Sojitz Corporation (2768) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon. This is Seiichi Tanaka, CFO of Sojitz Corporation. Thank you very much for joining us for the earnings briefing for Q1 that ended June 30, 2022. I'd like to use 2 documents as usual. One is titled Highlights of Consolidated Results for the First Quarter Ended June 30, 2022, and the other also says Supplementary Material. Both documents are available on our website. So first on the highlights slide or document. With regard to the business environment, as summarized in the Results' Highlights section, Russia's military invasion of Ukraine triggered a global inflation. In response, many developed countries, excluding Japan, are raising interest rates, and this is, in turn, causing concerns of economic recession. In China, with their No COVID or Zero COVID policy, lockdowns have been instituted and supply chain disruptions have happened. As such, uncertainties are building up and sometimes even materializing for the global economy. Against that backdrop, let us discuss our quarterly results. Continuing from last period, there are continued high prices of coal. Prices of materials, such as chemicals and building materials are also high. There is also the benefit of a weaker yen and we were able to get off to a good start. However, currently, there are signs of change with regard to resources and material prices. Foreign exchange rates are getting unstable. The situation, therefore, warrants caution going forward. Moving on to the middle block, the consolidated statements of profit or loss. Top line or revenue, the Metals, Mineral Resources & Recycling division revenue increased by JPY 42.8 billion to JPY 166.9 billion, thanks to higher coal prices. The consumer industry and agricultural business revenue increased by JPY 26.3 billion to JPY 96.7 billion, thanks to high building material prices. Chemicals was also up. The lockdowns in Shanghai meant that plastic resin transactions were down in China. However, the mainstay business, the methanol, remained strong. And in North America, the petrochemicals business was strong. As a result, the Chemicals revenue was up JPY 22.9 billion to JPY 156.6 billion. The consolidated revenue increased year-on-year by JPY 125.7 billion to JPY 68.5 billion. Gross profit of 3 divisions that contributed to revenue and among them, particularly Metals, Mineral Resources & Recycling had a major contribution. The increase in gross profit was JPY 28.6 billion. That was a big part of JPY 40.5 billion year-on-year increase of gross profit to JPY 96.9 billion. Down to SG&A. Thanks to increased transaction volume and SG&A increases at new consolidated companies, increased bonus payments tied to improved performance and the weaker yen pushing up the costs at overseas operations when converted to yen, and the inflation pushing up costs, SG&A increased year-on-year by JPY 9.7 billion to JPY 51.5 billion in the quarter. For other income and expenses, these are nonrecurring items. And the major factor here was the gain on partial sale of an overseas telecommunications tower operating company in the Philippines and the revaluation of the remaining portion. The total of other income and expenses came to net income of JPY 3.3 billion. For the financial income and costs, the interest expenses came to a net expense of JPY 1.0 billion, but the dividends received increased by JPY 400 million to JPY 1.6 billion. The total came to a net income of JPY 1.2 billion. That was up year-on-year by the same amount. Share of profit of investments accounted for using the equity method. Thanks to higher profit from steel operating company and LNG company and European wind power business, the figure was up JPY 3.1 billion year-on-year to JPY 10.6 billion. With all that, profit before tax came to JPY 60.5 billion. That's up JPY 37.3 billion year-on-year. After income tax expenses, profit for the period came to JPY 46 billion. Profit attributable to owners of the company, which is shaded in light blue, came to JPY 45.2 billion. That's up JPY 28.3 billion year-on-year. The quarterly figure comes to 53% of the JPY 85 billion full-year forecast. So this 53% figure is quite high for a Q1 year. Moving on to the right-hand side, where we show the consolidated statements of financial position or the balance sheet. Total assets at the end of June came to JPY 2,841,900,000,000. That's up JPY 180.2 billion from the end of March. There were 3 major drivers. One is the weaker yen and the yen-based value of foreign denominated assets overseas increased. Second was higher prices of coal, plastic resin, and fertilizers. And the third was the execution of new investments and loans. For total liabilities, this increased by JPY 13.1 billion from the end of March to JPY 2.9 billion at the end of June. Going to the equity part. The total equity attributable to owners of the company, which is underlined, increased by JPY 73.4 billion from the end of March to JPY 81.4 billion. Retained earnings increased by JPY 31.4 billion, thanks to profit for the period. And then 1 line up, the other components of equity increased by JPY 41.9 billion. A major contributor here was the foreign currency translation differences for overseas operations. Further down, we are showing 6 key financial performance indicators. Third from the top is the net debt to equity ratio. At the end of June, this came to 1.00. This is down 0.06 from the end of March. Let's now look at cash flow. Cash flow from operating activities benefited from the net positive core operating cash flow, which is shown second from the bottom. The figure was JPY 61 billion for core operating cash flow and the cash flow from operating activities was a net inflow of JPY 38.1 billion. For cash flow from investing activities, in Q1, we executed investments in the amount of JPY 21 billion, including nonfinancial investments. The investment cash flow was a net outflow of JPY 21.4 billion. The free cash flow was a net inflow of JPY 15.7 billion. The core cash flow at the bottom was a net inflow of JPY 29.7 billion. Now let's look at the other sheet that says Supplementary Materials. I'd like to first focus on the middle part where we are showing segment performance and particularly the profit for the period. I would like to particularly highlight the segment where the Q1 results greatly deviate from 25% of the full-year forecast. First, infrastructure and health care, which is third from the top. Full-year forecast is JPY 9 billion. Quarterly result was JPY 6.2 billion. That's 69% of the full-year figure. This is thanks to new investment in loans in the United States being consolidated, an information service company with a new servicing contract and gain on partial sale of equity in a telecommunication tower business in the Philippines, and the associated revaluation of the remaining portion. Below that, Metals, Mineral Resources & Recycling. The full-year forecast is JPY 51 billion. The quarterly figure was JPY 24.7 billion. That's 48% of the full-year figure. Coal prices, both thermal and coking coal were up. The prices were more than 200% of the year before. The Australian dollar was stronger against the yen and the steel products business was strong in Northern America and Central America. As a result, the quarterly profit figure was more than 4x that of the previous year and came in at JPY 24.7 billion. For chemicals, the full year figure, the forecast was JPY 12.5 billion. Q1 result was JPY 5.6 billion. That's 45%. The lockdowns in Shanghai pushed down plastic resin transactions but methanol and petrochemicals and rare earth or indeed, chemicals in general, enjoyed higher prices and higher transaction volumes. The line item below, consumer industry and agriculture business, the full year forecast is JPY 3 billion. Quarterly figure is actually higher than that at JPY 3.2 billion. Continuing from the previous year, building materials for homes enjoy higher prices and transaction volumes. And for overseas chemical fertilizers, the higher raw material prices are now successfully passed on to sales prices. On to retail and consumer service. The full-year forecast is JPY 5 billion, but the quarterly figure is only JPY 500 million, so it's only 10%. The newly acquired marine foods did contribute to revenue, but the integration-related expenses were also booked, and that's why the quarterly figure is almost unchanged from a year before and the percentage against the full-year forecast is low. And then to the left, where we are showing operating results and financial position. So as I said, the quarterly profit attributable to owners of the company stands at 53% of the full-year forecast, very high. And in the financial position part, total assets and total equity are both above the forecast for the year-end. But those are dependent on market prices and currency exchange rates, which are both currently in a flux. We will keep an eye on developments and decide if we should revise our forecast going forward. This concludes my presentation. Thank you very much for your kind attention.