Dai-ichi Life Holdings, Inc. (8750) Q3 FY2026 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you very much for coming to this conference call. And I'd like to take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt welcome and appreciation for your continued support. And also regarding the issue of information takeout in our group company, we extend our apology to all parties who cause troubles and concerns. We will go all the way to recover our trust by implementing preventative measures. So based on the third quarter earnings, I would like to give you some overview. Please go to Page 3. There are 3 main pillars. The first, regarding the group adjusted profit. The group adjusted profit for the third quarter is JPY 422.2 billion. The achievement ratio for full year plan is 90%. Dai-ichi Life's income from interest and dividend was more than we expected. Second, the ESR as of the end of December is about 213%. Because of the higher yen rate, the mass lapse risk increased; however, that was actually offset by the domestic equity appreciation. So 3% point increase compared to the end of the previous year. Now upward revision of the full year forecast. Mainly in Dai-ichi Life and PLC Protective, the profit is increasing more than we expected. So full year group adjusted profit forecast was raised to JPY 500 billion, which is record high and DPS was raised to JPY 52, which is JPY 1 up. Now this is about progress of each business. For domestic business, achievement ratio is 85%, which is quite high. At Dai-ichi Life, income from interest and dividend, mainly from alternative assets, was more than we expected. At Dai-ichi Frontier, the progress rate is 60%, obviously, a little bit lower. However, this is because of the change of the regulation and the reversal of reverse in fourth quarter is expected. Regarding international business, achievement ratio is 81%. Protective is increasing the profit more than planned. [indiscernible] claim increase was offset by onetime profit. So that is actually in line with our plan. Regarding the Vietnam, based on the current bancassurance environment relating to exclusive fee for bancassurance, we recognized the impairment of JPY 8 billion at the third quarter, and that is the impairment of the asset incurred as advanced expenditure. For Canyon Partners, the performance fee was actually lower than expected, so it's actually below the plan. Please go to the next page. This is the adjusted profit vis-a-vis same period of last year. Well, compared to previous year, 17% increase. So this is the record high as of third quarter. The main driver was Dai-ichi Life and Protective. Please go to Page 7. So this is about higher yen rate impact on our company. With higher yen rate at Dai-ichi Life, the portfolio yield improved due to rebalancing. To be more specific, by rebalancing operation in this term, for total of this and next fiscal year's contribution, it's about JPY 224 billion, the positive spread increase is expected. In Dai-ichi Life's yen fixed income portfolio, we proactively do rebalancing. In terms of dollar duration ratio, as of the end of December, that is actually 91%, which is well controlled. With higher rate, lapse in yen, lump-sum products without NPA might actually increase, and we are closely monitoring the situation. However, lapse increase is quite limited. So overall lapse, including protection product, is flat. The details are described on Page 20, 25 for your reference. Regarding EV, because of the yield curve steepening, it increased. ESR saw mass lapse risk increase. However, that is offset by increased capital. Please go to the next page. This is a Japanese equity sale update. With stock price appreciation as of second quarter, we actually increased the sale amount to JPY 700 billion. Even after November, stock price continued surging. So the balance as of the end of December is JPY 3.5 trillion, which is higher than March. Because of the increase in market value, this fiscal year's sale amount will be JPY 800 billion. Depending on the stock price in the future, fiscal year-end balance might be actually higher than previous year. But in that case, that will be reflected in fiscal year 2026 sales plan, and we will sell in accelerated manner. Our goal is JPY 2.8 trillion by the end of fiscal year 2026. And next fiscal year's sales plan will be in line with this fiscal year. Please go to the next page. Now this is about a positive spread outlook. We had some updates from previous time. We rebalanced JPY 200 billion more, improving positive spread by JPY 24 billion. So with the continued rebalancing, we are going to consistently improve positive spread. Regarding Dai-ichi Life's policy reserve matching bond, we have ample room as of today before reaching impairment line, which requires us to hold them until maturity. Next page. This is a status of duration matching, and this is about the change of duration calculation definition. Dai-ichi Life's liability duration due to curve changes and the time effect is constantly changing. Therefore, most of the assets are held as reserve matching bond, thus controlling dollar duration ratio. We did rebalancing of the bond in the third quarter, matching ratio as a result went down to 90%. We'd like to keep it 100% or less. The asset duration that we disclosed before was calculated by duration averaging by each asset. So that was actually a convenient method for disclosure, but this is very important benchmark and investors are paying attention to that. And based on this important benchmark, we would like to keep controlling dollar duration ratio within 100%. So we now calculate duration based on asset cash flow based on ESR. And after change in the method, dollar duration ratio as of the end of September 2025, 99% compared to 104% under previous method. So both numbers aren't actually disclosed in the materials. But after fourth quarter, new definition-based duration will be disclosed. So please go to Page 11. This is about upward revision of full year outlook. So in each entity, the profit is steadily growing. And based on the economic environment, our forecast for this fiscal year was raised to JPY 500 billion. And accordingly, dividend per share, DPS, will be JPY 52, which is JPY 1 up. And our intention to raise payout ratio, which we had mentioned before, considering the 12% of adjusted ROE for next fiscal year, we are going to increase the payout ratio to 50% from fiscal year 2026, and that's the discussion that we are having internally. We pay attention to stock price and interest rates, and we aim at a higher level of profit and return to shareholders. Page 13, value of new business of 3 domestic entities. Compared to the previous year, a 27% increase, and the number is JPY 105 billion. There's not any change in the sales trend of each entity. Progress to full year plan is on track. Please go to the next page. This is about ESR. ESR is 213%. As I said before, well, this is actually positive compared to the last fiscal year. Go to the next page. For the following 2 pages, well, we are actually reducing interest rate risk. And relatively speaking, the FX risk and the credit risk are increasing. As of the end of September, FX risk amount is about 13%. This is actually the second biggest risk category in market risk and that is due to our international business expansion in the last few years. And regarding the current FX risk, about half is related to business investment and the remaining half is due to investment currency, which is different from the insurance liability currency. Regarding the FX risk, we don't take risks for the sake of return. However, as we expand our international business, risk amount will increase. However, the FX sensitivity in terms of the ESR is 0%. So we expect no impact on solvency affected by FX volatility. Regarding FX risk for risk asset management by DL, or considering non-FX risk return, we make appropriate investment decisions. So we are going to appropriately control FX risk amount at the group level. Please go to the next page. This is about credit risks. Well, credit risks compared to the previous disclosure, J-ICS are the standard and categories are adopted since last fiscal year. So the credit risk is outside bucket of market risk. However, as was before, we actually monitor this level, so there won't be any -- or there wasn't any change to the credit risk. About 91% is related to asset management and the 9% is due to the business like reinsurance, the rearrangement. And also about 97% of the portfolio is IG. So this is a quite high-quality portfolio. So we will actually verify the soundness from the credit risk perspective. Page 18. This is about the capital reduction of Dai-ichi Frontier. As you know, with the J-ICS introduction, we expect capital release at DFL and application for the capital reduction to the authority is underway. And we will determine how we treat the reduced capital amount, including the dividend to holdings. Please go to the next page. Well, this is about today's announcement. Today, we announced that our investment into the Infomart. Infomart is a top market share company in digital order management platform for food industry. We integrate their enterprise services to expand our SME client base, including benefit ones so that we can expand our value propositions for small- and medium-sized enterprises. So that's all I have. Thank you very much. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]