-year profit forecast upward to 100 billion yen. At the end of November, we released the outline of the next MTP, under which we will aim for an average net profit of over 120 billion yen over the next three years. The 100 billion yen mark is, for us, a springboard for further growth. Market conditions, foreign exchange rates, and other factors at the time may affect our business performance. Nevertheless, we hope to demonstrate this year, the final year of MTP 2023, that we are a company capable of continuously generating triple-digit billion yen earnings. We will continue efforts in the remaining two months so as to get PBR above 1x and raise the level of expectations and confidence in our next MTP. This concludes my presentation. Thank you very much for your kind attention.