Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (PNK:MITSY) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Unidentified Company Representative: Thank you. Next question, please. I have two questions. First, I would like to also, ask about JPY110 billion in increase in base profit. In the Medium-Term Management Plan, in terms of directions that you’re working on. It’s not just simple accumulation of numbers, but you are trying to change the mechanism inside, that is also part of that, including DX or GX. So the results of those initiatives are also part of the harvesting of the MTMP. I think that that has been also accounted for. So you may not be coming up with the numbers including those, I understand. But in this initiative, in the case of DX, it covers a lot of ground in different segments, and you’re expecting results from all these.

But in the GX, new projects and also project portfolio replacement maybe involved. But in the first six months, how much contribution can we expect from this, the quality of the projects businesses, or aside from the simple combination accumulation of numbers, what you have intended initially has been started off as you expected whether or not that was the case. That’s my first question. And second question, of course, the performance has been steady, but there’s also a concern in the market for the uncertainty. And in order to be on the safe side, you are actually, about JPY55 billion upside, but that has been reduced to 10 – 16 billion, 1 billion, in the second half. So how much downside do we have to take into account looking at this number?

Is there any protective measures that would be necessary like cost reduction down the road? How are you looking at those aspects as well?

Kenichi Hori: Thank you for the questions. For the first question. Slide 10, on the right, the profit contribution from new projects, this is accumulation of specific projects and contribution has been accumulated. And you mentioned GX and DX as well. So I’d like to also cover that. The digital transformation or DX using the tools for that, we have to enhance competitiveness of the whole company, and that’s what we’re doing on a company-wide basis. And it’s not explicitly included in this profit contribution from new projects. However, if parent company project promotion headcounts have not been changed while running the larger portfolio or projects with better quality, that is what we are trying to do. DX will be directly effective in that.

So company operation level has to be enhanced using DX. That is one of the targets. So it’s not included in profit contribution from new projects, but of course, we can double what we can produce without changing a number of headcounts. That’s where it matters. And so the number of headcounts have to be made clear with accountability so that with the DX, you can do this at less, that has to be made clearer to everybody inside the company, and that’s how we are doing. And somewhere down the road, we’d like to share that with you. And as for energies, JPY60 billion for new projects, energy transition will take time. So probably on the third year of MTMP, part of that will be leaped, but maybe the rest will be beyond that timing. So the timeframe may have to be a bit shifted in looking at this.

But in energy transition, what is critical in terms of materials, and if there is already a market for that, then the scarcity is something that we like to maintain as a professional. So if the project investment in that area gets successful because there is a market, and the business is viable, then there’s immediate result that we can expect. In the renewable business, it may take time, for example, but in terms of materials, there could be some projects that would have sooner effect. And so we’d like to combine all these different types of projects. To answer your second question on the whole economy, in the second half, the evaluation gain or loss, there is a certain model that has been provided to you. So what’s inside? So rather than business sentiment, loss making businesses need to be sorted out and there are many measures to be taken, and sometimes there’s no other choice, but to charge the evaluation loss.

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