Mitsubishi Corporation (8058) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

I am Nakanishi, President and CEO. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule today to join our company's fiscal '23 Q2 results meeting. First, I'll give you an overview of the financial results and also an update on Midterm Corporate Strategy 2024. Then our CFO, Mr. Nouchi will explain the detailed FY '23 Q2 results and the outlook for fiscal year 2023. Now please refer to presentation material Page 3. First, consolidated net income for fiscal year '23 Q2 was JPY 466.1 billion, the second highest ever first half results following the previous fiscal year. Although net income decreased by JPY 253.9 billion year-on-year, mainly due to the drop-off of soaring resource pricing, et cetera, each business steadily accumulated profit, maintaining high levels. Next, I will explain the full year forecast for fiscal year '23. We have revised up the full year forecast from JPY 920 billion announced in May to JPY 950 billion. We are revising up our forecast now, because segments such as natural gas, automotive and mobility, industrial materials and consumer industry are trending steadily. And we have been able to confirm the firmness of profit levels going forward. Moreover, the revised full year forecast includes additional losses from items of concern, which were not anticipated at the beginning of the fiscal year. In light of changes in the business environment, the JPY 900 billion forecast accounts for this item. I will also talk about shareholder return later, but the full year dividend forecast has been increased by JPY 10 per share to JPY 210. Next, I would like to talk about the progress of Midterm Corporate Strategy 2024. Please turn to Page 4, shown on the bottom right. Here is an update on the cash flow allocation plan raised in midterm plan 2024 as of Q2 fiscal '23. Cash inflows during the period amounted to JPY 608.2 billion and underlying operating cash flow and JPY 467.9 billion in divestments. Cash outflows included JPY 434 billion in investments, resulting in adjusted free cash flow of JPY 642.1 billion. As for the cumulative results under midterm plan 2024, underlying operating cash flow was JPY 1.9 trillion, and cash flow from divestments was JPY 1.2 trillion, showing steady progress against the forecast. The cumulative total of investments amounted to JPY 1.3 trillion, which has been return based on what has already been announced. Please turn to Page 5. We created this new page for Midterm Corporate Strategy link the management resources. As announced, we have divested and the company in the Food Industry Group this fiscal year. Through such strategic rebalancing of the business portfolio, we are promoting to reallocate the management resources. Thus, screening the list of businesses where ROIC is underperforming the industry average or those achieving only low growth using our business management systems. The aim is to improve capital efficiency by reducing losses through independent asset replacement and improving the profitability of companies we continue to hold. The profit improvement through these asset replacements and efforts to turn around the EVA of companies we kept to positive was approximately JPY 30 billion in FY '22 compared to FY '21. And we will continue the asset replacement and value enhancement to the business as we keep to increase this amount to roughly JPY 100 billion by FY '24, the final year of the Midterm Corporate Strategy. We will redeploy the management resources generated from executing the value-added cyclical growth model for growth investment to nurture the seat and pillars for further growth. Next, on Page 6, I will provide a breakdown of the investment plan and the progress. We are steadily investing in a variety of opportunities in each of the areas outlined in the midterm plan. We are expanding the investment pipeline as well, and the current Midterm Corporate Strategy calls for an investment of over JPY 3 trillion, including the investments already made. Having said that, the goal is not just about achieving this number, we'll continue to closely monitor the market to carefully select opportunities while maintaining the investment discipline. Please turn to Page 7. Past investments are starting to make steady earnings contributions and the investment pipeline expected to contribute to earnings during the next Midterm Corporate Strategy is also building up. With our eyes on further growth, we will invest in businesses to create future core businesses. Page 8 summarizes the shareholder returns. In light of the upward revision of the full year guidance, expectations for sustainable profit growth in the future and stock market expectations, we are raising our annual dividend guidance by JPY 10 per share to JPY 210 per share. In addition to the dividend hike, we will also implement a stock split as announced today. Mitsubishi Corporation stock has been trading at around JPY 700,000 for the past few months, above the JPY 500,000 mark, which is the level suggested as a desirable investment unit via Tokyo Stock Exchange. With the Japanese government advocating Japan to stand as an asset management nation and setting a policy goal to grow the retail investor base, we believe that we should also play our part in creating a more market-friendly environment. During the conclusion to conduct a 3-for-1 stock split effective January 1, 2024. As a result, the annual dividend of JPY 10 per share will be JPY 70 per share after adjusting for the stock split. This fiscal year is positioned as a year to execute the Midterm Corporate Strategy. We will steadily carry out our growth strategy and implement the value-added cyclical growth model to further enhance our corporate value. The progress against the quantitive target under the midterm strategy is summarized on Page 9. So please refer to the slide at your convening time. We are now happy for the Midterm Corporate Strategy 2024 and are now at the stage of accelerating the execution of investment plans and other measures to achieve our goals. At the same time, we must be fully cognizant of the rising uncertainties in the external environment and will place ourselves in the remaining period under the midterm strategy to strive for our goals. With that, I will end my explanation and hand over to Mr. Nouchi, the CFO, to cover the details of the FY '23 second quarter results and the guidance for the full year. Thank you for your attention.

I am Nouchi, the CFO. I would like to add some comments. I will start with Q2 results by segment. So please turn to Page 11, shown on the bottom right of the page. I will talk about segments that exhibited significant changes on a year-over-year basis. Starting from the top left. Regarding the top, Natural Gas, due to the absence of trading losses in the LNG sales business in the previous year, net income increased by JPY 35 billion from JPY 46.4 billion to JPY 81.4 billion. As for Mineral Resources, the fourth from the top, mainly due to lower prices in the Australian metallurgical coal business, net income decreased by JPY 187.4 billion from JPY 321.5 billion to JPY 134.1 billion year-over-year. Next, on the right-hand side of the slide, the first segment on the top right, Automotive & Mobility decreased by JPY 23.8 billion from JPY 89.4 billion to JPY 65.6 billion year-on-year, mainly due to decreased equity and earnings of Russia-related and ASEAN automobile businesses. The next segment below Food Industry was up by JPY 21.5 billion to JPY 63.6 billion from JPY 42.1 billion year-over-year, mainly due to gains on sales of shares in an affiliated company. In Urban Development, at the very bottom, net income decreased by JPY 102.5 billion from JPY 114.6 billion for the same period of the previous year to JPY 12.1 billion, mainly due to the absence of gains on sales of a property management company recorded in the same period of the previous year and lower equity and earnings in the property business in North America. I'll now explain fiscal year '23 full year forecast by segment. Please turn to Page 12 at the bottom right. As explained by Mr. Nakanishi earlier, we have revised up the initial full year guidance announced in May by JPY 30 billion to JPY 950 billion. 6 out of the 10 segments were revised up. I will focus on the 3 segments with the largest revisions. Starting with Natural Gas at top left. Thanks to the trading profit in the LNG sales business and higher earnings from the LNG-related businesses, we revised up the initial forecast by JPY 24 billion to JPY 170 billion. Below that, in the Industrial Materials segment, earnings from the plastic building materials business in North America increased, leading to an upward revision of JPY 11 billion to JPY 57 billion from the initial forecast. Moving to the top right on the slide, in Automotive & Mobility. Higher earnings from Mitsubishi Motors, among others, led to an upward revision of JPY 18 billion from the initial guidance to JPY 128 billion. Page 13 illustrates reference information, summarizing the assumptions for market conditions. Please have a look at a convenient time. This will conclude my explanation. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]