Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (8031) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon. I'm Tetsuya Shigeta, CFO. Thank you for joining us today. I will begin with an overview of operating results for the first 9 months and full year forecast. I will then hand over to Masao Kurihara, General Manager of the Global Controller Division, who will speak on the results in more detail. Although the global economy recovered gradually during Q3, many uncertainties in the operating environment remain, partially due to the direction of the new U.S. administration's future policies. Even in this environment, Mitsui is strengthening its current earnings base by improving our business portfolio through investments for growth, asset recycling and our middle game initiatives, while at the same time laying the groundwork for future growth. I will provide a summary of operating results for the first 9 months. During the first 9 months, we were able to take advantage of earnings opportunities through our business portfolio, which globally spans a wide range of industries. As a result, core operating cash flow or COCF was JPY 793.5 billion, and profit was JPY 652.2 billion, which progressed in line with our expectations. Based on this progress, there is no change to the COCF forecast of JPY 1 trillion or the profit forecast of JPY 920 billion for the year. In addition, the current share repurchase, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of February, is progressing steadily. I will now move on to the forecast for COCF. In addition to the lower prices for certain commodities, there has been continued uncertainty in the macro environment. Despite this, Mineral & Metal Resources, Energy, Machinery & Infrastructure and Chemicals segments made progress exceeding 80% against their previous forecast. And as a whole, we expect to reach JPY 1 trillion. Regarding profit, against the backdrop of good performance in the Mineral & Metal Resources, Machinery & Infrastructure segments, progress was steady overall. There is no change to the previous forecast of JPY 920 billion as we expect gains on asset sales in the Chemicals and Lifestyle segments in Q4 as well as profit in Energy due to seasonal factors. In this section, I will discuss cash flow allocation for the first 9 months. Cash inflows for the period was JPY 1,260 billion, comprising COCF of JPY 794 billion and asset recycling of JPY 466 billion, which includes several large-scale deals. Cash inflows from asset recycling in FY March 2025 is expected to be similar in scale to that of FY March 2024 in the region of JPY 500 billion. Cash outflows was JPY 1.011 billion, comprising investments and loans of JPY 537 billion and shareholder returns of JPY 474 billion. In line with the key strategic initiatives set forth in the medium-term management plan, we are making steady progress in enhancing base profit through new projects as we continue to carefully select investments, balancing between near-term earnings contribution and building our long-term earnings base. Since the Q2 financial results announcement to date, investments have been executed in MTC, a metal recycling business in India; HAVI, a food service logistics business in Japan, which we have recently renamed Mitsui & Company Supply Chain Solutions; and Sneha, a broiler business in India. We expect these to contribute to earnings starting in either the current or next fiscal year. Also, investments are underway in the Block B gas field in Vietnam, the Tangguh LNG expansion and development project in Indonesia and vertically integrated renewable energy business in the U.S. These investments have a longer time frame, and we expect them to begin contributing to earnings in FY March 2027 onwards. In addition, we're continuously working on scarce large-scale investment opportunities for growth by leveraging our many years of experience and expertise. I will now speak on our shareholder returns policy. There is no change to the shareholder returns policy announced in Q2 of FY March 2025. We'll continue to consider enhancing shareholder returns being mindful of the balance with investments for growth. That completes my part of the presentation today. I will now hand over to the General Manager of the Global Controller Division, Masao Kurihara, for details of our financials.

I am Masao Kurihara, General Manager of the Global Controller Division. I will now provide details of our operating results for the first 9 months. First, I will explain the main changes in COCF by segment compared to the previous period. COCF for the first 9 months was JPY 793.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of JPY 24.4 billion. In Mineral & Metal Resources, COCF decreased by JPY 26.5 billion to JPY 284.8 billion, mainly due to lower iron ore and metallurgical coal prices. In Energy, COCF increased by JPY 109.7 billion to JPY 277.8 billion, mainly due to LNG-related business. In Machinery & Infrastructure, COCF decreased by JPY 31.6 billion to JPY 115.5 billion, mainly due to a consolidated subsidiary becoming an equity method investee, and an increase in taxes and lower dividend income due to asset sales. In Chemicals, COCF increased by JPY 24.3 billion to JPY 70.2 billion, mainly due to good performance in production and trading. In Iron & Steel Products, COCF increased by JPY 0.6 billion to JPY 4.4 billion. In Lifestyle, COCF decreased by JPY 20.8 billion to JPY 28.8 billion, mainly due to lower dividends from equity method investees. In Innovation and Corporate Development, COCF decreased by JPY 6.6 billion to JPY 18.6 billion, mainly due to an increase in taxes related to asset sales. In others, COCF decreased by JPY 24.7 billion to minus JPY 6.6 billion, mainly due to an increase on tax burden. I will now explain the main changes in profit by segment compared to the previous period. Profit for the first 9 months decreased by JPY 74.2 billion to JPY 652.2 billion. In Mineral & Metal Resources, profit decreased by JPY 12.9 billion to JPY 229.2 billion, mainly due to lower iron ore and metallurgical coal prices. In Energy, profit increased by JPY 28.1 billion to JPY 123.9 billion, mainly due to LNG-related business. In Machinery & Infrastructure, profit decreased by JPY 24.2 billion to JPY 186 billion, mainly due to a decrease in profits in the automotives and lower profit from asset sales. In Chemicals, profit increased by JPY 3.2 billion to JPY 40.3 billion, mainly due to the good performance in production and trading despite the absence of gains on asset sales in the previous period. In Iron & Steel Products, profits increased by JPY 1.4 billion to JPY 8.9 billion. In Lifestyle, profit decreased by JPY 53.2 billion to JPY 32.3 billion, mainly due to the absence of valuation gain on AIM Services recorded in the previous period and the decrease in profit in coffee trading. In the Innovation and Corporate Development segment, profit increased by JPY 30.1 billion to JPY 76.1 billion, mainly due to the sale of rental property in Japan. In others, profits decreased by JPY 46.7 billion to a loss of JPY 35.5 billion, mainly due to an amendment to the retirement benefit system. This page shows the main factors influencing year-on-year changes in profit. For base profit, despite higher profit from LNG-related business and chemicals as well as earnings contribution from new businesses, there was an absence of an additional dividend from Vale, and lower profit in Penske Truck Leasing and coffee trading, leading to an overall decrease of JPY 14 billion. In resources cost volume, while increased volumes of iron ore, crude oil and gas contributed to higher profits, there was a net profit decrease of JPY 3 billion, mainly due to higher costs. In asset recycling, there was an increase of JPY 1 billion, mainly due to gains from the sale of Paiton and rental property. In commodity prices and ForEx, due to lower commodity prices, profit fell in total by JPY 39 billion, consisting of JPY 30 billion for iron ore and JPY 30 billion for metallurgical coal. For ForEx, profit increased by JPY 38 billion, mainly due to the weaker yen. In valuation gains, losses, onetime factors, there was a decrease of JPY 57 billion, mainly due to an amendment to the retirement benefit system and the impairment of mainstream. Here, we have a comparison of full year forecast against the previous forecast with a summary of the factors involved. Although base profit is expected to decrease in coffee trading and iron and steel products, LNG-related businesses and other areas are expected to increase, leading to a forecasted decrease of JPY 2 billion, which is essentially flat. Resources cost volume is expected to result in an increase of JPY 4 billion, mainly due to cost improvements in the upstream energy business. Asset recycling is expected to increase by JPY 15 billion due to plans for sale of some assets in Q4. Commodity prices and ForEx are expected to result in an increase of JPY 18 billion, mainly due to impact of weaker Australian dollar against the U.S. dollar. Valuation gains, losses and onetime factors are expected to result in a decrease of JPY 35 billion, mainly due to the impairment of mainstream and other energy-related factors. Looking at the balance sheet compared to the end of March 2024, net interest-bearing debt increased by JPY 0.1 trillion to JPY 3.5 trillion. Meanwhile, shareholder equity increased by JPY 0.1 trillion to JPY 7.6 trillion. As a result, net D/E ratio is 0.46x. That concludes my presentation. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]