Mitsubishi Corp

TSE:8058

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q2

[Kazuyuki Masu, executive]

This is Masu, CFO. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today to participate in our financial results investor briefing for the second quarter of fiscal 2021. I would like to explain, there are 3 points. First of all, consolidated net income for Q2 increased year-on-year by JPY 273.9 billion to JPY 360.6 billion; secondly, the full year earnings forecast of JPY 380 billion announced in May has been revised upward to JPY 740 billion, the highest ever. Finally, the annual dividend forecast has been revised upward by JPY 8 to JPY 142 per share from JPY 134 per share announced in May. Please refer to the first page of this document. I would now like to explain the year-over-year fluctuations on the lower left. This financial result was the highest ever for the second quarter. In the same period of the previous year, the negative impact due to the COVID-19, resource prices and demand declined. However, with the subsequent resumption of economic activities, the business environment improved as demand recovered in the automotive and salmon farming businesses and resource prices rose for metallurgical coal, enabling our businesses to steadily generate earnings.

As a result, consolidated net income for the second quarter of FY 2021 increased significantly year-on-year by JPY 273.9 billion. Now we would like to explain the revision of the forecast for the full year in the lower right. Considering resource price increases in the Mineral Resources segment has followed a strong progress in the automotive LNG-related and many other businesses. The forecast has been revised upward by JPY 360 billion from JPY 380 billion to JPY 740 billion. This will be a record high earnings. The revised forecast of JPY 740 billion includes downward impact risk such as the drop in resource prices. In addition to earnings forecast of the year, annual dividend forecast per share is also revised upward to JPY 142. I would like to provide some additional explanation about each segment. Please turn to Page 2. I will skip natural gas, mineral resources, automotive and mobility and food industry since I have already explained in the beginning. Industrial Materials and Consumer industry improved, thanks to the demand recovery in steel products business as well as CVS. Petroleum & Chemicals increased in profit, thanks to the LPG business earnings increase. Industry Infrastructure, Power Solutions, they suffered a decline of profit. This is due to one-off losses of Chiyoda as well as asset disposal timing.

In Urban Development, the profit increased. Despite the impairment losses in Aircraft lease business, thanks to the fund valuation profit increase and merger-related gains in leasing business. Please turn to Page 3 for cash flow. In the list, there is a bar graph showing cash flow for the second quarter. The gray-colored bar is underlying operating cash flow. Operating cash flow minus working capital impact and others. And this was JPY 493.2 billion, cash in, thanks to operating revenue and the dividend income. Orange is investing cash flow. And this was minus JPY 1.397 -- and this was minus JPY 139.7 billion and includes cash in of correction from North American Shell gas and [indiscernible] in North American real estate. But cash out of our copper and North American real estate and capital expenditure for Australian coal LNG and the European energy. And as you can see in that blue the adjusted free cash flow, which is the combination of underlying operating cash flow and investing cash flow was JPY 353.5 billion. Cash flow is growing solidly, together with consolidated net income. On Page 4, you can see the segment outlook as well as market situation on Page 5. Please refer to this later. And as you can see, we had a record high profit for this quarter, thanks to the risk of price increase as well as demand recovery, which was captured and that translated into profit.

This is the final year for the midterm management strategy 2021, but will not be slated by the results of the single year. We will continuously cycle through our portfolio and withdraw from unprofitable businesses in order to continuously enhance enterprise values. Thank you.

[Takehiko Kakiuchi, executive]

This is President, Kakiuchi. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today. I would like to explain the key points. The financial results have been shared to you from CFO, Masu. So in the automotive industry as well as the salmon farming industry in many businesses, we were able to capture the recovery in the demand. Also, the metallurgical coal and copper business have received the tailwind from the market. We believe that the strength of our business portfolio contributed to our performance. The full year forecast for fiscal 2021 has been revised upward to JPY 740 billion. This is after conducting an earnest review based on the results after the second quarter and the factors that are currently expected to cause fluctuation.

In the second half of the fiscal year, there will be continued concerns about the volatile commodity markets, the possibility of a resurgence of coronavirus infection and the impact of semiconductor shortages. However, we intend to steadily achieve the revised targets. We have also raised our dividend forecast by JPY 8 from JPY 134 to JPY 142. In response to the revised earnings forecast, we have raised the dividend forecast under the progressive dividend system to meet the expectations of our shareholders. We will continue to enhance the sustainable enhancement of the corporate value. So no change in terms of our attitude to be conscious of the shareholders' attitude. Over the level of performance will recover significantly from the previous year, we shall not be swayed by market conditions, and we'll continue the efforts we have made in each of our businesses to improve productivity and reduce costs. Through these efforts, we will further strengthen our individual businesses and solidify a foothold in the market. We will also examine our business portfolio with a view to changes in the environment over the medium to long term and establish and [indiscernible] to the portfolio on a recycling-based ecosystem. In this way, we will continue to build a business portfolio that can respond to changes while maintaining financial sureness at all times.

Geopolitical risks transition to low and decarbonize society and digitalization remain the 3 key influences on the business environment. In October, we set out our long-term guiding principles for having greenhouse emissions by 2030, achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and making JPY 2 trillion of EX-related investments by 2030, as a party involved in the resource and the energy business. We are committed to fulfilling our responsibility to provide a stable supply of energy, while at the same time, striving to achieve a balance between decarbonization. We are committed to promoting EX and DX across the whole organization and the making competitive effort to realize a carbon-neutral society. We will take on this challenge squarely. And that's all from me. Thank you.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]