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

Good afternoon. I am Makoto Tanaka, CFO. Thank you for joining us today. Firstly, we would like to express our deepest condolences to those who lost their lives in the earthquake in Kumamoto and extend our heartfelt sympathies to all those affected by this disaster. At this point, no material impact on the business activities of Mitsui & Co Group has been confirmed. However, we'll continue to closely monitor the situation and assess any damage. We will also consider appropriate support measures and responses going forward. I'll begin by giving a summary of the operating results for the first 3 months. I will then hand over to Masao Kurihara, General Manager of the Global Controller Division, who will speak on the details of the operating results. Let me begin by -- or let me begin with a summary of our financial results for the quarter. Core operating cash flow, COCF, increased by JPY 64.6 billion year-on-year to JPY 280.9 billion, while profit increased by JPY 102.5 billion year-on-year to JPY 294.1 billion. Both posted substantial growth. Profit reached a record high for Q1. Both COCF and profit are progressing at a pace well ahead of our business plan, driven by asset recycling and our middle game initiatives. In light of our strong performance and with the aim of improving capital efficiency and enhancing shareholder returns, we have decided on the share repurchase of JPY 200 billion to be completed by the end of January 2027. To continuously enhance per share value, all shares acquired through this repurchase will be canceled. While closely monitoring development in the Middle East, we'll be revising our full year earnings forecast at an appropriate time based on the high level of progress against our business plan and our forward outlook. Next page. This slide shows the progress of each segment against the business plan. The Innovation & Corporate Development segment made extremely good progress, mainly driven by gains from large-scale asset recycling. The Chemicals segment also made good progress, mainly from trading and methanol business, supported by our middle game initiatives. In the Energy segment, we expect full-fledged earnings contribution from Q2 onwards, mainly from LNG-related businesses and gains from asset sales. I'd like to explain the updates to capital allocation under MTMP2029. Given we have made a strong start to MTMP2029 and in line with our policy of executing share repurchases in a flexible manner, we have decided to conduct a JPY 200 billion share repurchase. Top-tier investments for growth opportunities are progressing steadily and preparations for new growth projects are also advancing well. Given the high likelihood that we will continue providing additional shareholder returns during this MTMP, we have updated our shareholder returns as a percentage of COCF target to over 50%, which clearly demonstrates management's commitment to shareholder returns. The base case for the management allocation is JPY 2.4 trillion and JPY 200 billion share repurchase announced today will be funded from this allocation. Through our middle game initiatives, we will further strengthen our COCF base and enhance asset value. At the same time, we'll accelerate asset recycling to expand management allocation and balance our capital deployment between highly competitive investments for growth selected from a robust pipeline exceeding JPY 6 trillion and shareholder returns through dividends and share repurchases. To ensure we achieve ROE of 12% in FY March 2029, we'll determine the amount and use of management allocation in response to changes in the operating environment while continuing engagement with our stakeholders. This slide shows the forecast and results of our capital allocation. Cash inflows totaled JPY 340 billion, consisting of COCF of JPY 281 billion and asset recycling of JPY 59 billion. Cash outflows consisting of investments and loans totaled JPY 147 billion. Given the strong than planned start to the fiscal year, we intend to review our capital allocation in the second quarter, as we have done in the past in conjunction with our full year earnings forecast update. Next, I will explain our current outlook regarding the timing of earnings contribution from new projects. Investments for growth executed under MTMP2026 are progressing steadily. Waitsia, the natural gas project in Australia that began commercial production in FY March 2026, started to contribute to earnings this quarter. In addition, the solar power generation project in the U.S. invested in 2025 was completed within budget and is expected to begin contributing to earnings in the second quarter. In line with the 3 evolved key strategic initiatives announced in May 2026 for MTMP2029, we will continue to carefully select and execute investments from a robust pipeline, including projects that were not incorporated at the time of formulating the plan and pursue further growth together through our middle game initiatives across our existing businesses. The proposal announced on July 22 to acquire the free-float shares of Penske Automotive Group has not been included in this slide at this time. We will provide an update at an appropriate timing depending on our future developments. As previously explained, in light of our good progress in terms of results and with the aim of improving capital efficiency and enhancing shareholder returns, we have decided on a JPY 200 billion share repurchase program to be completed by the end of January 2027. All shares acquired will subsequently be canceled. In line with the expansion of our highly reproducible cash-generative capability, we will continue to increase dividends and we will make flexible decisions regarding share repurchases as part of our shareholder returns policy, including the amount and timing with the objective of improving capital efficiency, among other things. Going forward, we will continue to enhance shareholder returns while maintaining a balance with investments for growth and we will achieve our target shareholder returns as a percentage of COCF of over 50%. This concludes my presentation.

I am Masao Kurihara, General Manager of Global Controller Division. I will now provide details of our operating results for the first 3 months. First, I will explain the main year-on-year changes in COCF by segment. COCF for Q1 amounted to JPY 280.9 billion, an increase of JPY 64.6 billion year-on-year. In Mineral & Metal Resources, despite higher iron ore and metallurgical coal prices, there was a decrease of JPY 2.9 billion to JPY 69 billion, mainly due to higher metallurgical coal costs. In Iron & Steel Products, there was a decrease of JPY 1.9 billion to JPY 4.4 billion. In Energy, there was an increase of JPY 31.7 billion to JPY 80.1 billion, mainly due to FVTPL valuation gains associated with the IPO of energy business outside Japan and higher earnings in the U.S. gas business. In Mobility, Digital & Infrastructure, there was an increase of JPY 13.1 billion to JPY 46.5 billion, mainly due to increased dividends from equity method investees and investments in general companies. In Chemicals, despite the absence of a gain on the reversal of provisions recorded in the previous period, there was an increase of JPY 8.2 billion to JPY 40.9 billion, mainly due to higher earnings from trading and the methanol business. In Wellness Ecosystem, there was an increase of JPY 8.6 billion to JPY 7.6 billion, mainly due to the absence of intersegmental transaction with Others, Adjustments & Eliminations recorded in the previous period. In Innovation & Corporate Development, there was an increase of JPY 12.6 billion to JPY 24.7 billion, mainly due to FVTPL valuation gains associated with the IPO of quantum computing business. Others, Adjustments & Eliminations recorded a decrease of JPY 4.8 billion to JPY 7.7 billion, mainly due to expenses, interest and taxes not allocated to segments as well as intersegmental transactions with Wellness Ecosystem. Next, I will explain the year-on-year changes in profit by segment. Profit for Q1 amounted to JPY 294.1 billion, an increase of JPY 102.5 billion year-on-year. In Mineral & Metal Resources, there was an increase of JPY 9.7 billion to JPY 61.2 billion, mainly due to higher copper, iron ore and metallurgical coal prices as well as higher iron ore volumes. In Iron & Steel Products, there was a decrease of JPY 1.2 billion to JPY 5.3 billion. In Energy, there was an increase of JPY 14.2 billion to JPY 34.4 billion, mainly due to FVTPL valuation gains associated with the IPO of an energy business outside Japan and higher profit in the U.S. gas business. In Mobility, Digital & Infrastructure, there was an increase of JPY 23.6 billion to JPY 73 billion, mainly due to higher profit in the automotives and gas infrastructure businesses. In Chemicals, despite higher profit from trading and the methanol business, there was a decrease of JPY 4.3 billion to JPY 26.6 billion, mainly due to the absence of valuation gains and onetime factors recorded in the previous period. In Wellness Ecosystem, while there was an absence of asset sale gains recorded in the previous period, there was an increase of JPY 3.6 billion to JPY 18.4 billion, mainly due to higher profit in food businesses, particularly protein-related operations. In Innovation & Corporate Development, there was an increase of JPY 54.9 billion to JPY 65.2 billion, mainly due to the asset recycling gains in association with the restructuring of the U.S. real estate ownership and operation business, CIM Group, and FVTPL valuation gains associated with the IPO of quantum computing business. Others, Adjustments & Eliminations recorded an increase of JPY 2 billion to JPY 10 billion, mainly due to expenses, taxes and interest not allocated to segments. This page provides a summary of the year-on-year factor comparison for profit. In base profit, there was an increase of JPY 46 billion, mainly due to higher earnings in chemicals trading, automotive, food-related businesses centered around protein and the methanol business. In resource costs and volumes, which are a component of base profit, there was an increase of JPY 1 billion, mainly due to higher sales volumes and lower costs in iron ore and energy despite higher cost for metallurgical coal. In commodity prices, there was an increase of JPY 14 billion, mainly due to higher copper, iron ore and metallurgical coal prices. In foreign exchange, there was an increase of JPY 17 billion, mainly due to yen depreciation. As a result, commodity prices and foreign exchange contributed a combined increase of JPY 31 billion. In asset recycling, there was an increase of JPY 42 billion (sic) [ JPY 44.2 billion ], mainly due to the restructuring of CIM Group. In valuation gains/losses and onetime factors, there was a decrease of JPY 17 billion. I will now explain the balance sheet at the end of the quarter. Total assets decreased by JPY 0.1 trillion from the end of March 2026 to JPY 20.7 trillion. Net interest-bearing debt increased by JPY 0.3 trillion from the end of March 2026 to JPY 4.4 trillion. Meanwhile, shareholder equity increased by JPY 0.2 trillion compared with the end of March 2026 to JPY 9 trillion. As a result, the net D/E ratio was 0.49x. This concludes my explanation. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]