Latest Financial Results

*Adjustment: Elimination of intersegment transactions and profit or loss of the Company’s Head Office divisions that are not allocated to each reporting segment.
*Because of the reclassification of segments in the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024, the figures for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023, have also been changed.

During the cumulative third quarter of the current consolidated fiscal year, socioeconomic activities in the Japanese economy steadily returned to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic. In the manufacturing sector, auto production related to a wide range of industries recovered to normal levels, and capital investment associated with labor saving an reductions in CO2 emissions remained steady. In general, the economy remained on a recovery track. However, the outlook remained uncertain, reflecting the risk of a downturn in overseas economies caused by a slowdown in the Chinese economy and the geopolitical risk caused by the intensifying conflicts in the Middle East region.

In this business environment, the Group bolster the profitability of existing businesses in Japan through integrated Group management based on business units. It also accelerated efforts to build a foundation for the industrial gas business overseas, a future growth area, and to create new carbon neutral and agriculture businesses, which will contribute to solving social issues.

For its existing businesses in Japan, the Group continued to integrate and reorganize Group companies to establish a core company, in which each business unit would achieve autonomous growth. In addition, the Group implemented thorough value management to ensure a profit level appropriate for the value of products and services and engaged in profit growth measures, including an increase in productivity and improvements to low-profit projects through total inspections of businesses.

Among its overseas businesses, the Group carried out active investment in North America and India, which are key strategic areas, and expanded infrastructure for the industrial gas business. In North America, the Group purchased multiple gas dealerships, launched the construction of a large gas plant in New York, which would be the Group’s first manufacturing based in North America, and entered a helium gas business. In India, the Group received new orders for an onsite gas supply project for steelworks from Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), a state-run steel company. In addition, the construction of a liquefied gas production plant in southern India and gas filling stations in the northern region progressed as planned.

In the creation of new businesses through the solution of social issues, the Group worked to build a supply chain for bio-methane created from livestock excreta, which could be a fuel alternative to LNG, using gas refining and separation technologies and the Group’s business base in Hokkaido with the aim of establishing a carbon neutral society. In expectation of diverse demands for CO2 emission reduction such as CO2 collection and reuse, low-carbon hydrogen, and ammonia, the Group worked to build a group-wide system of business promotion.

In the agriculture business, recognizing that ensuring food security and higher self-sufficiency in food products are social issues, the Group restructured the business in Hokkaido in the agriculture and processing sectors and focused on setting up a new distribution and processing business for fruits and vegetables based on capital and business alliances with the industry's two major companies. Moreover, the Group built a new Gas Technology Development Center to specialize in gas technologies that will serve as both the foundation for all businesses and as a source of synergies. We began conducting testing use gas technologies to transport and maintain the freshness of agricultural products.

Looking at the consolidated results for the first nine months of the current consolidated fiscal year, negative effects such as the sluggish semiconductor market and an economic slowdown in China were offset by progress in the improvement of the earnings structure in response to rises in various costs. This resulted in further growth from the first half of the fiscal year under review, in which profit increased substantially, maintaining a pace of steady growth.

In particular, in the businesses of industrial gas and commercial sal, the cost of which began to rise in the previous fiscal year, the effect of cost reductions and price revisions, including increased efficiency in production and logistics, began to emerge. In the Global & Engineering business, orders for new projects involving liquid hydrogen tanks, demand for which is high, and large data centers helped maintain the growth trend. Moreover, growth of the beverage business and the effect of new consolidation of vegetable and fruit wholesale in the Agriculture & Foods segment were part of the contribution. The woody biomass power generation business, which had a significant impact on the results in the previous fiscal year, achieved a considerable recovery thanks to a decrease in the cost of shipping of power generation fuel.

 

As a result, for cumulative third quarter of the current fiscal year, the group’s revenue was ¥744,668million (102.7% that of the corresponding period of the previous year), operating profit was ¥49,832million (120.3%), and profit attributable to owners of parent was ¥31,046million (117.2%).

※The figures, including the results for the previous fiscal year, have been adjusted to reflect the change in segment classifications in the first quarter.