Good afternoon. This is Seiichi Tanaka, CFO of Sojitz Corporation. Thank you very much for joining us for the earnings briefing for the quarter that ended December 31, 2021 of Sojitz Corporation. I would like to refer to two sheets titled Highlights of Consolidated Results for the Third Quarter ended December 31, 2021, and that also says Supplementary Materials. They have been available on our website. Before going to the financial statements, let me say that as stated in the bottom part of the leftmost block that says Results Highlights, we have revised our earnings forecast for the full year ending March 31, 2022. As announced, given the results after Q3 and the current market outlook, we have yet again upward revised the full year forecast as we did after Q2.
This time, the revision for the full year profit is from JPY 70 billion to JPY 80 billion, up JPY 10 billion. In relation, the year-end dividend is also upward revised from the previously planned JPY 45 per share to JPY 58 per share, up JPY 13 per share, pending approval at the shareholder meeting in June. Moving on to the profit and loss statement. Revenue, which corresponds to IFRS sales, Metals, Mineral Resources & Recycling segment was up, thanks to higher prices of coal and other resources. The segment revenue was up JPY 158.4 billion year-on-year to JPY 412.8 billion. Chemicals was also up, thanks to plastic resin transaction volume increase in Asia and the higher prices and increase in transaction volume of methanol.
Revenue was up JPY 109.2 billion year-on-year to JPY 397.7 billion. Automotive was also up as a reaction to suppressed levels for overseas Automotive business a year ago due to lockdowns. The revenue was up year-on-year by JPY 51.4 billion to JPY 180.1 billion. Total consolidated revenue increased year-on-year by JPY 388.9 billion to JPY 1,548.6 billion. Gross profit also increased, thanks to the same three segments. The consolidated gross profit figure was up year-on-year by JPY 58.2 billion to JPY 190.7 billion. Down to SG&A expenses. Personnel expenses increased due to a bonus increase and the transaction volume increase. Outsourcing expenses for development of new investments and loans also increased.
SG&A also increased in relation to newly consolidated subsidiaries. Total SG&A increased year-on-year by JPY 10.6 billion to JPY 130.1 billion. Further down to other income and expenses, these are non-recurring items. In relation to the gain on sales of non-ferrous smelting and refining company, after Q2, the net figure was an income of JPY 1.9 billion. However, because of a loss in relation to the divestiture of industrial machinery related company and the absence of gains related to the sale of shopping mall and solar power generation business in the previous year, the total other income and expenses that came to net expenses of JPY 2.6 billion, and that's an increase in expenses by JPY 8.6 billion.
Financial income and costs came to a net income of JPY 1.6 billion. That's an improvement by JPY 4.4 billion. Net interest expenses came to JPY 3 billion. That's an improvement of JPY 1.9 billion. Dividends received came to JPY 4.1 billion. That's an improvement of JPY 1.8 billion, thanks to increased dividend at investees. The share of profit or loss of investments accounted for using the equity method came to JPY 25.4 billion, up JPY 17.5 billion, thanks to a steel operating company. Profit before tax came to JPY 85 billion. That's up JPY 60.9 billion from the same period last year. After income tax expenses, profit for the period came to JPY 65.1 billion.
One line down and the highlighted line, profit attributable to owners of the company came to JPY 62 billion. That's up forty-five point three billion yen year-on-year. As mentioned earlier, we have upward revised the full year forecast, which is now JPY 80 billion. Against that figure, the Q3 figure stands at 78%. Moving on to the right block, which shows the financial position or the balance sheet. At the end of December 2021, total assets came to JPY 2,509.2 billion. That's up JPY 209 billion from the end of March 2021. I have marked four line items that have had a great impact. In a nutshell, resources, Chemicals and plastic resins markets improved.
Lifestyle products transaction volume increased, and that pushed up trade and other receivables. Then, the valuation of investment-related assets increased thanks to new investments in loans and higher stock prices. Total liabilities at the end of December came to JPY 1,800.2 billion. That's up JPY 154.6 billion from the end of March 2021. Further down, if you could look at the underlined line item, total equity attributable to owners of the company. At the end of December, this figure came to JPY 674.7 billion, up JPY 55.7 billion during the period. Retained earnings increased by JPY 45.3 billion. That's profit for the period less dividend paid.
One line up, the other components of equity, the weaker yen led to foreign currency translation adjustments, and stronger or higher stock prices led to valuation gains. Further down, we have listed six key financial indicators. The third one, the net debt-to-equity ratio at the end of December stood at 1.08 times. That's up 0.09 from the end of March last year. Now to cash flows. Cash flows from operating activities. The net operating assets means that we had a lot of outflow, but the core operating cash flow, as you can see, was a net inflow of JPY 81.3 billion. All in total, the cash flows from operating activities was a net inflow of JPY 42.2 billion.
Cash flows from investing activities came to a net cash outflow of JPY 104.2 billion. Free cash flow came to a net outflow of JPY 62 billion. After adjusted investment cash flow and shareholder returns, the core cash flow came to an outflow of JPY 8.9 billion. That's for the three quarters accumulated. Now to the next page, the second sheet that says supplementary materials. Here, I would like to focus on the middle part where we are showing segment performance focused on profit for the period. This time, I would like to just highlight the segments for which we have revised the full year outlook, meaning Automotive, Metals, Mineral Resources & Recycling, Consumer Industry & Agriculture Business, and others. First on auto.
Due to the semiconductor shortage, we have had to downward revise the full year sales outlook for the number of cars sold by more than 10%. Through efforts such as improving inventory turnover and reducing sales incentives, we have been able to boost our margins, and therefore, the results have been steady. By the end of Q3, we have actually exceeded the previous full year forecast, and that's why we have upward revised the forecast by JPY 1 billion. This is a conservative upward revision due to concerns we have over Russia. Now to Metals, Mineral Resources & Recycling. In Q3, in Australia, we suffered from lost production due to flooding, but there are higher prices and that more than offset the impact.
After Q3, we have come to 91% of the November forecast of JPY 31 billion for the full year. For Q4 coal sales, we have already completed or finalized the contracts, and the prices have been fixed for more than 80%. With that, we have upward revised the full year forecast to JPY 44 billion. Now to Consumer Industry & Agriculture Business. For overseas fertilizer business, raw material prices are higher, and the paper-making business in Vietnam has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. With that, after Q2, we downward revised the full year forecast by JPY 1 billion. Now we have reverted to the original figure of JPY 5 billion, thanks to the strength in construction materials and imported plywood market status.
However, fertilizer raw materials are still expensive, and inventory levels at local fertilizer dealers are still high, so the situation is still challenging. For Q4 alone, we are still expecting a loss. Last but not least, for the others part, given the upward revision of the full year profit figures, to ensure good implementation of our decarbonization policy, and to avoid the stranding of interests, such as the thermal coal interests, we intend to book structural reform expenses. Therefore, the November forecast was JPY 3 billion, but we are now downward revising that to a loss of JPY 2 billion. That's down by JPY 5 billion. That's all from myself. Thank you very much for your attention.