SBI Holdings Inc

TSE:8473

Earnings Call Transcript 2020-Q3

[Yoshitaka Kitao, executive]

Well, thank you very much for this big turnout despite your tight schedule. I would like to extend my gratitude to your daily support to our group. Thank you very much. Without further ado, I would like to present you the 9-month period ended December 31, 2019, financial results. So 9-month FY '19 consolidated performance. Our numbers are already -- could you please change the lighting? It's rather too bright. Numbers have already been announced, the revenue up 12% to JPY 185.197 billion. Pretax profit was JPY 64.715 billion up 2.9%. Profit for the period, JPY 45.476 billion or up 0.4%.

Numbers in the first half. They were less than the other previous -- the other fiscal year. But in the third quarter, after 9 months, our target was to exceed the results of the previous year for the same period. And that we renewed, we had this scenario to renew the historical high of the revenue. But the 1 unexpected matter is that, very serious, the new coronavirus, and which has not given any impact on our business yet. But if the number of patients continues to increase, what will happen to the global economy? That is our concern. Based on the assess, the peak is expected to come in April or May. So that issue alone is my concern.

That said, I do not think that the -- it will give big impact. For the full year results of this fiscal year, we will not see any negative story. So for the time being, we have cleared our targets.

Now let's look at by segment. Financial Services Business revenue increased by 2.9%, but the pretax profit down 18.7% at JPY 38.723 billion. Asset Management Business, revenue increased by 26.3% at JPY 104.486 billion. Pretax profit increased more than 30% at JPY 43.850 billion.

Biotechnology-related Business revenue increased 32.4% at JPY 3.249 billion. But the pretax profit, not so big change. But they're at about JPY 1.3 billion or so the losses were written off after the sale of bio-related business. So this negative number shown here continues to be smaller. And as I'm going to touch upon later on in details, if there is an approval from the authorities for the D9F -- DGF, rather, DGF, then we do not need to worry about it at all. Under such circumstances, SBI Holdings should not be categorized as a securities company anymore. Pretax income, the SBI SECURITIES' unconsolidated profit accounts only for 33%.

And as to our Financial Services Business and Asset Management Business, their competition has been reversed. The ratios of the 2 businesses are at the same level. Financial Services Business and Asset Management Business should work as wheels -- 2 wheels of a vehicle, striking a good balance. So this is a welcoming situation for myself.

As to shareholder benefit options, we added Crypto-asset XRP as a new shareholder benefit option. The Morningstar started beforehand, and it was very well accepted in the market. That's why we also added XRP.

Now business by segment. Financial Services Business. Financial SBI SECURITIES, the operating revenue, JPY 87.759 billion, down 6.3%. Net operating revenue, JPY 79.033 billion, down 10%. Operating income JPY 27.515 billion, down 35.8%. Ordinary income, JPY 27.837 billion, down 35%. But compared to other companies, Nomura Securities, big number, that the overseas business was sold by Nomura. And so their profit looks big. As to domestic securities business, and when we look at the other op income, Nomura's is JPY 31.934 billion; SMBC Nikko, JPY 28.688 billion; and SBI SECURITIES, JPY 27.515 billion; and Daiwa, JPY 26.953 billion; and Mizuho, JPY 23.157 billion are the results.

And during the first, second and third quarters of this year, we established mobile securities, and we made about JPY 3.3 billion of investment in the first, second and 3 quarters. And without it, the numbers here would be on the same level as Nomura's for the domestic business. So Takamura-san and his team are doing very well.

Among the online companies, there is no comparison, and as you can see on this slide. Another thing to be noted is the number of accounts. So in our case, more than 10% growth, while Nomura, less than 1% growth. So in 6 months or so our number of accounts will exceed that of Nomura for SBI SECURITIES to be Japanese #1 securities firm. I think we are going to make that announcement in due course.

Next, Asset Management Business. As I mentioned earlier, it's doing very well. The change in fair market valuation gains and losses, and that is the 30 -- the JPY 33 billion, up 64.1%. And SBI SAVINGS BANK to JPY 12.3 billion, minus 7.3%. But on the 1 basis, it's that positive. And the revenue, plus 26.3% and pretax profit, plus 30.5%.

In IPOs and M&As exits from the funds. The number of companies, exiting companies, 28 -- expected to be 28, exceeding 20 of fiscal year 2018. Fintech fund and also following that, SBI AI & Blockchain, SBI A&B fund, the exit results and investment results are shown on this page. And SBI Holdings' investment combined, about JPY 110 billion investment were invested in state-of-the-art technology. And in 2020, the 10 IPOs are expected; '21, 31 companies; '22, 58 companies. So in 2 years or so there will be IPOs, one after another. So the profit or revenues coming from the 2 funds and the performance is really good. So I'm looking forward to seeing the results of those funds.

As to the investment from the SBI Holdings, JPY 34.5 billion. To what extent it will increase, and that will contribute to the strategy -- the fund to be used. So for example, in the securities area against the sales. The ratio of the commission should grow to the 5%, then the other -- we need to have a good M&A strategies to achieve that. And the proceeds from these funds can be used for that purpose as well. As I'm going to talk about it later on, the new IPOs will continue one after another. So we have been taking the very unique path. And now those industry companies are expected to go on their own.

And for the next era, the new M&A strategy and the market share accumulation are the basic ideas of mine.

Next, about the new funds, 4+5 fund. That's the name for the industry 4.0, so slightly 5.0, thus the name of the fund is 4+5 on the level of JPY 100 billion or so. Fortunately, fintech fund, which has already been started, or A&B fund, their performance, it's so good. And good dividends are being paid out. So the number of investors, expected to grow significantly. So JPY 100 billion is not so difficult to be achieved.

Next, SBI Savings Bank in South Korea. According to the other CAGR, from January to December, year-on-year growth of 44% at JPY 188.2 billion. So this is the record high profits for the full year.

For the bio business. For DGF, on December 19, we were supposed to receive a response. What happened was they said to us, the key person of the examination meeting had a family issue. That's what they said in English. This has personal situation here in Japanese but that's fine. And they were saying that there was a delay of the meeting. Then after, in addition to that, because there was Christmas and because there was the New Year season, it was going to take more time to come up with the final response. If the response was no, we'll think that they will give us an immediate response. So we think no news is good news. But even if it's a positive response or a negative response, the hit on performance is neutral because the impairments already have been taken. If it's a positive response, that will be a positive to our performance. For the AKI pipeline, it is trending steadily.

Within 2020, Phase III, the draft for acute kidney injury, the clinical trials are expected to finish. So we are not expecting any additional investments whatever the case may be. We would like to reach a conclusion as soon as possible also for biotech and SBI ALApromo, the businesses are trending well.

So with regards to the NDA application, the new drug application process, if the transition is approved, this would mean that at a high price, we will be able to go ahead with an IPO or sell part of -- or completely sell down the stock of Quark. If it's not approved, no more impairment losses are going to be incurred. So for the Phase III clinical trials, we are thinking about selling it for the remaining pipeline, that is.

And we have several advisers that we are expecting to hire. We are currently in the selection process of advisers. Of course, Phase III of -- in the pipeline, there's 2 more left so we are trying to contemplate about how we are going to do about the process. And for Kubota Holdings, JPY 1.352 billion, all the losses already have been recognized. To that end, JPY 7.368 billion profit before income tax expense losses have been coming down. So the losses are currently shrinking steadily.

For ALA, things are going well. For pharma, it is a loss. However, it is associated with R&D expenses, especially for mitochondria (sic) [ mitochondrial ] diseases. Also for anti-cancer drugs and cisplatins, if you take it together, there are chances that you will not develop nephropathy compared to when you don't take it. So clinical trials are underway.

For SBI ALApromo, Fukai Nemuri, which went on sale, there are promotional expenses that are being spent. So that is why profits have been going down somewhat. For photonamic, we have increased the number of head count and due to that as well as some acquisitions that have been made, onetime expenses have been incurred. However, for the fiscal year, we expect to maintain profitability. Therefore, we are not in a situation where we need to be concerned.

Now from here on, I'd like to move on to the main topic, advancing focused measures to realize further growth of the SBI Group. I talk about the 4 major strategies often, which are: Contribute to the regional revitalization; promotion of realization of Neo-bank; advancing the Neo-securities initiative; and introduction of fintech across the group, and use of blockchain and so forth.

Fintech 1.5, fintech 2.0, those are how I define the phases, and we have been continuing on to develop our fintech adoption. And in order to materially advance the near-term 4 major strategies, we will pursue M&A both domestically and abroad, and realize dramatic growth that may be problematical to achieve through an organic growth of the existing businesses.

So the SBI Group, for the past 20 years, we were mainly growing through organic growth. But from here on, our funding power now is higher than before. So major acquisitions are what we would like to consider going forward. How can our 4 major strategies be realized over a short period of time? That is what we are thinking about.

So contribute to the regional revitalization is the first part of our 4 major strategies, moving on to this part. At the SBI Group, we're currently working on revitalizing regional banks in Japan and people question: Is that possible? There are some people who question our efforts. But our group, we have been establishing new banks, and they have been going on track, and in the initial stages, we've been making investments. We've been contributing to their growth. Sometimes, the banks were on the brink of bankruptcy, and we were able to rehabilitate the banks. There aren't many people who are able to do that.

In Japan, what is thought to be difficult, we have been realizing the revitalization efforts, not only in Japan but also abroad. So we have a track record therefore, for regional banks. Our managerial resources, our infrastructure is what we can apply. And infrastructure is key. It's not just about investing, extending financial support. That is not viable. You need to do things in a comprehensive manner. And all types of group managerial resources need to be leveraged. That is my style of doing things.

For example, when you're investing in start-ups, when you're investing into startups, just by investing, they won't be able to go to market. Like us, the exit ratio, 17% to 18% is what we boast. You won't be able to reach that state by just making the investments. You need to nurture the startups through infrastructure. Is it legal that they need to reinforce? Is it other areas? You need to offer those types of functions they lack. This is the type of way you need to nurture your investments. It's not just about making 1 single investment or else you won't be successful.

For example, SBI Sumishin Net Bank, when we started that was in September 2007. From there on, all of a sudden, we were able to achieve a single year profit. And then in March 2010, we were already profitable. Although we started in 2007. At the ordinary profit level, we were at JPY 2.3 billion. Then after, performance continued to grow rapidly. However, the negative rate policies by the BOJ hit us to a certain extent. But finally, for March 2018, we were able to exceed past peaks. And then in March 2019, we were able to substantially grow. And on February 3, March 2020 results will be announced, but we will probably surpass it once again. So it's growth after growth for this entity.

For the number of accounts, as you can see here, as of January 29, which is most recently, we were able to enjoy 3.83 million accounts and deposit balance is JPY 5.4543 trillion. Whether it be the Japan Net bank, we were able to surpass all our -- the players that were established before us. And also another case in point is this, you could see the ranking of regional banks, starting off with the Bank of Yokohama. Where is our ranking? We are #18. For regional banks as well as new banks, there are 76 banks, but we are #18. Other banks have a history of 50 years or a century. And a lot of the banks have integrated with one another, they've consolidated. However, with regards to us, we've only went through organic growth, but we have grown this far. Where is the power coming from? It's the Internet. It's the power of the Internet, meaning it's the power of technology, which enabled us to make this huge accomplishment.

One more part of this slide is where we show change. As of March 2019, we compare the balance of deposits. For the Bank of Yokohama, you could see that their deposits have come down. Some banks have been increasing their deposits, but our deposits went up by JPY 567.1 billion. What does this imply? It means that further growth is likely to happen. Also in Vietnam, from May 2008, we established a bank, and we made an investment in August 2009. The bank was founded in May 2008. And we made the investment ratio under 20%. And invested 19.9%, which is the highest ratio that a foreign investor can have. We've been supporting the entity in various ways. And now profit before tax has reached JPY 18.2 billion, which is December 2019. Profits have reached JPY 18.2 billion. For lending balance, it has reached JPY 454.5 billion. And state-of-the-art technology has been introduced at the bank. And in Vietnam, we would like to make it a dominant player. So we had them partner with SBI Remit, so that between Japan and Vietnam, they could offer remittance services utilizing RippleNet, the next-generation payment platform of Ripple of the U.S. And last year, in November 2019, it started for the first time. It was the first in Vietnam. And this will bring down cost substantially, and this will be a point of differentiation, and we will be able to win even more with the power of technology.

Also in Cambodia, Phnom Penh Commercial Bank, at an early stage, was established by myself. In September 2008. Hyundai Swiss Savings Bank, the predecessor of SBI Savings Bank, the owner back then, then established the bank together with me. Performance went up substantially, and we had an investment ratio of 47.6%. However, we had to sell the stake, unfortunately, due to the complicated Khmer law, and all of the shareholders need to reach a consensus or things will not pass. A person lost all of their assets and went to jail, and this is the only thing they had left. So that is why they wanted us to sell down our stake. So we were in this situation, and we had no other option but to sell.

Our investments were sold, and we sold it at $55 million, and the investment return was about 2.5x. But if we continue to hold on to this stake, it would have been about 10x by now. But we really needed to have a bank in Cambodia. Therefore, we thought about acquisitions of banks. However, nothing was affordable. So we thought about the next step. There is a company that was in microfinance, and we decided to convert it into a bank. So we decided to take action so as to do so. And we were successful, and an official banking license was acquired.

As SBI Group, we are engaged in a vast effort. So for Cambodia, we had a track record from before when we set up the bank. When we established the previous bank, Heng Samrin, who is the head of the Diet, like Hun Sen, he was also a key player in Cambodia. And a medal was received as the -- a foreigner, and these efforts were acknowledged and that is the reason why this bank was able to receive its license. And they were saying the Deputy Minister of Finance said that this will be probably the final license that is given to a bank. So this is hard to acquire. So this was our wish, and we were able to realize it.

And I think Vietnam and Cambodia is likely to grow going forward. Thinking of where China is right now with the current situation underway and the coronavirus is happening, which means that for manufacturing, many companies used to have a base in China. But I think increasingly, they will transfer their manufacturing business to Vietnam and Cambodia. So for businesses, not only for banks, we believe business will grow in these regions.

For savings bank, SBI Savings Bank in South Korea, we acquired the shares and consolidated it in 2007 March, and we generated huge losses. We consolidated the company in March 2013, and we realized significant losses. And magazines were wondering why we decided to acquire the shares, and there were many posts that were made on SNS, questioning what had happened over the short period of time. And then we achieved a full, achieved record high profits for the full year in fiscal 2019.

So for performing loans, when we bought it, nonperforming loans were at 51.6% when we acquired the entity delinquency rates. Now it's only 2.6%. And assets are JPY 675.9 billion. So now it's a well-established bank. Our next strategy is to bring this level, to turn this into a regional bank. We're trying to get the permission from the South Korean government, from the regulators that is, that will enable us to grow the scope of the business. So that's what is on my mind right now.

Next is Russia. For Russia, it was on the brink of bankruptcy but we turned it into a wholly owned subsidiary. That was in August 2017. Currently, performance is getting better and better. In 1 more year, it will probably be in the black. That's what we're thinking. So in this way, I've just talked about our track record, and regions that are harder than Japan, we leveraged the power of technology and leveraged our managerial expertise. And we haven't really sent competent people to support the entities. At peak, it was only about 2 or 3 people that went to each of the entities. However, we were still able to improve the performance.

Of course, on a regular basis, there are meetings that take place, including myself, but we do it over the phone. Even in Japan, there are some banks that will probably reach a predicament. If we leave them alone, there are an increased number of them. So we really want to change the banks. If they want to change, we are willing to extend our support. That is my line of thought. Instead of revitalizing overseas banks, I think it is far easier to support Japanese banks. And that is why I set forth on this endeavor.

For regional revitalization, we need to do something about it or else, what is going to happen to our country? When you think about this, I thought about what kind of role we can play. When you think about regional revitalization, what comprises regional cities? It's the citizens, it's the industries, it's the public entities, financial institutions. In a big sense, there's the local governments. But regional revitalization is critical for the government or else Japan will not grow. That's what the Abe administration thinks. Of course, they will focus on this. So what role can we play? I think it's about reinforcing financial institutions. We already have a track record of expertise. And if we apply them, I am -- I have a conviction that we will be able to reinforce regional banks, and that is why we have rolled out several various measures.

Also in the Nikkei, we had a 1-page advertisement. Have you seen it? It's right over there. Our group companies and what they do is shown. However, the ad placement was on -- in a bad place because it's in a page where many people will skip. I think we made -- we wasted JPY 25 million. We need to follow-up on SNS and follow-up through Twitter. We'd like to hand it out to you all as well. For the next 3 years, how are we going to be -- in the past 3 years and our involvement with regional banks has been described in the 1-page ad. And I think the efforts we have implemented were quite big. And of course, it's not just about praising yourself, but we will be making investments in various ways in the future as well.

And we will probably be extending our support to 10 banks or maybe more than that. But with regards to which areas we're going to invest into, first of all, the financial institutions need to have a strong will and motivation to improve, that are seeking for our investments. Based off that, we may accept a third-party allotment of share or acquire shares from existing shareholders or we will agree upon a certain number of shares and we'll acquire through both channels.

With regards to the investment ratio, we will not tell them how much we would like to invest. In principle, we will follow the wishes and intentions of the regional financial institutions. And it doesn't necessarily have to be accompanied by an investment. In the 4th megabank concept, if they're willing to participate, we will welcome them. And exchange for that, in the 4th megabank concept and the integrated strategy, we will be asking them to implement certain IT systems. We will do that on a top-down basis.

Shimane Bank, they announced the capital tie-up on September 6, 2019. We decided to acquire 34% of shares based on voting rights, and we will be providing a broad range of SBI Group's financial services and products to customers of Shimane Bank and as advancing Shimane Bank's fund management capabilities by utilizing SBI Group's asset management know-how and fund data obtained from its global network. And we will enhance customer convenience and optimize operating costs at Shimane Bank by leveraging technology possessed by the SBI Group and its portfolio companies. So these are the details of the business alliance that have been agreed upon and have been announced.

Furthermore, and up until that point in time, 2019 and 2020 projections have been mapped. This is what you see on this page. And as a result of alliance with our company, we have asked that they make significant revisions to their projections. That is because it's important that they address the words they have fostered. The most significant issue is that they needed to restructure marketable securities portfolio if they wanted to improve the situation. So what is their current situation? They have a negative -- or they have very bad portfolio. But they don't have enough finance or capital to restructure the marketable securities portfolio. They will continue to -- and typically, banks with very negative management usually try to simply add money to cover the situation. We have talked to various regional banks, so we've come across many such cases. So if you want to improve the situation, you need to let go of the bad aspect.

So that being the case, we said we would be willing to provide sufficient money to address that, and that relates to JPY 2.5 billion which we talked about earlier. So as you see, as far as the ordinary profit is concerned, as a result of revised forecast, it is in the negative territory. As far as we're concerned, and as far Shimane Bank are concerned, we are going to make a commitment. We are going to achieve profitability in core net business income for fiscal year 2020. They have been in the negative territory for many years. We need to address the situation. It means that there has been a flow of deficit in the past. If the situation were to continue, improvement order may be issued once again.

Also if you have a bank that has received public money injection, and that is for a certain period of time, there's a term limit. If you consider the situation, it is going to be a very dark -- going to be a very significant impact. In the past, there have been extensions to the period. FSA has accepted the extension of the term of the injection of public money. But if you consider the very difficult environment that surrounds the management of financial institutions, if the FSA were to allow for another extension, then this situation will be quite, quite dire indeed. So tax money injected by the government. If you're not able to repay that at a given time, then the management team will have direct responsibility. And also FSA, who provided money to such banks will also have to take responsibility. So that is a very grave situation. And they have to have this recognition that this is a very serious situation indeed.

Naturally, there has to be a certain term or deadline. If you don't have a deadline or a certain term period, that situation would continue. But can they be condoned when you consider the very difficult fiscal situation that the Japanese government faces? So that is another aspect. So at a given -- so at some time down the road, I hope that I'll be able to write a blog after having analyzed the situation in depth. I believe this relates to the very fundamental aspect of the Japanese fiscal policy and financial policy.

So it is simply a matter of attaching or combining bank A and bank B. It is simply a matter of expanding the quantity because expanding quantity does not translate into improved quality. What we're aiming for is qualitative improvement. The president of the bank came to be critical to my office the other day, and I heard something that was very delightful. He said that there were customers who left Shimane Bank, but they came back after learning that Shimane Bank was going to be partnering with SBI. And also the local government and the governments, and also members of the Shimane business community were all very delighted with this alliance. The president was most grateful about this.

And Mr. Morita is now sent to Shimane, not physically, but he's leveraging his very best efforts to help out the situation. There have been regular meetings. And there's -- we want to make sure that we achieve the commitment of achieving profitability and corporate net business income by fiscal year 2020. And myself and the group will have to commit to this and deliver this. But that does not mean that Shimane should abandon region-based financing supported by face-to-face contact. We don't think that should be changed. That is not the case. We hope that they will reinforce the region-based financing supported by face-to-face contact.

Acquiring new customers will be fine. Also welcoming customers who come back would also be a very welcoming situation. They should take care of their long-term customers. But among the customers, there might be a feeling. There is a sense among some that the banks are placed in a very lenient situation. Banks which should have failed are allowed to continue. Such views are there when you talk to various regional banks. So if such issues were to come to light, and then a tremendous amount of losses could actually impact regional banks. There is such a possibility. As far as we're concerned, this situation isn't just about banks. That was the impression I had when I heard those views and comments. So as soon as possible. It's important that we do whatever we can to the regional industries. So that was my earnest impression having heard those comments. And that is what I would like to do going forward.

Now this relates to various measures to strengthen cooperation with Shimane Bank announced, after the announcement of the capital and business alliance see various group companies in various areas, one by one undertaking various support. This goes back to the issue of infrastructure that I mentioned earlier. We have such infrastructure and in a very comprehensive manner, we're able to address the situation. I don't want to use this analogy, but I love the television program called Doctor-X. And I take a look at this drama based on DVD as well. So when you have cancer that spreads throughout the body, the character -- the main character of the drama carries out surgery.

The doctor's name is Dr. Daimon, and it's a series that I'm watch -- observing right now in DVD. She's trying to tackle a difficult surgery which have been conducted like 2 or 3 times in the past in the world, and she's -- and the patient involved in the situation is a 9-year old girl. If you cut just one, it's not sufficient. You have to go after everything. You have to address and treat all the cancer cells. I definitely want to change this. I am adamant that we change the situation. But what is most important is that the management and the employees of the Shimane Bank, everybody, recognize that they are the ones who need to understand that they need to implement the change. And it is important that they have the recognition that they work to adjust the situation in a united fashion.

Now today, at Shimane Bank, they announced, they carried out a meeting for housing-related companies with was held, and people from 60 companies attended. And I think that this caused -- attracted a great deal of attention.

There are efforts underway to ensure that core business profits will return to profitability in the year ending March 2020. So Shimane Bank's unique initiatives, SBI company's initiatives and joint initiatives with the SBI Group, all these measures have been outlined and they are self-explanatory. So it's important that we realize profitability in the net core business.

Now as for Fukushima, we announced capital on business alliances for Fukushima Bank on November 11. And we will have -- SBI Holdings will invest roughly a total of 19.25% based on voting rights, particularly shares already held by SBI Regional Bank value creation fund, and we'll render our very best efforts. So through various planners, through various ways, after -- before and after this alliance, we will make efforts to reinforce our collaboration. And very -- so much has happened -- introduced already.

This was already done beforehand. And in July 2018, we have already had investment in SBI, in a blockchain fund. This is a major investment. This, I believe, will contribute to the profitability of the Fukushima Bank. So investment into funds.

When we request such investment, we say it is not just for our bank or for our group. At the end of the day, it is positive for all the people concerned. That is what we say. And of course, we have various business alliances, as you see on this page.

And next, with regard to Fukushima Bank, after the announcement was made with regard to Fukushima Bank. SBI Neo Financial Services actually developed and launched Fukushima Bank App, which is a banking application, and this was done in a white label fashion. And also furthermore, SBI Business Solutions. Business alliance with SBI Business Solutions was also realized and also SBI MONEY PLAZA. This is immediate, it will have immediate impact. So therefore, we had a joint store in Koriyama City in Fukushima Prefecture, this was opened.

So with regard to CHIKUHO BANK, even prior to the alliance, we've had various collaborations with the CHIKUHO BANK, and they are self-explanatory, I believe. And also after the alliance was announced, we have acquired approximately 3% of the total number of assets and shares from existing shareholders. As I mentioned earlier, it is through third-party allotment of shares, that's why acquisition from existing shareholders will be fine, nonequity investment would also be fine. So all of these would be fine. So if they want additional investment shares by ourselves, that's also fine as well.

So as far as we're concerned, with regard to capital investment, we are very flexible in terms of the position. So establishment of a joint intermediate holding company to realize an efficient co-creation with the regional financial institutions. I am intending to do this within the month of February this year. So this is the image of V, a new company. I think we've shared this concept of -- on several locations up until now, as far as we are concerned.

They paid in capital, roughly JPY 10 billion is the image that we have for this new -- for the new company. And we would like to own more than 51%. And although not designate, although not yet determined, several other partners will be joining. That is our idea.

And also as we have already announced in the past, we will have intermediate holding company for West, and we also have intermediate holding company for VC, venture capital, and we'll also have immediate holding company for East. So 3 companies will be brought under this intermediate company. And the investment will also be agreed upon by these players as well. And partners who join this initiative, I've mentioned several partners who joined, will also be part of this picture and scheme. So with regard to venture capital, naturally, we will also be involved.

And also furthermore, with -- we would also like to have the new company and companies providing various support functions will cooperate in the following areas. We have created such companies up until now, that we'll continue to do so going forward. And also it could be placed under here, or it could be that it would be -- we remain as a group company for SBI. So that part is not yet finalized.

So this is the outline of the establishment of the new company, the objective is here. And we will consider paid-in capital of approximately JPY 10 billion, of which 51% will be owned by SBI Group. And also the major shareholder will be several partners who will invest in the new company and its affiliated intermediate holding companies.

Furthermore, the new company will corporate with the SBI Group companies, investment partners, suppliers of our support functions in the following areas: provision of common systems, for one; revitalization of local industries; provision of opportunities for overseas investment and loans. I'm sure that this will get longer. So as far as these partners are concerned, towards middle of February, we hope to bring together all those partners. And hopefully, we'll be able to ask officially the percentage to be paid-in by the partners, and which of these partners will join -- and who is responsible, for example, is it going to be intermediate joint delivery company for West, for venture company or for East.

So with regard to the objectives and the functions. It's important that all these strategic partners have democratic discussions amongst each other. And that is how we would like to pursue our business. This isn't just for our company. It will be actually a gathering of -- a collection of all the wisdom, insight of all the partners, so that we'll be able to guide this initiative to our success. Roughly, within 1.5 years, we hope that we'll be able to increase the capital base. And it could actually get larger. For example, it could be that companies from overseas would be very interested in participating. Actually, several overseas companies have enthusiastically approached us about participating. So we need to make a decision about that. For example, are we going to -- is there going to be scope to accept participation from -- of companies from China, for example, there could be some sensitive -- delicate questions that need to be addressed.

I believe that the current impression is that it's getting -- gathering the money is not going to be such an issue. So provision of common systems which are already in existence. As soon as we reestablish local companies and also provisional overseas investment in financing opportunities and efficient usage of real estate. It could actually, could expand from A to D to Z. And so hopefully, that we'll be able to deliver all of these. For example, we want to integrate the regional financial institutions, and we would like to utilize Amazon's AWS. We have not yet had final discussions with Google on this matter. But my wish, my thinking is that the partners will be willing to provide significant discount.

And also furthermore, if Microsoft is willing to overmatch that discount with them, we need to reconsider that. But I believe, technologically speaking, there is no major gap or difference between the providers. So their attitude and the recognition in the Japanese market, and also the management resources that are in the marketplace. How they can leverage that to this initiative, inclusive of all these issues and factors. I would like to give this matter my thought.

And also as I mentioned, the private cloud, the so-called SBI financial cloud, we want to create that. And the base, and we want to create an accounting-based system which is based on such private cloud. And we hope that we will be able to introduce and adapt to these private clouds as we go along. Now if they don't want to use this, naturally, they could continue to use their own system. We are not -- we can't force them. But the cost gap is quite different. It's quite large. There is a major difference in cost.

But now that we are involved in this, companies who used to take exorbitant money will not be able to do so anymore. So that being the case, we believe that we will be able to induce them to provide competitive estimate. And that, I believe, is the material which we are able to provide now. Now with regard to IBM, and we already have the fintech platform together with IBM and Toppan and so forth. So we want to provide a pay platform to financial institutions to support the adoption of fintech startup company services and systems. 10 companies have adopted, 5 companies are in the process of adoption and 7 companies are expected to adopt. So 22 companies in all will now be connected to fintech companies such as Money Tap. And this is going to be very meaningful. Also it will be connected to our group as well. Now SBI Neo Financial Service offers white label banking app. This has already been introduced by 8 banks. And also 1 other bank has decided to introduce this.

It is very handy, and it can be offered at very low cost. And I believe this will penetrate and spread. Now this I believe is very innovative undertaking, and I think God is on our side in this regard.

So Israeli company is quite amazing. A company called OpenLegacy. I believe investment into this company is being announced as we speak. This company leverages API integration service, which means that maybe Hitachi it could be NTT data, it could be Fujitsu. You can use any general purpose system. It can very easily be connected to our platform. That is the structure.

And I was hoping that someone could offer this technology. We searched everywhere. And then one of our -- [Mr. Dio Santo] a very young engineer, said, that there is such a system available. And so -- in the hope that we will be able to promote [Dio Santo] as one of the executive going forward. That this is a very excellent system and such outstanding young staff is among our team. I'm very, very encouraged by this. Someone who is well-versed in technology. That talent is so crucial for this financial industry, and also for various industries. And from 6:00 to 6:30 on Saturday, NBS Fuji, the television broadcast, there's a program that introduces technologies. This is a program that has been continuing for the past 2 years. But then -- and I hope NBS Fuji will continue to broadcast this program.

And then a different TV broadcast station said that, Mr. Kitao, why don't we do this? At least this is just 5 times a year, why don't we continue this? They came to me, and they actually came to me with a similar program idea, and I accepted that. Again, such technology need to be introduced as soon as possible ahead of the rest. And usually, of course, a lot of money and time before you can introduce this type of system. Now we -- here, we talk about integrated services and integrated services is extremely important. For example, in the Industry 4.0, we use different manufacturers' robots in order to -- for control, the control system very strong of the company. The company. You need the team -- separate teams for each system. You need to integrate that. You need to create a system to integrate that. There's such a company that does that.

For example, Laputa Technologies. They were appeared in one of our television programs. But if you have such a system, just a single system, then all different robots could be controlled. So technology for integration purposes will be the dictating factor going forward. So various things are being utilized in various places, and it could be -- and technology specific for one particular occasion might be indispensable. If that's the case, what can you do about it? So MoneyTap, Mistui Sumitomo Bank and Yamaguchi Financial Group, have newly invested their capital, and 34 banks have already invested into this company. And we talked about OpenLegacy.

With that in the picture, now in a very easy fashion, you're able to introduce MoneyTap. So now, from now, APM platform, MoneyTap, how can all of this be connected in a very similar fashion? At Fukushima Bank, as a matter of fact, we had a POC, and it was connected in just 5 minutes, so we verified this. And hopefully, we'll be able to introduce this in other areas as well. And a very small amount could not be set free of charge. And Campus and such legacy systems will no longer be required. It will be just too silly to pay money for such a system. That is the age that we are now faced with. The SBI Digitrust that we established, SBI Digitrust, 66% stake by SBI Securities Solutions, and 34% by NEC and AI risk-based certification or other factor authentication will be provided.

When it comes to AML, with CFT, anti-money laundering or the terror-related risks, all of these things should be in the picture, and they come with cost. But using the common platform, the cost will be significantly reduced. Revitalization of local industries. This -- the deal with Google has been discussed quite some time. Using the Grow with Google, we need to improve IT literacy in local communities. The Mr. Okubo, the Mayor of Kurume City, is so interested in this one when we met. And he said that he would talk with Chikuho Bank as well, and the deal is done, and Google is going to provide 6 -- the trainings. And we asked Google to do it nationwide in Japan.

And as to -- with the HIKARI TSUSHIN, it's something rather unexpected to happen, but HIKARI TSUSHIN in Shimane Prefecture, they are going to make local electricity distributor, the very first one. There are more than 10 Shimane Prefecture companies have decided to make investment in this deal. And SBI Energy will participate in this one for the power generation by water or the solar or wind, and we will sell electricity. The local governments will also participate and cooperate. And we are going to be one of the shareholders, and we will do it in other regions as well, with HIKARI TSUSHIN, this kind of idea or concept is like entrepreneurship, the venture capital-based expertise is needed. If not, you will not come up with such idea if you are engaged on the -- in the government side, you would not have an idea like this one. So the Japan -- the Charge Infra -- the company, the -- we installed and operating 333 electric vehicle chargers in 237 locations. The unit 2 or 3, the cars are held by the one person that could happen.

Mr. Katsuki, how much stake we have in this -- on the deal

[Unknown Executive]

About 40%.

[Yoshitaka Kitao, executive]

So the SBI has 40% in this -- in the program. Why?

We thought about it thoroughly and widely because it's meaningful, ultimately. It could be -- it could connect the dots, and it could make 2-dimensional, and the dot becomes line eventually.

And this one is another amazing company called Balnibarbi listed in Mothers. Sato-san, the president, I think, is a genius. Look at this picture, there was nothing on these premises before the construction of the restaurant. And it changed dramatically after the construction of a restaurant -- large restaurant. And that Sato-San's concept or idea and build -- building idea. I think he is the most talented person in this area. Sato-san will incorporate with us, and also the Nakagawa-san, [foreign language] he said that the he is doing something similar in Chiba prefecture, he said. B&B -- with the convention and restaurant -- Italian restaurant, which is very popular. So with Minami as well, we would like to do similar projects.

Here is another example of the venture company thinking, Inagura. This is the venture company to bring things from Japan to China. For example, nowadays, masks are very popular. In Dalian office, they need 50,000 masks a month. But nowadays, you cannot find that many -- the masks in Japan. And Nakagawa-san learned that there are 40,000 masks in Korea. So we are going to send them to China, in Dalian, in our office, to the systems area. And they're a very strong system supporter. Without them, we cannot have very stable systems platform. So what else would they need? Well, the new find alcohol -- the bottle, to disinfect the hands in our Japanese office.

And in China, they need them as well. And how many? We don't know yet. Now we are checking it. So we are going to send the Japanese local things to outside -- to overseas. Next, overseas investment and financing opportunities. This is the basic of the financing. That is arbitrage. You finance at low rate, the company and use it at high rate company, and you buy the shares at low price and then sell when the prices go up. It's all arbitrage. And we would like to encourage local financial institutions to do more upcharge, and we have been making lots of investments, for example, 50% in Japan, 21.4% in Asia, 22.4% in U.S., and 15.8% in Europe and others.

Such international diversification of investment and loans should be with local financial institutions as well. Target area, I would say, is Cambodia, I think. Effective use of real estate. The local banks have many real estate. And we have already established a consortium to better use the real estate. And they are going to identify specific the real estates to put into the consortium to utilize unused real estates. Contribution to the SBI Group's business results through expanded collaboration with regional financial institutions, the public benefit leads to private benefit. People say that the -- they don't understand why I invest in local banks, because they think that they are not profitable.

That those journalists should study more, I would say. My experience as business owner, business executive and, from 1974, I have been engaged in the financial the industry. So many investments and there so many meetings with so many of the presidents with -- of financial institutions. And my conclusion is that, the public benefit leads to private benefits. Sato-san of Balnibarbi, nobody expected to -- his company to be profitable. They didn't understand that why Sato-san wanted to establish a restaurant in such a remote area. But that has changed the local community. Revitalized it. And so as I mentioned earlier, I'm going to appear on the Terrestrial, the TV program, and I'm going to talk about these things in much easier-to-understand way so that we can change people in local communities, and for that, I'd like to use -- I am thinking about using TV media.

SBI Securities is now already supporting a total of 36 regional financial institutions, with financial instruments intermediary services. And the customer deposit assets of the figures, as of June 2018, being 1 are now the 8.9x in the number of accounts -- 3.9x. So both deposit and number of accounts have increased. Who is making sales efforts? Marketing efforts? Well, we are involved and comanaged the shops, but it is the salespeople of local financial institutions, which have made this happen. And we owe to them to see such an increase. To the SBI Money Plaza and the local financial institutions, comanaged shops, including Shimane and Fukushima, at the total of 10 such comanaged shops. 10. As many as 10. And each one of them, when they make a start, being one, how much increase they have enjoyed in terms of reported assets and number of accounts?

Please pay close attention to those numbers. You might be wondering maybe the digit is different, digit is wrong. Such a big increase. Now this is about who is the customer of these comanaged shops? It is mainly businesses and wealthy individuals who are opening accounts. This means as follows. In the past, local financial institutions could not really make access to wealthy individuals. They did not have a products, appealing products. They did not have ammunition. But now they are using our products and now their ammunitions. What about the insurance? The insurance products, the other day, I read it about the banks, in other words, cross-shareholding of banks, there should be bond, the article said.

So what is the co-shareholding among the other banks? The other banks are struggling, and their co-shareholdings, what will be the benefits? And when the company is listed, does it give benefit to the shareholders, investors, not just to the companies themselves. So that's about banks. What about life and nonlife companies? They are large shareholders of local financial institutions. It is, I think, I would say, against stewardship code. I think the Commissioner Mori of FSA was great. He focused on fiduciary duty. But when you look at the earnings of those companies, they sell, for example, investment trusts to increase the profit. I wonder why they have to hurry selling investment trust. It should be long-held vehicles. It's far from asset building that those companies are doing.

From savings to investments that we have been saying this for many, many years in the securities industry. And it is not happening. I would say that Mr. Shibayama of Wealthnavi is wonderful, providing robo-adviser, and he himself appears on TV commercial. And of course, that comes with cost and huge losses because of the huge advertisement cost. As an investor, I would say that we would be better off if they IPO soon. But whether IPO or not IPO, is to be -- our securities is contributing about JPY 50 billion to Wealthnavi. And what about SBI Sumishin Net Bank? JPY 25 billion. So the total of JPY 75 billion of contribution. One group is contributing this much to them. Both insurance and life insurance.

I'd like to say something about SBI Insurance. They are the regional financial institutions, 17 of them and later, 2 more are selling the group credit policy. But the more they sell that product, the ultimate net income of insurance company goes down because the more you sell, you have to accumulate results are the 4 risks. Because there are risks, and for those risks, you need to accumulate a reserve so that you can pay out insurance and benefits. And that is cost. And that is insurance business, is all about. So I came up with something new and maybe very soon, I might announce it. I might -- we might make some announcements in the near future. I don't know.

The balance of AUM interested by -- to the SBI Group by regional financial institutions exceeds JPY 80 billion. So JPY 150 billion in January 2020, and JPY 62 billion with Shimane Bank alone. So Asakura-san and his team are doing the expansion of the asset size to achieve JPY 5 trillion, which is my -- the goal, it already exceeded JPY 2 billion -- JPY 2 trillion. The SBI Group's 4 major strategies for the near term.

So with regards to the advancement of the neo-bank initiative, I'm not going to go into detail, but we will -- are continuing to see an increase of alliance partners. And for customer bases through the alliances, we will strive to expand the base and create new services. And Singapore's DBS. They were regarded as advanced neo-bank, but basically, the goal is to surpass them by advancing the products as well as having a broad group of banking functions. About 300 functions are open as APIs already, DBS has not gone that far. So with the HIKARI TSUSHIN Group, we have formed an alliance. There's about 1,000 distributors and 1 million corporate customers on HIKARI TSUSHIN's side.

So through the alliance, the bank's lending functions are what we would like them to take advantage of. This is what we're going to do. I have high expectations towards this alliance -- towards the HIKARI TSUSHIN Group, I have high expectations. Z Holdings. We have an alliance with them, as you know, as announced. In it, for Japan Net Bank, we will be working together with them through the alliance. Flat 35 will be provided to them, which is handled by SBI Sumishin Net Bank. So currently, preparations are underway. We are already working on the FX front, but we will also be increasing 2 housing loans as well.

They are also asking us to do another thing, crypto assets. But in many ways, we would -- we are hoping to provide products that we are capable of providing. Utilizing the screening settlement and security services expertise of SBI Sumishin Net Bank for creating new financial services and expanding our business infrastructure. As a company with a supporting function, that will be Hitachi. And we established data consulting, as a joint venture, which is a 60-40 shareholding, with us holding 60%. We would like to work closely together with Hitachi going forward. Unfortunately, for IBM, if the manager is a foreigner, it's fine.

But once the top changed to a Japanese person, they weren't as good as before. And when the head was a foreigner, they visited us often. Maybe they couldn't visit other companies because they could only speak in English. So maybe that's the reason why they came to them -- us. But when it turned to a Japanese person, they don't visit us. And there's a lot of failures, and they don't compensate for the damages. So that really made me angry.

The other day, the head of the European operations came together with the Japanese head, and they were asking us questions. And I told them, you're awful. If you don't change yourselves, we are going to cut off relationships. They said they're going to feedback what I just said to their bosses, but I was even thinking about writing a letter if it doesn't have any impact. I want to do everything throughly. I sacrifice my life on it. When I once decide to do something, I will make -- ensure that it goes forward.

IT systems are critical for us. The IT system needs to be stable, and we need a partner who will give us their full support. We don't need partners who will just take their money and go away. That's not the world we are operating in. We needed to work with companies that have compassion.

NetMove. This was a good acquisition. They are riding the waves of the cashless trend, and growing their performance. And they have absorbed their goodwill as well, and they're growing. The next part, advancing the Neo-securities initiative. We are waiving online trading commissions and partial costs that investors currently incur, that is our initiative. This is something that I've been talking about from before. This is the part that we would like to reduce to 5%, or else they wouldn't work out. It's a 3-year plan to reduce to 5%, and currently, it's 23.9%. This is out of total revenue, that amount of commissions. Charles Schwab is at 3.9%. ATM trade -- Ameritrade is at 17% to 18%. So this is the percentage we would like to reduce. For March 2019 third quarter -- for March '20, Q3, we did see a decline, but the decline was only 1.4 percentage points. To reduce 1.4 percentage points even more, the market -- there were phases when the market wasn't performing well. So what's growing right now? It's other trading revenue. Also investment trust fees and consulting fees, which includes M&A advisory fees.

So this part is the part we'd like to grow substantially, and here, we need to build new businesses. By doing so we will be able to reduce commissions to 5%. I think that is the way. And we need to do it during a limited period of time. And that goes back to our M&A strategy that I was referring to earlier. So here, this is what was featured in the Impact of Zeros Commissions Led by Online Security Companies from The Financial Economist, the January 6, 2020 issue. When you look at this part, which is part of the article, the operating income of online securities companies for fiscal 2019 first half, and the estimated operating income, assuming 0 stock brokerage commissions are shown here. When you run the estimations, if the brokerage commissions were zeroed out, including face-to-face commissions, we will still be in the black at JPY 7.5 billion. Those are the simulations we were able to run. The other online brokers all would be booking losses.

So one more part is customer base -- market share is likely to increase. But positive factors have not been accounted for in these calculations. So with that as a backdrop, we are still going to be able to make JPY 7.5 billion even if we were to waive stock brokerage commissions. So the war has already started with regards to zeroing out sales commissions for investment trusts. All of the brokers are doing this. But au Kabucom may have waived sales commissions, but their rates went up. So they increased interest rates, and that was in very small letters, and waiving sales commissions was in larger fonts. And it seems that the consumer agency was mad at them for doing that. You shouldn't be cheating like that. And that's the reason why their performance is bad and going down. So ever since this has been announced, when you look at what's happening now, at Takamura-san's team, they did a survey, increasing rates and waiving commissions, what is the balance of the 2? Or what has happened. So Mr. Takamura, can you say a word about it?

[Masato Takamura, executive]

In December 16, as you can see on the slide, raising rates was what Kabucom did in exchange for waiving commissions. The inflow and outflow used to be neutral. But approximately, inflow increased by JPY 1 billion to us, yes. And we saw many more transactions coming to SBI. And also we haven't yet heard announcements for December, but transaction volume, when you compare Kabucom's growth and our growth, we conducted a comparison. We, against November, December volume increased by 3%. But Kabucom, who only grew by 1.2%, regardless of the fact of waiving the commissions. So what they did has not been reflected in their results.

[Yoshitaka Kitao, executive]

So investors are very honest people. It's going to be all about for investors as well as for consumers. You shouldn't be just focused on your entity. Everybody is watching what you're doing. We will continue to reduce commissions. We will have phases 1 through 3, and we have accomplished this so far since December. In Phase 2, the second step, we will do waiving the charges for stock trading for Neo-Moba. And for the third step, we will waive the fees for stock trading and margin trading. And we would like to bring down the commission ratio to 5% or less. This is something we need to achieve.

So waiving commissions, we made this announcement, and the online players have been following us in various ways. For the face-to-face players. As we anticipated, they have also started to follow trends. For example, Mizuho Securities is one of them. They have also raised their interest rates. Therefore, you need to do this without raising interest rates, but waive commissions. How are you going to do about this? This is the biggest challenge we face. I think there are -- with 2 intentions. I have declared the waiving of commissions. One of the reasons why is Line is teaming up with Nomura to enter this market, and people are partnering together.

We need to contain them, stop them from growing. So in order to contain them, we need to make the market unattractive so that they won't want to enter. How can we stop them from entering, for later entrants? If commissions are waived in 0, they probably won't be able to have a viable business. In the world of the Internet, it's a winner-takes-all mentality, that's the world we are in. The other aim I have, that is to cause a reconsolidation of the industry or to cause the consolidation of the industry. I'm sure that this is going to happen.

So measures to realize commission-free online trading. This is based off organic growth. Further improving the positioning of the retail business, which has a dominant presence. For Neo-Mobile, securities is going to be at core, and we would like to acquire younger generation users and have a better ecosystem to track them. And the assessment of a business structure that is less dependent on stock brokerage commissions, in other words, we would like to expand the wholesale business. And also trading income. I mentioned that trading revenue is going to become key. We will focus on that and also robo-adviser services and RAP services.

In particular, I believe robo-adviser services are going to become key, but the non-flow business needs to be grown and created and we need to maximize the opportunities. Also what we are already working on in the area of regional revitalization, with regards to online as well as face-to-face, we will be reducing our commissions, but we're not going to completely 0 it out. We need to respect certain areas like this, meaning, our partners, the regional banks. When you think about where they stand, if we completely 0 out commissions that would be something that's hard to do. So we will make thin margins by high-volume in this case. But we are intending on not zeroing out commissions. We will invent profitability improvements through a significant increase in trading transactions and liquidity and cost reductions.

So the fourth part of our 4 major strategies is in fintech and blockchain. In each of our businesses, fintech, blockchain, we are continuing to implement these technologies. We are advancing efforts on a -- around the group. We are implementing a variety of measures. As you can see, for Remit and SBI Social Lending, we will continue to adopt these technologies to grow the businesses and for the new companies from the very start, the concepts will be introduced from day 1.

SDI Africa is a new company we have established, and 4 young people are managing the company, and it is likely to be profitable over the short term. It started off by selling used cars in Africa. We would like to engage in various partnerships so that virtual currencies or cryptocurrencies can be utilized for payment or settlement through Ripple or if Ripple. Or if Ripple doesn't -- is not interested, Bitcoin may be a option. Maybe it's Bitcoin for Africa. Current -- compared to the African currencies, I believe the credibility is likely to be higher. So those are the things we are thinking about. So 4 youngsters started off the business, but the ultimate aim I have in my mind is, logistics is fine, but it's more about the finance behind it.

How are we going to capture that part of the business by adopting the state-of-the-art technology. I have many more other things to talk about. But whether it be PayPay or Line or Z Holdings. Line, you know what happened to them. So we have already talked to Z Holdings about PayPay. Line's parent company is going to become Z Holdings in the future, and they're going to be a member of the SoftBank group. It will be consolidated. So obviously, we are expecting that we'll be able to work with them.

Other than that, we are expected to connect with one of the major companies at end of March, and we're also considering to connect with another major company. So charging will be possible without utilizing existing infrastructure, such as Cafes, JCoin, mCoin, that kind of terminology is not heard as much these days. People are starting to give up on it. Reason being, central banks are likely to start to look at this. For example, the Yuan in China, digital currencies, they are taking actions so as to digitize, and in response, in western countries, they will need to implement countermeasures. In Japan as well. So between central banks, regarding this matter, they are starting to take action to do some joint research. And the U.K. is quite advanced in this area, and so is Sweden, Nordic countries, that is.

So we're not in a world where they say no to Libra, it's the end of the world. This is an area we need to continue to focus on. We need to focus on digital, what Central Bank is going to do around digital currencies, which country is going to start to do that. How much of weight is it going to have in trading and finance? We need to be on-trend and take action. So that we'll-- we won't be behind in the efforts. Therefore, that is why we are putting effort into this area. R3, their name always appear in Central Bank projects. For MoneyTap, they are using Ripple, and incidentally, the management of Ripple said that they're going to go to market, they're going to lose Ripple shares. I was wondering what's going to happen. So I'm watching what's going to happen. I'm a board member, but that kind of news doesn't -- isn't -- doesn't come up. So I was wondering if Brad should talk about those kind of things. And I was thinking, I want to talk about that if it were me. But it's TBD. And he also was very cautious in the way he put it.

VC Trade. JPY 3,639,000,000 was the result for profit before tax in March 2020, third quarter. So shipments are going to start very soon, a prelaunch site, sbicarbon.com, was opened, and we have started to take orders. And we already received numbers of offers, and we are currently pursuing some large-scale contracts. This chip, if major miners adopt this chip, the investment capital can be recovered in 1 year, and everything will be profits for us. In earnest, in the first half of 2020, the revised Financial Instruments and Exchange Act will be revised and come into effect, and we believe we will be able to expand our business. So around the April, June quarter, things will be put in place. So from here on, new products can be launched in earnest, such as CFD of various new types of attempts will be conducted.

So for various types of preparations, we are doing this as well. We will be including XRP as a benefit. Now SBI Remit and Ripple will be working with them. And in Vietnam, we would be doing something that is based on XRP. So in the beginning, we'll be using the DLT in the initial phase, and we've already started this initiative. It is called the TP Bank, we have a 19.9% share. So we started out in this bank. So already SBI Remit is now #1 in RippleNet in terms of SBI Remit's transaction volume. We have the dominant overwhelming share in Vietnam.

Now with regard to crypto asset mining, we believe we have developed new mining to pool. And in January, we developed this website. And this has been launched. And on top of the cost reduction efforts, I think this can be a new source for revenue. And furthermore, as we eye the new age with the second largest stock exchange group in Germany, we have decided to make an investment into this group. It's Stuttgart. With the significance of the meaning of investing in Stuttgart. I think this meaning will become very clear. I will not be very -- I will not be -- I will not talk much about this. And also we will be booked international custody as well. And also digital asset.

This is -- by nature, it is very international. So this product, which by nature, has a very international aspect, we want to make sure that we're able to provide distribution on a global basis. So that's the scale that we have in mind. That is the scale which - based on which I think of things. That is why it is reflected here. That's why it is in this picture. And also Singapore will be part of this picture as well.

Furthermore, STO. Security Token Offering Association. So STO, short for security token offering. For a brokerage firm like ourselves, this I believe is -- represents a expansion of a new domain. That is why, ahead of the pack, we call upon various partners, and we actually -- took out efforts so that we can have a certification as a self-regulatory organization, and we created this organization. This is epoch-making, quite epoch-making.

So let's get this page. So I already talked about R3 very briefly. So Mitsui Sumitomo Financial Group is now part of this picture. And the meaning for their participation is quite significant. Marco Polo R3, Mitsui Sumitomo Bank will be participating. And they will be active as the main player, and they're contributing -- involved in the promotion of this. So 14%, we have 9%. Of course then, we will seed 9%, and R3 will give up 5% and Mitsui Sumitomo Financial Group will participate 14%. So as a result, trade finance, naturally, the universal trade finance involves trading houses, and also insurance companies. All of these companies and players have to come together in this project. And so this is a very, very -- this matter, this is an issue that is very heavy. And that is why we involved these different partners.

So I have hinted upon several issues. In order to advance the 4 major strategies, I mentioned that we'll pursue M&A, both domestically and abroad to realize dramatic growth, that may be problematical to achieve through organic growth of existing businesses. So we began in 1999, and in March this fiscal year, our operating revenue reached JPY 231.4 billion, our capital was JPY 0.05 billion. It is not JPY 92 billion. Number of employees, we started out with 55, now -- it is now 6,439. Number of consolidated companies, number of consolidated subsidiaries increased from 0 to 226. And group's customer base has now exceeded and topped 25 million. This was solely created through organic growth.

But from this point onwards, based on the building of the growth over the past 20 years, we need to aggressively grow, and that will have to entail M&A. So what are the areas then, you might ask, where are the target areas? So FX companies, crypto asset companies and M&A specialists and such. Now if there's analysts who have good recommendations, please come to us. Please come to us with your recommendations. So that is why we are intentionally talking about this in front of audiences such as yourselves. That is why what we want to bring down the commission dependence to less than 5%.

So these are the regional target areas. So these -- so what are the target areas? High-growth overseas, financial services, businesses in Southeast Asia, Africa and other regions. The regional Japanese financial institutions maybe candidates for lending investment purposes. So while we have strong growth, no matter what stage of development is there, the insurance industry will have the largest market cap.

So in terms of market cap, let's take textiles and such, you see different industries. So that is why we need to extensively invest in these areas. And also what about management? Japan -- there is no other market as Japan that has such large assets under management. It is only 50% to 53% of the financial assets of -- that are owned by personal investors -- by personal consumers, are with banks. So this is quite foolish. Why under negative interest rate situation, what would people deposit in banks? That is owing to the fact that there's overemphasis on indirect finance. That -- and that was the government policy, focusing excessively on indirect financing.

And also the fact that brokerage firms would actually pursue sales that actually ignore fiduciary duties, and they would engage in marketing sales to actually encourage customers to sell as soon as prices are increased. Obviously, with Nomura Securities, I've never involved in retail sales. I was with the company for 21 years. I was involved primarily in overseas business in Nomura Securities. So therefore, with regard to retail sales team of Nomura Securities. I mentioned that this is simply based on breakeven. They would actually attract money from the rich and then they would actually disperse that among non-rich customers and also generate losses.

When I made such a comment, I was severely scolded, I recall, but then what -- I say whatever is in my mind. And I think that really was the policy followed by that particular company at that time. And as a result, what -- we have a situation where 50% to 53% of dangerous assets, plus individual assets, which is an area of [ JPY 1,120 ] and JPY 1,900 -- JPY 1,900 trillion is in banks. And so NISA and IDeCo's, these are all those policies and schemes created under the auspices of the Chief Cabinet Secretary of the Japanese government. And this cannot be done without strong tax incentive, you cannot have exponential sales. So we are behind the United States by many, many years.

We're behind United Kingdom by many years. And it really is a matter of responsibility. And I have really applaud the Chief Cabinet Secretary for creating this scheme. The thing is, though, we need to create such a wave in such a tide, maybe the year 2000 problem might have been a greater driver. People are now concerned about their future. Are you secure about your future? Are you also care about your own future? After -- if you continue to work for a company going forward, can you really feel a sense of comfort about where you're going? I was listening to the talk by Takanaka-san, and I understand that the outstanding personnel who graduate from Tokyo University would go to the Japanese Government.

But now all the excellent people who graduate from Tokyo University want to be entrepreneurs, set up their own business. And also I do see I do come across many entrepreneurs today who actually have graduated from the University of Tokyo. So graduates of top-notch universities in Japan, these people are now becoming entrepreneurs in many cases these days. I'm not saying that, just because you graduate from top-notch universities, you're topnotch. But at least these are book smart. Are they street smart? Are they able to create businesses that -- were to contributed to the society and for the people? Are they simply just idealists? Are they just dreamers? We are not yet sure. We have to let them try.

So we want to expand this to JPY 5 trillion. It is now JPY 2.71 trillion. So Vanguard and [indiscernible], they're all growing. And Vanguard was very surprised, taken back. They thought that this JPY 14,267,000,000 was gathered that quickly. They were surprised. SBI Asset Management, they are now qualified as QFII. They acquired QFII qualification. But they have population of 1.3 billion. Yes, the situation is very tough. And when it is cheap, it's good time to buy. And also this shows you changes in China's nominal GDP. They account for 15.8%. But then the only account for 3.7% for the global market capitalization, that is the reality here.

So which is correct? Maybe Chinese GDP calculation might itself be wrong. That's one view. But you have population of 1.3 billion, even if you -- there are mistakes, it couldn't be that large a mistake. So when it comes to market cap, this is simply too low no matter what you think about it. Now we have this high-quality fund, and with a certain company in China, we are now working with that company, and we intend to launch financial service delivery in the Chinese market going forward, and we hope that we'll be able to make an announcement.

Now also promote IPOs of group companies to raise funds necessary for M&A. With regard to bio, ALA, we will want to pursue IPO. And also with regard to Quark, before, I talked about that and SBI and Biotech, we will consider IPO. And also with regard to SBI Leasing Service as Sumishin SBI Net, we intended to have public offering before we set up a preparatory office to prepare for the IPO. With regard to the leasing service, operating leasing business, we will prepare for IPO. And also SBI Social Lending, we're preparing for IPO.

Morningstar. We will be bringing this to the first section of the TSA. But then if there are issues related to acquisitions, this timing could be somewhat later. We were not yet sure about the timing per se.

So as such, it's 10 minutes to 6. That is all for my presentation.

[Operator]

So we would like to take your questions for 5 or 10 minutes.