Fujitsu Ltd

TSE:6702

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q4

[Takahito Tokita, CEO]

Hello, everyone. I am Takahito Tokita, the CEO of Fujitsu Limited. Thank you for taking time on your busy schedule to attend today. I would like to explain that the initiatives implemented in the medium-term plan MTP ended in fiscal year 2022 key results and continuing initiatives.

The purpose of the Fujitsu group is to make the world more sustainable by building trust and society through innovation. It is our reason for existence and compass that guides all employees to the same goal. We introduced our purpose for the first time at the management direction briefing held in May 2020, and now all our corporate activities are aimed towards realizing this purpose.

The Fujitsu way, which all Fujitsu Group employees must abide by sets out the three important values of aspiration, trust and empathy as well as a code of conduct, which are all anchored in our purpose. The Fujitsu way serves as the basis for our actions and judgments, and it is also a promise to our customers and society that this is how we behave and which we propose and reinforced all our employees.

I would now like to give a brief overview of our business results for fiscal year 2022 and CFO, Mr. Isobe will explain the details later. So I will give a brief summary.

Revenue was ¥3,713 billion. Operating profit was ¥335.6 billion, and operating profit margin, 9.0%, a record high. Revenue for Technology Solutions was ¥3,176 billion, operating profit was ¥263.1 billion, and operating profit margin was 8.3%. Over the course of the medium-term plan MTP from fiscal 2020 to fiscal year in '22, the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing prices in Ukraine disrupt supply chains and created shortages in materials. These supply chain disruptions and shortages eased somewhat during the latter half of the fiscal year. At the same time, demand for DX services increase, including, for example, digitization and modernization services.

In Technology Solutions, demand for solutions and services also grew, particularly in Japan, and productivity was improved through in-house development and standardization. Primarily because Technology Solutions, we achieved a record high operating profit.

Next, nonfinancial indicators. We set three nonfinancial indicators, customer Net Promoter Score, a measure of customer trust, employee engagement, a measure of company employee engagement and progression to becoming a DX company. For customer net promoter score, NPS, we set the target to increase 3.7 points over the previous fiscal year, and we actually achieved a significant improvement of 18.1 points evaluated more highly as a DX partner and an ICT partner than the previous year.

The achieved a significant improvement as a result of 18.1 points. We improved employee engagement in fiscal year 2022 to 69 points. However, we have not yet achieved our global goal of 75 points. And going forward, we will continue improving our working environment and employee communications.

Against our DX conversion index, we achieved our target of 3.5x -- 3.5 points. We will continue to improve our DX approaches and share with customers the knowledge we have developed. In order to realize our purpose and create value for our customers and transform our own organization, we have been addressing seven priority issues. I will explain the key results and continuous initiatives for each issue.

In reviewing our global business strategy, we have established a global governance structure. The Americas region improved profitability by reforming the business model. We have established global offerings through Fujitsu Uvance, which was launched during fiscal 2022 and has already resulted in revenue of ¥200 billion of which 60% was for customers outside of Japan, that by the digital shift, key focus area that supports a work-life shift. Business application centered in Japan has also been increasing.

Through Fujitsu Uvance, we will continue to expand our cloud business. In terms of strengthening issue resolution capabilities in Japan, we have completed the reskilling of 8,000 business producers in Japan, 900 of which have been developed as fee-earning consultants. We are experiencing an increasing number of new business opportunities that are based on resolving customers, management and societal issues over a medium- to long-term perspective through use of our technology.

We are concentrating our resources on five key technologies that underpin Fujitsu Uvance on which is computing. Fugaku, a super-computer developed in conjunction with Riken and physical and chemical research has won four titles over four consecutive terms in the world performance rankings. We will continue to work with companies and academic organizations to demonstrate its value in solving supply tool issues.

In contributing to a greater stabilization of our customers' business, we have increased our number of employees and global delivery centers from 14,000 in 2019, to 30,000 in fiscal 2022. This includes the Japan Global Gateway, which we established in 2020. This change has also improved productivity and profitability. We will further develop our people and involve our structure to increase the number of business producers who can work with our customers to jointly digitalize their ideal future business state and plans to achieve it including using global standard delivery.

During last year, we closed our Russia-based global delivery center and seamlessly migrated service delivery to other global delivery centers locations without affecting customers or their businesses. We have started using AI and tools including Palantir's data analysis platform to assess risk levels, forecast profit and loss and enable us to proactively identify and implement measures to prevent problems and projects.

We are currently running inspections on more than 6,000 projects. We apologize for any customer affected by recent system and security incidents and can confirm we are taking measures to prevent any recurrence. We will separately announce further details on this.

In our efforts to become customers at DX partner of choice. We are working with our customers globally to create new business models that contribute to the resolution of the cyto issues and sustainability, and we have announced such co-creation projects with 160 companies in three years through fiscal year 2022.

Finally, in relation to becoming customers, the expert of choice base lines are Japan-based consultants now has more than 300 consultants and over its three-year history has achieved more than ¥10 billion in revenue increased orders by 130% and produced consulting proposal to more than 250 companies, including new customers.

This, along with business producer initiatives and achievements has resulted and us being described as a trusted DX partner and customers and feedback.

Going forward, we plan to continue improving our approach to customer engagement and value creation. One of our means to internally transform is the establishment of data-driven management on a global scale, which we are addressing with the One Fujitsu programs that are underway and span our entire group for making our whole management more sophisticated.

By the end of fiscal 2022, we completed the development of a One data platform, which integrates previously dispersed data, making it accessible and usable across our company. We now have 13,000 people using One data. OneCRM which became operational last year, is being used by 20,000 employees in 31 countries, and we are already benefiting from enhanced pipeline management and significantly increasing orders. OneERP plus which reimagines our global core systems went live in U.K. and Ireland in April 2022, and we plan to start full operations throughout the Company in fiscal 2024.

Our DX talent development and productivity improvement, we have created a borderless working environment based on work-life shift and encourage employees to take more direct ownership in their career development. Operating profit per employee has increased by 60% compared to fiscal 2019, and we believe our new styles of working are contributing to improved productivity. Going forward, we will continue to develop a workforce portfolio that aligns with our business portfolio and create an employee-centric that recognizes supports, encourages and includes age employee as an individual.

We have developed an internal DX oriented ecosystem through the Fujitra program, which has 30 transformation three months under way. regular company-wide events have been held for employees to learn about DX and share case studies. We started with 700 voluntary participants, which has increased over time with the latest event having more than 26,000 participating employees.

I believe our employees' mindset is changing. In addition, the number of opportunities to share our DX experiences with customers increasing and in particular, we have received a high number of requests relating to data analytics. We have already provided in-house case study solution to over 10 companies.

This concludes the summary of how we address and suddenly achieve results for the seven priority issues. Abide at a different pace and maturity level for each one. This is our financial outlook for fiscal 2023. We plan to increase revenue to ¥3.86 trillion and operating profit to ¥340 billion.

Within the solutions business, by expanding monetization and by improving productivity, about a ¥90 billion increase in revenue is what were planned. The details will be explained by Isobe, our CFO, later on. This summarizes positioning of our next medium-term management plan. We have designed an ideal state for our company in 2030 and from this point, back cast the outcomes and issues to be achieved and addressed by fiscal 2025 and consider measures together with previously identified issues.

We will focus on strengthening Fujitsu Uvance and on cloud businesses by further transforming our business model and portfolio, providing solid support for our customers' digital and green transformation and modernization efforts for it and improving our business profitability by further shifting to service businesses in international regions.

Today I share the summary of our company's performance results for the medium-term management plan ending in fiscal 2022. The new medium-term management plan will be shared on May 24. After that, we will be holding a two-day IR event, and we will continue to share regular progress updates with you. This concludes my presentation.

For the past three years, my mission has been to set Fujitsu on a growth trajectory, and I have worked to change the shape and quality of Fujitsu. This has enabled us to realize that we are transforming ourselves into a company with sustainable growth. I would like to thank all of our employees for their hard work and all of the stakeholders who have supported our company, including our customers and partners.

From fiscal 2023 onwards, we will make every effort to achieve both financial and nonfinancial targets. After this, our CFO, Isobe will explain the results in more detail. Thank you very much.

Next CFO is Isobe will present a summary of the financial results. Mr. Isabel, please.

[Takeshi Isobe, CFO]

This is Isobe speaking. I would like to present a summary of the consolidated financial results for fiscal year 2022. As usual, I will explain in order of the slides. First, Slide number 4. Highlights of financial results. Revenue for the full year fiscal year '22 was [¥3 trillion] billion, excluding the impact of restructuring of revenue was up by 5.5% year-on-year.

In Technology Solutions, there was an expansion in DX-related demand, such as [fertigitization] and modernization projects. And there was also progress in the recovery from the global chip shortage leading to rise in earnings as the year progressed. Orders in Japan in Q4 additionally rose by 16%, a level that bodes well for the future.

Operating profit for the full year was ¥335.6 billion, up over ¥100 billion from the prior year represented a 53.1% increase and a new record level of operating profit. The operating profit margin was 9%, up 2.9 percentage points year-on-year.

In addition to higher revenue, clear progress was also made in productivity improvements and the Technology Solutions segment growth drove the overall strong performance. Page 5. Issues the consolidated results I just discussed. I will add two points. Financial income was ¥36.2 billion at ¥15.4 billion year-on-year increase results were better than the prior year due to the impact of the sale of business in the first half of the fiscal year.

Profit for the year was ¥215.1 billion, up ¥22.4 billion year-on-year in addition to operating profit. Profit for the year also set a record high. On the right-hand side of the table, we have listed comparisons with our January forecast. Unfortunately, we fell significantly short of our forecast. The main reason for falling short was a low graph on revenue than projected primarily for hardware products. In Technology Solutions, we did not achieve our projected growth in revenue from service and storage products in Japan.

In Q4 of domestic products orders exceeded 120% from the previous year, the highest level in demand in the past 10 years. However, many orders were due in fiscal 2023 and sales growth in the current fiscal year 2022 did not reach our expectations.

In addition, in Device Solutions, the decline in demand and our electronic components business progressed much more rapidly than we anticipated. Aside from not achieving our sales target in hardware, there were other negative factors, such as an increase in services costs from a travel project.

This is the direct cause of the failure to meet the final forecast. We are keenly aware though that driven management has not yet reached a sufficient level, and we will further accelerate our efforts for in-house DX.

Page 6 focuses on the results, excluding the impact of restructuring from the results excluding special actions that generate onetime gains or losses. At the top, you can see results, excluding special items. Excluding the impact of restructuring, revenue was by ¥193.1 billion, an increase of 5.5%. Operating profit, ¥320.8 billion of ¥45.2 billion year-on-year. Next are special items showing onetime gains or losses stemming from business restructuring.

For FY '22, there was again a ¥14.7 billion, representing an increase of ¥71.2 billion in onetime profits from compared to the prior year. This fiscal year, there was a gain from the sale of business where in the previous fiscal year, there were special expenses coming from DX human resources measures.

Page 7 shows the factors that cost increases or decreases in operating profit compared to the prior year. On the far left operating profit for FY '21 was ¥219.2 billion. I was -- use this as a starting point to explain. The first up arrow shows the positive impact from changes in special items and the impact of restructuring, which combined led to an increase in operating profit by ¥65.3 billion.

In the previous fiscal year, there was a large negative impact from DX human resources measures there as -- in FY '22, there was a positive impact stemming from business restructuring the rest of the arrows inside the tile line shows changes in our underlying business, excluding the impact of special items and restructuring, the upper arrow shows the positive impact of ¥39.6 billion from the increase in revenue. Higher revenues were driven by technology efficiency, which every subsequent versus the higher revenue compared to prior year.

The next upward average is deposited by ¥35.7 billion from cost and expense efficiencies. [indiscernible] Technology Solutions. The third arrow pointing downwards represents increases in business growth. The investment of ¥26.0 billion. We made investments in value creation initiatives such as the development of Fujitsu Uvance offerings as well as continue DX investments in our internal transformation.

Those were the changes in our operating profit, excluding the impact of social items to facial restructuring the amount and increase in operating profit of ¥51.1 billion. Adding up, operating profit for FY '22 was ¥335.6 billion, Page 8, the quarterly changes in operating profit slowly impact of social items and restructuring. The fiscal year, we got off to a severe start due to a negative impact of the global chip shortage but conditions began to recover in Q3. Both revenue and profitability improved.

In Q4, we experienced even stronger growth, and we were able to achieve significantly higher levels of both revenue and profit compared to the prior year. Page 9, I would now like to provide additional information related to the arrows inside the other line in the previous waterfall chart on Page 7. This table shows changes in revenue on an actual basis, excluding the impact of restructuring.

Technology Solutions rose 6% year-on-year. Revenue from Solutions & Services was up 9% in Q4 and 3% for the year. Revenue expanded at a strong pace in Q4, primarily in SI and services. Revenue from system platforms was up 8% in Q4 and 2% for the year. Revenue from system products is primarily service and storage equipment was severely impacted by the global chip shortage in the first half but recovered starting in Q3 and significantly higher compared to the prior year.

Revenue from network products rose by 15% over the prior year in accordance with high demand for base stations and photonics equipment in North America. Revenue from international regions, excluding Japan, rose by 11%. In addition to an expansion in our services business coming from a strengthening of our digital capabilities to thin-acquisition, results were also impacted by foreign exchange movements and revenue increased over the prior year.

Ubiquitous Solutions rose 8% in Q4, but declined by 2% for the full year. Recovery from global ship shortage in the Q4 led to a [indiscernible] in revenue. Device Solutions fell by 21% in Q4, but still was up 2% for the full year. Through the first half, demand business expanded strongly, but demand sharply declined in the second half. Page 10 shows status of orders in Japan. I will comment on each industry segment for Q4 and for the full year.

Private enterprise business segment Q4, up 7% and full year up 8%. The strong demand continued through the year. In Q4, we won multiple deals in manufacturing, distribution and retail industries for critical mission-critical system upgrades and modernization deals. DX sales are increasing, and we are maintaining a strong peak of orders. Finance business up 13% in Q4 and up 3% for the full year. In Q4, we won major deals for mission-critical system upgrades and other projects for customers in Internet banking and insurance fields, and orders for the full year also increased year-on-year. Japan region, up 27% in Q4, 8% for the full year.

In Q4, we received multiple major orders from government agency customers resulting in significantly higher orders compared to the prior year. Fujitsu Japan, Q4 up 9% -- up 3% for the full year from local government business relating to system standardization is becoming quite active.

Health care customers, there continues to be strong demand relating to card-based electronic medical ecosystems and the business continues to be solid.

Orders from educational institutions and medium-sized enterprises were essentially unchanged year-on-year. Network segment, up 24% in Q4, down 2% for the full year. In Q4, we won deals for a telecom in Japan related to 5G base stations, resulting in year-on-year increase. Orders for the full year were down, but this mainly represents a product from a major audits in North America last year. At the very bottom, settle orders for SI and services increased by 14% in Q4, resulting in double-digit growth.

Full year orders clearly increased, representing the highest level of orders in the past 10 years. In addition to strong demand for mission critical systems and modernization projects, the value propositions we have made to customers for digital transformation DX are steadily leading to new deal wins. Page 11. This slide shows the orders in international regions, excluding Japan.

I'd like to comment on full year results for the major regions. Orders for the Europe region were down 2% for the full year, but services orders rose 7%. We won a major system upgrade during the first half of the fiscal year, but the future remains uncertain. Orders in the Americas region fell by 10% for the year. Orders declined from the prior year due to a pullback from multiple large-scale contracts we received from public sector entities in Canada in the prior fiscal year.

Orders for the APAC region were down 2% for the year. Although services orders were up 20%, so this is the orders increase over the prior year as we won several major services deals in the second half of the fiscal year. In addition, an increase in additional capabilities from an acquisition also contributed to an increase in orders.

Page 12. Next, I would like to comment on the impact of the global tip shortage. The impact of the global top shortage continued through the first half, but we began to catch up in the third quarter, making a positive contribution to our results on an absolute basis. Although we cannot say that things are solid on all fronts, we have clearly been able to achieve control over our procurement of components.

Page 13, this is the status of cost and expense efficiencies. With the Company as a whole, improved cost and expense efficiencies resulted in an increase in operating profit of ¥37.5 billion, gross profit improved by ¥6.8 billion. As we achieve major improvements in solutions and services, but gross profit deteriorated in international regions, excluding Japan and in Device Solutions. Gross profit margins in Solutions and services improved with each passing quarter, the gross profit margin of 37.9% in the fourth quarter and 36% for the full year, resulting in a 2.3 percentage point improvement over the prior year.

Using the global delivery centers, we are continuing to standardize development work and operations on a global basis and are making steady progress and improving productivity.

On the other hand, in international regions, procurement costs increased due to foreign exchange movements and the decline in the unit volumes and Device Solutions led to a decline in capacity utilization. Cost efficiencies have led to an improvement of roughly ¥30 billion in operating profit. Page 14, overall business growth investments were ¥131 billion, an increase of ¥46 billion over the prior year.

Business growth investments for the first nine months were ¥89.8 billion, an increase of ¥32.1 billion from the private year value-creation investment was ¥56.5 billion. Internet transformation business in creation events are the primary focus and result on new offerings such as five and transforming our delivery services such as by sharing global delivery centers. Investments of our internet transformation mainly in DX investment data-driven management. We are clearly beginning to see results from our growth investments.

Next is Page 16. I will now comment on our results by segment, primarily in relation to last year's results. As I already explained about revenue, I will now mainly comment about operating profits. First is Technology Solutions, Operating profit was ¥263.1 billion, up ¥128.1 billion from prior year. The operating profit margin was 8.3%, an improvement of 3.9% points from the prior year. I will explain the reasons behind these results in each subsegment.

Page 17 Solutions & Services operating profit was ¥233.7 billion, up ¥44.9 billion from the prior year. The operating profit margin for fiscal 2022 was 12.8%, an improvement of 2.5% points from the prior year. In addition to improved profits from the SI service business in Japan, because of the impact of higher sales revenues, the initiatives we have taken to date, including the standardization of development work and expense efficiencies are producing clear results.

Page 18 shows System Platforms. Operating profit was ¥68.9 billion, up ¥12.2 billion from the previous year. The operating profit margin for fiscal 2022 was 10.2% improvement of one percentage point from the prior year. In addition to the recovery from the global chip shortage, higher demand for 5G base stations and the impact of higher revenue from network equipment for North America contributed to the subsegments performance, resulting in higher operating profit.

Page 19 shows International regions excluding Japan. Operating profit was ¥5.9 billion, down ¥18 billion from the previous year. Onetime costs were incurred in relation to acquisitions, and there was a negative impact from foreign exchange movements shown on the bottom chart. International regions excluding Japan, was unable to bounce that from these negative impacts caused by difficult market conditions, and we do not see growth in operating profit, excluding special items.

We will actively promote and maintain our stated global measures such as our global offerings and global delivery systems and work to fundamentally build our business in international regions.

Page 20 shows the shared expenses in Technology Solutions. The operating loss, excluding special items, was ¥72.7 billion which is in [indiscernible]. We are slowly advancing in One Fujitsu project data driven management as growth investments for internal transformation, including our internal DX. Page 21, revenue results in the two areas of value creation Technology Solutions for growth and for stability.

The expansion rate in the four-growth area was 7% for the year. On the next page, I will comment on each segment. Page 22 shows the quarterly changes in revenue for the full growth area in FY 2022 for growth experienced double-digit growth in the second half of the fiscal year and revenue was up 10% in the third quarter and 11% in the fourth quarter.

Solutions and Services grew steadily throughout the year with an increase in revenue from resulting modernization, GX process applications and cloud service business. Revenue in system platforms was up 33% in Q4 and for the full year, revenue was driven by 5G base stations in North American network business.

In international regions, excluding Japan, Hybrid IT and security-related businesses grew and improved capabilities from the acquisition of business in the Oceania region also contributed to growth. Full year revenue for international regions, excluding Japan, increased significantly by 39%, but the scale of four growth business is still small. Page 23, Ubiquitous Solutions, this segment posted an operating loss of ¥6.5 billion. Although we promoted additional measures to pass the cost on to the customers and decreased expenses in response to an increase of costs stemming from foreign exchange movements, it was not enough to cover the entire cost increase.

Page 24 Device Solutions. Operating profit was ¥79.0 billion up ¥0.7 billion from the previous year. Although strong demand continues to the first half of the year, this came to an abrupt halt in the second half of the year due to sudden changes in the business environment, unit volumes decreased significantly. Consequently, there was decline in capacity utilization and the full year result was on par with the previous year. We anticipate that difficult conditions will remain for the new future.

Page 25, cash flows. Free cash flow was ¥177.5 billion, down ¥11.5 billion from the previous year. In FY '22, there was a cash inflow from the sale of business but due to cash outflows related to DX human resources measures implemented in FY '21 and increased growth investments. There was still an overall decrease in free cash flow. The base cash flow before business growth investments was ¥250 billion, an increase of ¥38.2 billion year-on-year. Cash generation capacity from operating profits, excluding special items, is expanding.

Page 26, assets liability and equity. Net assets were ¥1,726 billion, an increase of ¥21 billion from end of the previous year mainly due to an increase in operating profit.

I will now review our medium-term plan MTP using a few pages. Page 28 shows the changes in operating profit through this MTP period. It began under a few external employment, including impacts of COVID 19, it had record profits at its start in FY 2020. Following that, in FY '21, profits declined for a period due to a deterring supply and demand environment caused by supply chain disruptions. Despite this, in FY '22, our efforts to date were awarded to pay success. And we once again broke the record for our highest ever profits.

Through the implementation of various measures over the past two years, there has been a strong improvement in business earnings, and we have steadily expanded the scale of operating profit. Page 29 is a summary of achievements and challenges by segment.

First Solutions & Services. In addition to maintaining and strengthening market priority in Japan, this segment also made steady progress on improving productivity and profit is significantly increased. The growth was slightly slow due to the negative impact of COVID-19 but the segment was able to continuously improve profitability through shifting to the services areas, expanding offshore development work and optimizing shared expenses. Next System Platform business. Rebuilding our network business, infrastructure and capturing higher demand for 5G base stations progressed as expected. In the systems products business, we promoted supply chain recovery and pass costs on to customers to counteract southern foreign exchange effects and the impact of the global chip shortage. Through this, we were able to reverse the situation and were able to recover from the deterioration starting the second half of FY '22.

One point that we should reflect on is how we should have responded more quickly to the adverse circumstances we face, such as COVID 19 and the supply chain disruptions. Business outside of Japan, international region, like the abilities and speed needed to bounce back from these adverse circumstances of a desiring business environment. As a result, the businesses continue to tread water with a local level of profitability.

We are aware that we will need to take measures to fundamentally. We build our global group base to further strengthen our business. The Electronic Components business benefited from a demand that was higher than anticipated, but was positively affected by the weakened yen, which contributed to an improvement in its consolidated business performance. However, market conditions are becoming increasingly uncertain and for the near future, we expect the environment to remain challenges.

Page 30 shows the changes in financial indicators in the medium term and shareholder returns. First is earnings per share EPS. The average annual growth rate from FY 2020 to FY '22 was 12% as planned improved steadily. For return 2.2x. For ROE, return on equity earnings improved and at the same time, we also strengthened shareholder returns even as maintenance level of returns. And for shareholder returns in addition to stable and steady dividend increases, we expanded our share buybacks to ¥150 billion in FY '22. This was a measure to -- we took upfront based on the -- this was a measure we took upfront based on the probability of future cash flow expansion.

Page 31, progress on capital allocation, our initial plan here was to generate a base cash flow of over ¥1 trillion over the five-year period from FY '20 to FY '24. The general cumulative results from FY '20 to '22 was ¥652.8 billion, expanding our cash generation capacity at the faster pace than we originally planned. Of the base cash flow generated over the past three years, approximately ¥256 billion were allocated to growth investments and approximately ¥247.3 billion allocated to shareholder returns. Based on the high probability of an expanded cash flow generation capacity of our operating profit, excluding special items on our asset recycling policy, we are expanding the allocation holder buybacks in advance.

Looking at the overall midterm plan. Despite major environmental changes such as the COVID-19 supply chain issues and exchange rate fluctuations, various methods have been steadily implemented as a result and we believe that we have established a solid foundation on which to base sustainable growth in corporate value. Of course, there are many things to reflect on. I will not go into individual details, but the fact that the operating profit the margin for Technology Solutions, which we have positioned as a starting point for a global company and work down was far below 10% is a clear indication.

Still, I remain confident that the measures and direction of what we've done over the past several years were correct. In fiscal '23, we will restart from the back behind the starting line. But once again, we will currently take measures against businesses to further improve our corporate value.

Page 33 is our forecast for fiscal year 2023. We predict that revenue will increase to ¥3,160 billion, ¥146.2 billion and 3.9%. Our forecast for operating profit is ¥340 billion, up ¥4.3 billion from the previous year. At the bottom, our forecast for profit for the year is ¥280 billion, increase of ¥2.8 billion from the previous year.

On Page 34, I would like to comment on operating profit, excluding special items. Operating profit for fiscal year 2023 was ¥340 billion, up ¥19.1 billion from the previous year. We plan to increase profits by 6%. Page 35 and Page 36, I will explain the details of our projects for each segment. First is Technology Solutions, we are projecting revenue of [¥3.3] billion, an increase of ¥123.4 billion, plus 4% from the prior year.

Solution services grew 9%, and we will steadily expand the DX related businesses centered on Fujitsu Uvance. We are projecting operating profit of ¥288 billion, an increase of ¥38 billion. In addition to the impact of higher revenue through the standardization of the uniform delivery system and raising the volume of high value-added DX deals, we plan to continuously improve profitability.

For Ubiquitous Solutions, we are projecting revenue of ¥245 billion an increase ¥12 billion over the prior year. We have made steady progress in passing along to customers with supply prices of components, and we plan to recover from last year's operating loss.

Page 36 for Device Solutions, we are projecting revenue ¥375 billion, a slight decrease in revenue. We are projecting operating profit ¥52 billion, down ¥25.4 billion from the prior year in our core business. The Electronic Components business entered an adjustment phase in the later half of fiscal 2022 but is expected to recover gradually the later half of fiscal year 2023. The negative factors included the impact of foreign exchange rates and an increase in depreciation costs in response to increased production capacity for future business growth.

Page 37. This is a breakdown of our projections for technology solutions in fiscal 2023. Solutions services and revenues are expected to grow significantly by 9% and increased by plus ¥91.1 billion, expanding the DX business and continuing to improve productivity will lead to strong profit growth.

In the System Platform business, revenue is expected to decline by 9% and profit is expected to decline by ¥35.7 billion. The network business will move to a tipping point toward the next-generation technologies and to an upfront investment cycle for the next phase of growth. Profit in common also is expected to fall ¥23.2 billion. We will further accelerate in-house DX investment in global security enhancement to realize data-driven management.

Page 38, we will add a few features to the sub segment. First solution services in the upper half increase in profit by ¥91.1 billion was a result of approximately ¥60 billion from an increase in revenue and approximately ¥30 billion from an increase in productivity. Revenue increased by 9%. We will expand our DX and modernization businesses such as Fujitsu Uvance and shift to value-added businesses.

The improvement of productivity is not a major change to new content, and we will continue to make our efforts. More advanced and thorough. We expect an increase in labor costs, but we plan to offset this with increases in productivity.

Next in the system platform, which is the bottom half subsegment, there was a decrease of ¥35.7 billion, of which approximately ¥20 billion was due to the decrease in revenue and ¥15 billion was due to increase in investments. Revenue decreased by 9% from the previous year. As for Networks, initial investments in 5G is expected to peak out and North American Photonics is expected to face a turning point toward open networks. On the other hand, we plan to increase investments in development and move on to the next growth cycle.

Page 39 shows our cash flow projections. Projected free cash flow for fiscal 2023 is ¥170 billion, an overall decline of ¥7.5 billion from the previous year. For the core business free cash flow, which shows our recurring cash generating ability from our business, excluding special items. We are projecting an amount of ¥225 billion for the next fiscal year, which we plan to deliver by making progress on greater efficiencies in working capital, such as the normalization of inventory levels in addition to improved earnings.

On the other hand, in terms of special items because of the investment for acquiring Germans, GK software in fiscal year 2023 and the policies business divestiture in the prior year, we expect a deterioration of roughly ¥75 billion in net cash inflows. We plan to expand our recurring cash generation capacity by improving working capital efficiency. In addition to the strengthening and expansion of the earnings capacity of our businesses.

Page 40 shows our fiscal 2023 plan for shareholders' returns. First, the dividend, we continue to have a policy paying stable dividends. We plan to pay annual dividends of ¥260 per share, an increase of ¥20 over the previous this year. This plan would result in each consecutive years of higher dividend payments. On the right are the share buybacks. While keeping in mind capital efficiency for fiscal 2023, we have established an allocation of up to ¥150 billion for share buybacks, continuing from fiscal 2022, we plan to maintain a high level of share buyback.

Our plan is for total shareholder returns is fiscal year 2023 to be ¥197.9 billion, exceeding the previous year level. This is the outline of our fiscal year 2023 plan. In fiscal year 2023, we plan to rise lower our performance significantly with different points of focus for each business. In solution services, we will further bolster our existing initiatives to achieve both growth in business scale and increase productivity, -- significantly expand profits and shifting to a business model that delivers value centered on Fujitsu Uvance.

Resistant platforms, we plan to enhance from investments in anticipating the next turning point in the business cycle to ensure future growth.

For international regions, excluding Japan, we plan to reevaluate our current business operations in a level head of manner and work on fundamental infrastructure development based on the common global strategy. Although consolidated total P&L figures may appear to be an additional priority in fiscal year 2022, we will implement measure of changes in each business segment as the first year of the new medium-term plan.

And as we look ahead to realizing a new strategic path or position ahead of 2030. Fujitsu will continue to implement reforms while achieving steady profit growth, which will lead to sustained improvements in its corporate value. I will explain the direction of the business with an eye towards 2030. The steps towards our business strategy under the new medium-term plan as well as initiatives, we plan for fiscal year 2023, which marks the first year of the new plan. This concludes my presentation.