How is your company working to achieve management that prioritizes capital cost awareness and stock performance?

Our group places capital profitability at the core of our financial discipline to enhance corporate value over the medium to long term. Decision-making for growth investments and profit management considers factors such as capital costs, stock price, and equity spread trends.

The primary source of funds for growth investments is operating cash flow. However, depending on the investment, we adopt the most suitable financing methods by considering expected returns, capital costs, and financial risks. Regarding profit margins, we place particular emphasis on the gross profit margin, as it reflects customer evaluations and the competitiveness of our services.
We aim to optimize capital turnover and financial leverage in connection with our capital policies, such as shareholder returns.
To reduce capital costs, we strive to mitigate information asymmetry and enhance stock liquidity by expanding the disclosure of financial and non-financial information.

As for shareholder returns, our basic policy is to implement them in line with business performance, targeting a dividend payout ratio of 50.0% and a return on equity (ROE) of 18.8%, while aiming to enhance corporate value.

For further details on our initiatives concerning capital costs and stock price-oriented management, please refer to our Integrated Report.

Integrated Report2023　P.38-39 Financial Policies