Lion Corporation (4912) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

I am Fukuda. Thank you very much for your participation in large numbers, despite your busy schedule. I appreciate your consistent support for the company. This is today's agenda, which consists of 4 points. Without further ado, I'll explain the consolidated financial results for the first 9 months. In this Q3, following the first half, sales and profit grew year-on-year and steadily progressed towards achieving the full year target. Key points are described at the top. The main issue in the first year of the midterm plan, profitability improvement continue to progress steadily. Additional top line growth momentum is accelerating with the launch of new products in July to September quarter. Overseas, amid the increasingly tough business environment in major countries, we fine-tuned strategy towards profitable growth. Today, I'd like to touch upon the mid- to long-term initiatives at the end. In consolidated financial results, net sales in 3 quarters were JPY 304.9 billion, up 1.3% year-on-year. Against net sales growth of 0.4% in the first half, Q3 growth was 2.9%, showing the improved growth in sales. Core operating income was JPY 22.3 billion, up approximately JPY 3.7 billion year-on-year. Operating profit increased substantially pushed up by the gain on step acquisition along with the consolidation of our Vietnam local company into a wholly-owned subsidiary and profit attributable to owners of parents also grew by 64.3%. EBITDA was JPY 35.5 billion, up JPY 3 billion year-on-year. EBITDA margin to sales increased 0.9 percentage points to 11.7%. Year-on-year changes in core operating income. Blue arrow shows gross profit factors plus JPY 1.5 billion, and orange arrows shows SG&A factors, plus JPY 2.1 billion. Each factor shows numbers in parenthesis and this is a change in July to September quarter. In gross profit factors, shift to higher added value products, upward price revisions had plus JPY 2.3 billion impact. In addition to cost reduction to respond to raw material price inflation and cost pass-through, shift to high added value products contributed to improved profitability. In SG&A, as you can see, decrease in competition related expenses was a substantial factor in boosting profit. As I explained in the Q1 and the Q2 briefings, this is never a cost cut to generate short-term profit. We review the cost, which tend to increase to secure sales volume and improved efficiency. In Q3, we increased advertisement compared to Q2 in Japan, but controlled sales promotion cost partially overseas, which did not lead to sales increases. As a result, cost decreased by JPY 0.5 billion in Q3. I'll explain results by business segment. In Consumer Products segment, in addition to sales increases, profit substantially increased by 32% due to the mix increase of high value added products and effects of profit structure reform. I will explain sales trend by segment in the next slide in detail. In Industrial Products segment, up to Q2, sales increased, but profit decreased, but backed by the recovery in Chemicals segment, it turned into sales and profit growth. In Overseas segment, despite the recent slowdown in growth rate, the sales and profit of the entire segment continued to increase due to the addition of our subsidiary in Vietnam. This slide shows net sales by product category in Japan. In oral health care, in the top column, sales increased 4.6% due to the contribution of the launch of high value-added products in Q3 and continued robust sales of products sold through the dental clinics. In Fabric Care, sales in 9 months were negative year-on-year. But in Q3, sales turned to positive growth due to the contribution by the revamp of laundry detergent in September. As a result, real change, excluding the impact of brand transfers was plus 2.4%. This is for more detailed information, showing changes in January to June and July to September separately. In oral health care, where we launched new products in September, sales increased by 8.2% in Q3 with a contribution of shipment upon the launch, but the further shift to high value-added products at the over-the-counter sales expected going forward. Fabric Care turned to sales increase in Q3. So sales continued to decrease in the first half due to initiatives to improve profitability through price competition control and price adjustment. Next, I'll explain overseas business results by region. In Southeast and South Asia, sales and profit increased year-on-year and operating income margin increased 1.3 percentage points despite sluggish business in Thailand, due to the political situation deterioration with neighboring countries from July to September. Business performed well in Malaysia and the consolidation of a highly profitable subsidiary in Vietnam also contributed. On the other hand, in Northeast Asia, sales and profit decreased in key countries of China and South Korea, and we are proceeding with the strategic transformation. I will elaborate on this later. Status of business in 4 key countries. As I already covered this, let me skip the explanation. Next, for the current ongoing initiatives, I'll talk about key measures. First, this is about the profit structure reforms in Japan. I have been talking about the steady progress of the structural reform before and the progress in KPIs are listed here. Upward price revisions and shift to high value-added products resulted in JPY 2.3 billion, and SKU reduction is almost in line with the annual target in terms of improvement in efficiency. Competition-related expenses almost fell to the midterm plan target compared to FY 2023 as we optimize the sales promotion cost, which has expanded to respond to price competition for a long period. Going forward, while we continue to improve efficiency, we will create a cycle of proactive growth investment in the necessary brands and areas in high value-added products. As a first step of the products for forecast investment, we launched new products in Q3 onward, and they were off to a good start. In oral health care segment, we launched the toothpaste of highest price point and its initial shipment was 1.5x higher than our plan. And we confirmed it captured inbound demand as well. It has proven to be successful launch in store sales. In Q4, as shown in the bottom right part, we launched new toothpaste with new technologies to control microflora for dental clinic route to accelerate the growth of this entire segment. In Fabric Care segment, sales of NANOX one, which was revamped in Q3, increased substantially. In-store turnover has been robust, and it was reported that in some retail chains, its point of sales results exceeded those of competitors. In October, we revamped Aroma Rich, updating communications, hiring new talent and promoting the advertising investment, much higher than the level in the previous year. Next, I will explain the overseas business with conditions of key countries and fine-tuning of strategies. Let me start with Southeast Asia, beginning from Malaysia on the right. Favorable performance continued there. Local brand in oral health care has been making firm progress. And in fabric detergent, which has been challenging for long, liquid laundry detergent continued to increase sales, sustaining robustness. In Thailand, shown on the left, mainstay fabric detergent suffered temporarily by the geopolitical conditions deterioration in neighboring countries. Personal care category, including body soap and oral health care products continue to grow. We are strengthening oral health care strategy, our focused area in particular. Let me elaborate on the next slide. In Thailand, resources have tended to be concentrated too much on laundry detergents, which have a strong market position. But in response to the recent situation, we have begun to strengthen our oral health care business. We are actually reevaluating our brands and redesigning and promoting sales strategies for each brand according to its role and target as well as strength, segregation of distribution areas, business categories, prices and others. We'll share the strategies and goals with our joint venture partner distributors and develop detailed marketing activities, for example, to promote the traditional trade in rural areas and to increase the distribution rate of this brand to urban convenience stores. Next is the situation in the Northeast Asia. On the right, South Korea. Although affected by the decline in exports to neighboring countries, there are signs of recovery in recent months. In South Korea, hand soaps and capsule detergents are performing well, and we will strive to develop capsule detergents and other products in addition to recovering our export business. China on the left. As the economy stagnates, prices are polarizing and down trading is progressing and prices of our mainstay mid-priced White&White products have fallen sharply, leading us to shift our strategy to cultivate brands in the higher price range area. Allow me to add more information about China. As for White&White, there is a balance with the facility in operation, and our policy is to maintain this balance while ensuring operations without pursuing excessive sales. At the same time, we are building on this White&White handling in order to cultivate higher-priced brands such as CLINICA, SYSTEMA and DENT. This year, we are developing and launching new products by utilizing our research institutes in Shanghai, and we are intensively managing the distribution of these high-priced brands to nurture them. We have been focusing upon double-digit growth in our China business, but we have decided that it is not advisable to pursue volume any further, and we are now sharing the business toward renewed growth while raising margins. Next, I would like to discuss this year's full year forecast. The annual consolidated earnings forecast remains unchanged from the beginning of the year. Although the overseas business environment remains challenging, we will continue to flexibly invest expenses in growth in Q4 in order to cover our overall expenses and achieve our annual goals announced. Finally, I would like to share with you my perception of the current situation from a mid- to long-term perspective and then discuss the progress we have made in planting the seeds for growth in the next fiscal year and beyond. There are 3 major issues to be addressed in the current medium-term management plan, namely strengthening profitability. First, in this fiscal year, we have focused upon reforming the profit structure of our domestic general consumer goods business. We believe that we have achieved some success in this area, and we will accelerate this process from next year onward. On the other hand, from the viewpoint of restoring growth potential, we also began investing in focused growth in Japan in the second half of this fiscal year. On the other hand, we believe that the macro environment overseas has changed since the start of the medium-term management plan. As for tuning our strategy for existing countries, as I explained this point earlier, we believe it is going to be important for us to ensure the growth for the next year in the new countries of Vietnam, Bangladesh, where we entered in the first stage. In terms of management-based reforms in the bottom, we have been working to strengthen governance this year. And from next year onward, we intend to make major changes to our internal management processes and systems in order to accelerate the promotion of our strategies. I would like to explain about these reforms, especially in the areas of overseas operations and management-based reforms. I will explain the specific future initiatives in Vietnam and Bangladesh overseas. For Vietnam, it is a company with a profitable business model based on expert recommendations with a focus on the pharmaceuticals. Now that it has become a wholly owned subsidiary, we intend to expand our business by adding our personal care in the field to this model. Specifically, the company has already introduced a skin care brand this year, which intends to be nurtured. Next year, we are planning to enter the market for high-performance oral health care. We'd like to apply the customer relationship management we have developed for dental clinics in Japan to Vietnam and China and expand our business while maintaining high profitability. We believe that Vietnam has the potential to become a model case for the pharmaceutical business throughout Asia in the future as well as a base for supplying products. We intend to expand our business model, which is one of our strengths. Bangladesh, on the other hand, after investing in the company, we have started a small-scale production of kitchen detergent and tooth brushes on an outsourced basis. And this year, the factory under construction will be completed. We would like to take this opportunity to expand and improve our sales structure and channels and move into full-scale business expansion next year. In addition, Bangladesh has a young population, and we are planning to develop the KODOMO brand, which has been deployed mainly in Southeast Asia for the baby care market, which has growth potential. In addition to these 2 countries, we are also in the process of starting the incorporation of new resources and the reorganization of our portfolio. And we believe that next year will be the climax of our medium-term business plan in terms of growth. In order to speed up the implementation of this growth strategy, we plan to make major changes to our internal management processes and structures starting next year. Until now, we have had a parallel organization of functional divisions in which organizations by the function worked together in order to promote the overall business. But it is taking too much time in order to respond to issues and changes in the circumstances and the responsibilities and authority tend to be unclear. In order to speed up our business and strengthen our ability to execute, we would like to switch from an organizational structure based on horizontal functional headquarters to a vertical structure based on value chain starting next year. And we will broadly transfer authority to the top management of the business. We'd like to speed up the process by simplifying the reporting line and utilizing DX in order to increase our commitment to our goals. We plan to announce the specific details of the reorganization at the end of this month. In addition to achieving the current annual performance goals, we will plant seeds and make preparations for the second half of the midterm business plan, and we will bring the results of these efforts to fruition in the next fiscal year and beyond. That's all for my presentation. Thank you indeed for your kind attention.

Now we will take questions. Ms. Kuwahara, over to you.

This is Kuwahara from JPMorgan Securities. Let me ask 2 questions. I refer to Page 6 for core operating income changes in 3 quarters. Thank you for disclosing 3 months numbers as well, which are very useful. You said earlier that you'll be able to achieve the full year target as a whole. But would you comment on the plus and minus factors, if any? Shift to high added value products and upward price revisions impact was JPY 1 billion in Q3, then it will be JPY 1.2 billion in Q4. You said that you have upward price revision in mid-priced products in oral health care in Q4. So please let me know the colors and the response. And next year and beyond, with cost increases of many items, will consumers be able to accept price revisions? Do you have any strategies for this or anything you have to revisit? Let me know the price strategy for next year, please.

Thank you. Yes, there are some plus and minus compared to our initial forecast. Overseas volume impact might be slightly smaller than our plan. And that will be offset by the adjustment of SG&A, and we'd like to achieve the target at least. Regarding shift to higher added value products and upward price revisions, toothpaste in the mid-price range was slightly short of the target. But up to the Q3, we have been taking the initiatives for cost pass-through to price. And we expect that the effects will be materialized in Q4 or beyond. So we think we'll be able to achieve the full year target. Regarding the price hike in the next year and beyond, we assume that raw material cost inflation will continue by 1% or 2% per year going forward. And we will offset this by cost reduction and cost pass-through to prices. For the improvement of profitability, we will shift to high-end products to add value. And this is our basic policy.

Understood. It seems that I have asked 2 questions. So let me ask a follow-up question. Overseas business has some uncertainties for growth, but you're going to offset by cost management, and we'll achieve the target. Looking at the next year and beyond, you said earlier that you are making investment for growth in Japan. So can we take that you'll be in the phase to accelerate the profit improvement and growth in Japan?

Exactly. It is getting difficult to expect high growth in overseas business as a whole. So we'd like to develop with a policy of profitable growth. While in Japan, competition-related expenses almost came to the level of the target in the midterm plan. So as a basic policy, we will continue to improve the efficiency of sales promotion cost and earnings generated will be spent on the investment for advertisement and growth.

Next, Mr. Hirozumi, over to you.

This is Hirozumi from Daiwa Securities. First question is about the overseas business. Numbers of overseas business last year were restated. So it is hard to understand the numbers and the growth. Profit in overseas business for 3 months is JPY 2.4 billion. Am I correct? That is up by 30%. Is that correct? Sales are JPY 40.3 billion, up by 3% and the core operating income is JPY 2.4 billion, up by 30%. How do you assess this? For example, profitability of 6% looks good at a glance, but there were changes in strategy and sales in China might have been weak. So let me know how I should see overseas business. Relating to this, I'd like to know the level of full year profit of overseas business. This is my first question.

It may be a qualitative comment, but I do not think that profitability is sufficient. If we stick to growth, it might lead to profitability risk. So we are fine-tuning strategies to sustain or increase profitability. And Vietnam business is highly profitable by its business mix or segment mix. So by promoting the business, we make the profitability of overseas business close to that of business in Japan.

Numbers of last year were restated, right? Based on the previous numbers, core operating income of overseas business was JPY 10.2 billion. Core operating income of the overseas business for the full year in the last year was JPY 6.5 billion. According to the [ Tai Shing ] earnings report, it was originally JPY 10.1 billion. This is before the segment change, before segment change, right? So this year, based on the momentum up to Q3, can we expect it to be over JPY 65 billion? It will exceed JPY 6.5 billion.

As we expect the profit growth year-on-year in Q4 as well, the range of profit growth will be sustained.

I see. In overseas business, with change in strategies as happened in the first half and this time, there were points which were not described in the midterm plan. So how shall we expect to see in the overseas business? We may expect the contribution by Vietnam or China may decline. So what expectations and concerns shall we have in overseas business?

Rather than business scale expansion through quantitative expansion and profit growth, we will achieve a little conservative growth with improved profitability. That said, we are considering additional measures consistently. We are exploring opportunities to expand into other businesses in Vietnam and expanding into other countries. So when we disclose them, you know that we will fill the gap.

Allow me to ask another follow-up question. I'm considering 4 key countries in Thailand, Malaysia, China and South Korea. Are the growth in sales below your expectation?

Correct.

Do you catch up in terms of profit?

Yes. As we shifted to policy, not to excessively pursue sales, we are catching up in profit.

I see. Second question, this is my last question. When management execution changes, what will change? I refer to Page 24 with a qualitative description. With this change, what will be visible for us?

Well, if we try to talk about the specific numbers, this can be helped to be qualitative description. As the President Takemori has been saying since his appointment as a President to become the company that proactively moves and to make it happen, we are trying to change authority process and the system for decision-making in the company.

Do you mean that it will improve results?

Of course. We are aiming for it.

As you announced this month, I'm looking forward to it.

Ms. Kawamoto, over to you.

This is Kawamoto of Jefferies Securities. I also would like to ask about overseas business. Let me know the growth rate in local currency base for 3 months in Q3. And is the contribution by Vietnam included in Southeast Asia? I referred to the 3 months overseas business results in the appendix, showing Southeast Asia breakdown. How much was the Vietnam contribution in this? And I'd like to know how will it develop in the next year and beyond as well as its position in the market.

We are not disclosing information by country. But Malaysia sales grew close to 10% However, sales in Thailand, China and South Korea decreased in Q3. Vietnam is included in Southeast and South Asia.

I see. How was the magnitude of decline in Thailand, China and South Korea? Were they single digit or double digit?

In Thailand and China, sales decreased by about 10%, roughly speaking. In South Korea, they dropped about 5%.

I see. You explained many initiatives. But according to the numbers in Q3, the effects are not clearly seen yet. Looking at the page of the market trend in latter part, in Thailand, laundry detergent year-on-year plus is sustained. So how should we see the gap? How can I expect for the Q4?

In the short run, recovery in sales will be rather difficult to achieve. So we will strive to secure profit in Thailand, China and South Korea. We began to see the sign of recovery in South Korea and expect to see recovery in Q4. In Thailand, we will not pursue laundry detergent much. But as I said earlier, we'd like to work on oral health care again to secure profit.

Understood. Talking about the sustainability of margin in overseas business. Margin in Q3 in overseas business was 5.3%. So to which level, how and when are you going to increase margin? Please share with us some specific initiatives to raise margin.

Are you talking about the medium-term measures? Well, next year, we continue the strategy to pursue profit, net sales. Next year and 2 years from now, we'd like to achieve higher profit growth than sales growth in overseas business as well. So we are fine-tuning our strategy to increase profit.

Next, Mr. Miyazaki, over to you.

This is Miyazaki from Goldman Sachs. First, I have a question on Page 6. What is prominent in 3 months is plus JPY 0.6 billion in quantitative effects, product mix and others and minus JPY 1.2 billion in changes in other expenses. Did oral care contribute to quantitative effects? And in changes in other expenses, what changed in Q3 compared to the first half? First, please let me know these points.

The increase and decrease in sales and about half of the increase and decrease in SG&A and other expenses in the July through September period are attributable to the Vietnam operations. Again, the increase in the gross profit will be due to the addition of sales in Vietnam and an increase in SG&A expenses in Vietnam. Yes, there are other factors. I said about 1/2. But actually, it is bigger than JPY 600 million when it comes to actually the number in the gross profit in Vietnam.

I understood. So with this new pharmaceutical plant is completed, cost and other actually details will not be much reflected in this graph. It is actually minus JPY 6 million of this -- the quantitative effect, completion change and others. It also includes in part an increase in the depreciation of the Odawara Pharmaceutical plant. That's the second place from the left, right?

Yes. The amortization amount is still just because just a portion of the facilities became operational in September.

I see. Now understood. Also, the second point is concerning the pharmaceuticals again. One thing I would like to know is what was the inbound numbers? Also, I don't think sales of the pharmaceuticals will increase because of the start-up of this new plant. But looking just at Q3, I still think revenue has been declining, if I'm not wrong. Could you tell me how you are going to actually address this situation, please? As for inbound situations, we estimate that the profit was JPY 1.9 billion during the period from July through September. And therefore, we estimate JPY 5.5 billion for January through September. Last year, we told you that the annual amount was JPY 7 billion. So yes, JPY 7 billion. So we think the annual amount will be slightly higher than that. If I may, pharmaceuticals still probably around 5%. If you look at Q3, I think revenue is down. Can you give us some background on this and whether it will increase for the next fiscal year or not?

The pharmaceutical is the most generic type of BUFFERIN analgesic antipyretic. We revised the price of BUFFERIN A. We had a very large rebate portion. So we revised the deal and lowered the shipping amount. We've reduced our shipment volume and cut back on rebates. And accordingly, it amounted to a price increase. A slight decline in volume, combined with lower unit shipment prices has resulted in a decline sales. Overall, we believe we can make a full circle next year by shifting sales to premium items.

Next, I'd like to have Ms. Miyasako, please.

Yes. This is Miyasako from Mizuho Securities. My first question, I would like to ask about the new products. On Slide 14, I think you mentioned earlier that the storefronts are doing okay or doing well. But I wonder if the new products in Q4 are also included in Q3 as initial shipments.

As you see here, the new products actually were launched on September 24. So this point in mind, may I remind you that Q3 figures just include the very first shipments.

You're talking about new products in the Q4, right?

Well, may I remind again that the new products of Q4 are going to be in Q4. They are not part of the Q3 numbers.

I see. Then the numbers for Q3 where toothpaste was good and also the fact that it seems to have come back, except for the pharmaceuticals. Is this something that is going to likely to continue in Q4 based on the current situations in the stores? This new drug product rather had a good response in the second half of the year. Can you actually expand on the balance between profit and the sales domestic market?

Regarding new oral health care products, since these are not improvements, but new launches, with this point in mind, the first shipment will be stocked by wholesalers and distributors. So the first shipment will be very large. So this is going to be a very high growth rate. That's in the background. However, since the turnover at the stores after delivery is also higher than we had expected, we expect that sales for the fourth quarter will also be driven.

You mentioned that NANOX was also good in some places, the stations and the stores.

Actually, overall performance was good. And even though actually compared with the major competitors, actually, we enjoyed a higher performance.

Well, this is a part of spot information we have received.

Well, actually, we have launched NANOX one standard. And this has been actually replaced with the cleaning power plus that you are now seeing. So this is giving us a favorable results.

I see. Then I guess the overall new products are getting a pretty good response?

What you said is right. We believe that the issue here is going to be how we can actually maintain this kind of situation in terms of investment and nurturing these products. This is going to be a quite important issue for us to keep an eye on.

How much of the initial shipment of toothpaste should be in Q3?

Probably, I would say perhaps 3% to 4% of the 8.2% July through September Y-o-Y ratio. That's the assumption we are making now.

I see. Yes, I understood. As for the next year, can we expect that attractive new products will be launched starting from the first half, and that will be continuing into the second half?

Yes, that is going to be our intention. Please stay tuned.

I have a question concerning overseas operations. You're talking about the margin improvement, including China. You seem to be trying new initiatives. Could you expand on the specific ways how you're planning to increase the margin? Without Vietnam for this fourth quarter, actually, the margin probably will not come up, improve. How do you feel about it?

Well, you're right. The overall margin will increase simply because of the addition of Vietnam, but we would like to increase the overall margin by simply selling products with higher gross margin in China and elsewhere. So this is going to be one of the ideas why and how we'd like to actually increase the overall margin. At one time, we were diversifying our oral business to include detergents and pet care products in addition to oral health care products. But we decided to discontinue such unprofitable products and concentrate on sales promotion of high-margin products while ensuring overall profitability.

Does that mean that you don't have to spend that much money in order to sell something with high margin?

Well, let me put this way. We expect to spend a certain amount of money on sales promotions and storefront merchandising. But since we are focusing on products with low cost pricing ratio, we believe we can secure a higher overall margin than we have in the past.

Now I would like to have Mr. Yamanaka.

This is Yamanaka from SMBC Nikko Securities. I would like to ask you actually, in a nutshell, about JPY 1.7 billion in terms of the business, the profit in the first half and actually JPY 2 billion just limited to the second quarter. But on the cumulative basis for the Q3, what is the progress you're making in terms of profit and also vis-a-vis the midterm business plan compared with actually the first half, are you making progress? Or are you behind in the schedule? You don't have to give me a quantitative explanation.

Yes, actually, we are making actually a profit up until the second quarter. And with that point in mind, actually, we have become quite aggressive in making advance investments in the third quarter. With that, I think we are in line with our expectations in terms of profit.

How about vis-a-vis the midterm business plan?

Well, here an uptick is going to be the efficiency of the sales promotion expenses. I think we are making much more progress than we had expected. So with this point in mind, actually, advertisement and others, investments actually are going to be further added. I think we are having more capacity moving into that direction. In regard to the existing business, I think we are actually in line with our plans.

In regard to the fabric new products, you try to reduce the investment, but still you enjoyed really good results. What's the difference between what you have done here and also the activities in the past?

Well, actually, we try to reduce the unprofitable SKUs and also the general purpose products and actual sales try to be reduced as much as possible. And in regard to NANOX one, of course, within our fabric care genre, of course, actually profit level is quite high. So by selling more, we should be able to enjoy more profit. I think we're able to actually create such an overall business structure.

Understood. If I may like to ask the last question. In regard to the value chain aspects, any collaborations among the divisions and also the efforts to try to reduce the indirect cost and also try to manage and reduce the personnel cost, whether or not we can expect to see the improvement in actually reducing the effects on the cost or you keep an eye more on the growth side?

Well, what you said is right. Actually, execution and also our judgment, I think, will be quite important going forward. But so far, for example, R&D and also the production and distribution and others, actually, we had those indirect functions and operations. And actually, we put them actually vertically under the leadership of the business owners. Going through that process on the midterm -- mid- to long-term basis, we should be able to avoid overlap in operations and others. I think we can have such expectation. And going forward, of course, the population is aging. I think it is rather difficult for us to find the right amount of the resources. So I think these efforts are going to be beneficial to us on the midterm and long-term basis.

Time is running out. So this will be the last question. I'd like to ask Ohana-san to raise your questions, please.

This is Ohana from Nomura Securities. Yes, I have one question. The targets of the current midterm plan and actually, looking at the top line overseas, actually, there seems to be some issues and challenges. And with that point in mind, your corporate profit targets, if I'm not wrong, probably you need to actually revise that corporate profit target. Am I right saying that? And also in terms of profitability, I think you keep an eye on a higher level of profitability. So the higher profit is going to help you to make up for whatever the loss you may have. So these are the areas I'd like to ask you to expand upon.

Actually, the 2027 goal, actually 10% overseas growth, I think is going to be one of the challenges we have to address. In regard to the performance and the profit, I think we are right on line. So we would like to make sure that we can actually reach that goal. And in terms of overseas growth and oral health care growth, as I mentioned earlier, we are considering further portfolio changes. And if these are realized, there is going to be a possibility that we'll be able to go even further. If this does not come to fruition, probably we have to make change during and before FY 2027. I think we have to make an adjustment at one point. At any rate, we would like to go for our goal I have just explained.

Understood. Well, you seem to be rather successful in the Japanese market. But when it comes to the overseas markets, compared with the goals of the midterm management plan, if you can grow on the oral side, that is going to actually give you more profit. And with increasing profit, you should be able to actually make up for the loss in sales.

What you said is right. In terms of the organic part, our existing business or current business, what you said is right. We appreciate for the many questions we have received from you. Since we are somewhat behind the schedule, now I would like to conclude Lion Corporation's financial results briefing. Again, I'd like to thank you for your precious time. Thank you. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call]