Sojitz Corp Unsp/Adr (SZHFY) Q3 2023 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good afternoon. This is Makoto Shibuya, CFO of Solis Corporation. Thank you very much for joining us for the earnings briefing. Please refer to the Q3 FY2023 presentation materials posted on our website, specifically the first part titled Financial Results for the Third Quarter and Full Year Forecast. Let me begin on slide 5, which shows the summary of profit or loss. Consolidated profit for the period came to 75.2 billion yen. This is down 30% year-on-year, but well on track with regard to the initial full-year forecast of 95 billion yen. Now that we have upward revised the full-year forecast from 95 billion yen to 100 billion yen, Q3 results stand at 75%. The main reasons for the year-on-year decline in profit are the impact of year-on-year decline in coal prices and a slowdown due to sluggish demand for chemical products in general. The business environment has been characterized by uncertainty due to heightened geopolitical risks, persistent inflation, although slowing in developed countries, and continued monetary tightening by central banks there, and slow improvement in the Chinese economy. Against that backdrop, in our view, our progress is generally as expected, although some segments are better than others. New investments leading to new businesses and accumulation of assets have contributed to growth profit growth. There is good progress in laying the foundation for further expansion in the scale of our earnings. In light of results up to the third quarter, the current market conditions for coal and other commodities As well as the foreign exchange rates, we have revised our full-year forecast upward by 5 billion yen to 100 billion yen. In conjunction, the annual dividend forecast has also been revised upward from 130 yen per share to 135 yen per share. Th...