I'm Steve Dacus. Good afternoon to all of you, and thank you all for taking the time to join us today. As I've been nominated by the board as our next CEO, I thought I would take this opportunity to talk a bit about my priorities and the path forward for the company. You know, I've had the good fortune to work for some great retailers around the world, including in Japan and the U.S. These are companies that are both iconic and dominant in their space, and they're continuing to grow far faster than their competitors.
I've learned a few things that have helped shape my thinking about how to win in retail and how to increase value for both customers and shareholders. I wanted to share my thoughts with you today, as this will inform how I approach my new role. First, allow me to share my thoughts regarding where we are today. 7-Eleven is an iconic brand, and it's the leading convenience brand in both North America and Japan. We got here in part because our team are great merchants and innovators.
Our team are humble, and they're focused on delighting our customers. That customer focus is directly responsible for our culture of innovation. The proof is in the data. Our APSD, Average Per Store Day merchandise sales, are between 20% and 30% higher than our key competitors in both Japan and North America. Our customers are responding to the innovation our merchants and operators are bringing to our stores. I believe this is our biggest competitive advantage, and it's a really important one.
I believe another key source of our strength is our franchisee network, as well as the systems and organization we have in place to support them. We would not be the iconic brand we are today without the incredible work that our franchisees do each and every day to serve our customers. Their customer focus and hard work built this business, and we need to make sure that they have the support they need to continue to grow our business. In addition to these strengths, there are a few areas that I would like to change. Truthfully, we have historically been a bit conservative.
T his has led to us moving a bit slower than we should have and missing opportunities, and it has impacted our ability to execute. This is something I intend to change. We also need to reemphasize our focus on the creation of shareholder value. I intend to do this with a much more strategic approach. You'll be hearing a bit more about this later. I believe there are a few critically important keys to winning in mass market retail. The first is a maniacal customer focus, focus on continuously bringing our customers better products and services.
This is where our culture of innovation and strong merchandising comes in. The second key is execution. This is all about speed and discipline. It does no good to have innovative products or services if you can't get them into your stores with speed. Someone else will do it for you, and you'll miss out. By the same token, if you can't roll out a new product or service in the right way at the right time, your customers will be disappointed, and you'll miss out. The third key is cost control.
There are many things that a merchant cannot control, so you need to be sure you are on top of the things you can. Costs are one big thing that are largely within your control. If you are focused on your customer and disciplined, you can make sure that every yen that is spent provides value to your customers. If it does not, do not spend it. Invest where your customers will appreciate it. The fourth key is global leverage. You know, we have different strengths in our operating units that need to be leveraged more aggressively.
Some successes have been achieved already with the introduction of Tanpin Kanri in international markets, the partnership with suppliers Warabeya, for example, in the U.S., and the introduction of 7NOW in Japan. However, we need to accelerate this to better serve our customers. There is so much more to leverage across our business units, including our approach to retail media, private brands, global sourcing. The list just goes on and on. We need to focus on leveraging our size and scale better and faster to drive value for our customers.
Today, you'll be hearing some really exciting initiatives to invest and innovate in our stores, in our products, and our services in ways that will delight our customers and drive our growth. I'm really excited about things like the rollout of our QSRs in the U.S., which will more than double the number of QSR stores from 1,000 to 2,100, the rollout of our new prototype in the U.S. With 1,300 new stores expected over the next several years, the rollout of the SIP store innovations in Japan to bring hot, fresh, cooked in-store quality food that our customers can eat at home, in-store, or have delivered.
You will see us invest aggressively in new formats and new capabilities to improve the customer experience at existing stores. I'm really excited about our way forward, and we need to move quickly to make this a reality. We need to execute faster. We need to execute with discipline. We need to focus on our cost structure. We need to leverage our strengths and innovations better and faster across our business units. Lastly, we will be taking a more disciplined approach to capital allocation and investment for growth. I will come back to this topic a bit later. With that, I'd like to hand over to Maruyama-s an to take us through our FY24 results.
Good afternoon. I am Maruyama of Seven & i Holdings. Please turn to page three. This is the 2024 results and 2025 summary forecast. In 2024, both in Japan and the U.S., there was inflation, especially there was a rising food price. Therefore, young people and middle and low-income groups had depressed consumer confidence. In response to the needs of value-oriented consumers, we repeated trial and errors and implemented various measures. At last, we were able to see some results in the latter half, and some signs of improvement were seen in our midterm management plan and the action plan that we announced in April last year.
We have strategically promoted the liquidation of business and assets that do not generate profits or have a low profitability in order to maximize corporate and shareholder value over the medium to long term. We have almost completed this in fiscal year 2024. As a result of these efforts in 2024, continued from 2023, we were able to achieve the full year consolidated performance plan revised in October, although we had to record a large extraordinary loss. In 2025, we expect a significant increase in profits at the net income level as a result of the completion of these structural reforms.
In addition, we announced management measures on March 6, and we presented a roadmap for the realization of corporate and shareholder value. Today, we will explain in detail our business strategy for future growth and steadily implement plans to significantly increase shareholder value, including the JPY 600 billion share purchase program announced. In addition, we will steadily implement plans to significantly increase shareholder value, including value. Next, please see page six. I will explain the consolidated financials of fiscal year 2024, the highlights of our consolidated results in 2024.
In terms of operating revenue, we were at JPY 11.9727 trillion, 104.4% year- on- year and 108% planned. Operating income was at JPY 420.9 billion, 78.8% year on year and 104.5% versus the planned. For net income, JPY 173 billion, 77% year- on- year, and as against planned of 106.2%. In terms of operating income and net income, as I said, we ended up with a tough result versus last year, but we have started to see benefit of the measures we have implemented. Though it's gradual, we are now on a steady path to recovery, and we were able to exceed the plan by JPY 17.9 billion for operating income.
For net income as well, since we have been working on reorganizing low profitable, non-profitable business and profit, though we did see the profits come down, we were able to exceed planned by JPY 10 billion. Net income adjusted for one-time factors ended up at JPY 197.7 billion. FX impact was JPY 15.5 billion at the operating income level. Please turn to page seven. The revenue, operating income, and EBITDA is shown here in terms of segment breakdown, and you can also see the comparison year- on- year. In regards to the numbers for the international convenience business, these are after the amortization of goodwill.
Consolidated operating income came down mainly for domestic and international convenience store business. That was the trial and error that we have implemented to address the changes in the consumer behavior. We have started to see benefits in the second half of the year, but we were unable to make up for the weakness on a full year basis, and so the profit came down year on year. For the domestic CVS business, in addition to the Pleasant Value initiative we started in September last year, we have been also introducing a just-made counterproduct that is unique to Seven & i Holdings with a unique value line.
We have seen a steady recovery of the same-store sales as well as the number of customers. We will continue to enhance initiatives to grow revenue as well as to improve and recover the gross margin for the international convenience store business. We will continue to be impacted by the consumption environment in the U.S., but the value of our measures, as well as enhancement of the original product development, delivery service Seven & i Holdings has been performing quite well. All these factors have started to show improvement of the total traffic as well as the sales, and we will continue to implement measures with higher effectiveness.
Please turn to page eight. Here you can see the numbers versus the plan for each of the segments. For operating income and EBITDA, we were slightly below the plan as for the domestic convenience store business and superstore business, but for the international convenience store business, finance business, and for others, we were able to exceed the plan. We were able to achieve the plan on a consolidated basis. Please turn to page nine. I'd like to explain about the extraordinary losses. Our group, over the last number of years, we have been working on maximizing the group's corporate value and shareholder value.
As part of that, we have been working on selection and concentration of various businesses and assets. 2024 was the year of compilation of these efforts. We have been implementing the selection and consolidation based on the midterm management plan as well as the action plan that we announced in April last year in the first half of the year. In addition to the impairment at the store level due to the structural reform at Ito-Yokado, as well as the rebuilding of the last-mile strategy for SST business, we ended up registering a loss of JPY 46.4 billion in the second half of the year.
In addition to improving the profitability of SEI, we have booked a loss of JPY 56.7 billion for the closure of unprofitable stores, as well as losses associated with system integration of your holdings. Now, these one-time extraordinary losses accounted for JPY 145.6 billion out of the JPY 220.9 billion of extraordinary losses we booked for FY2024. The completion of these efforts towards structural reform will contribute significantly to improving the profitability or recovering the profitability that will start from the next fiscal year. Please turn to page ten.
These are the actual for the 2024 consolidated financial KPIs. For the quantitative index for EBITDA, we are impacted by the deceleration of business for the Japan and U.S. CVS business, and so we ended up year on year decrease. The operating cash flow, excluding finance, and the free cash flow, excluding the financing activities, have achieved an improvement, and the ability to generate operating cash flow continues to remain solid. ROE and ROI, the quantitative figures, ended up decreasing year- on- year.
That was because of the decrease in net income due to booking of extraordinary losses due to promotion of structural reform, and because of the weaker Yen, the investment capital increased significantly in Yen. By the way, the PL rate for FY2024 was JPY 11.02 weaker year- on- year, at JPY 151.69. The balance sheet rate w as JPY 16.35 lower than the end of last fiscal year at JPY 158.18. In other words, a significant impact from the denominators.
For that EBITDA, the multiple, which is assigned as the index of financial position, we actually secured about JPY 300 billion of debt in order to acquire SEA in FY2024, as well as Suncoast Sunoco in Australia. It is more or less at the same level as previous year because we have been working on reducing debt. This completes my explanation about the performance in FY2024. Thank you.
Mr. Fumihiko Nagamatsu, President of 7-Eleven in Japan, will explain.
I'm Nagamatsu of Seven & i Holdings in Japan. I would like to talk about our major strategies in 2025 of Seven & i Holdings in Japan. Please turn to page 12. First of all, as for the priority measures of Seven & i Holdings in Japan, Seven & i Holdings, while we see various changes in the environment, we always try to blend ourselves into the customers. With the vision of creating tomorrow's miles together, we aim to be a store that can be used conveniently together with member stores and daily franchise stores and daily manufacturers.
To achieve this, we will focus on product policy, one of Seven & i Holdings' core competencies, to strengthen high-value-added products, to promote habitual use, and strengthen SIP initiatives to develop potential needs to create the Seven & i Holdings of the future. In addition, 7NOW, which is a new way to propose the way to use Seven & i Holdings, we would like to grow 7NOW. We were able to gain a great hint while we proceed with our SIP strategy, which I would like to explain in detail. Please turn to page 13. I would like to explain our approach to strengthening our core products.
In 2025, we will once again thoroughly pursue the introduction of high-value-added products and communicate the value to customers, and aim to achieve 102.5% year-on-year growth in same-store sales. The number of customer counts, which have been on the recovery trend from last year, continues to improve. Whilst the result unit sales price is improving, we would like to drive furthermore the increase.
To realize this goal, we will increase the composition ratio of these products by promoting products in the mid-price and high-price categories with taste and quality that exceeds customers' expectations, along with tricks to make them feel a sense of excitement. On the other hand, we believe that the need for economic viability will remain strong in the current fiscal year, so we will continue to narrow down the range of products with pleasing prices. We will also focus on providing new value-added ready-made products such as Seven Cafe Bakery and Seven Cafe Tea.
High-value-added products are Seven & i Holdings' strength, so we would like to reinforce high-value-added products once again in order to grow our sales as well as gross margin. Please turn to page 14. In order to explore potential needs, we started SIP store number one last year. Compared to the national average, the counter merchandise products and daily products, frozen food products, sales mix is extremely high. Even after there are supermarkets being opened in the neighborhood, both sales as well as the customer count is continuing to grow more than 10% compared to the previous year.
We believe that the most important thing will be freshly prepared products going forward. We have begun introducing counter products at 20 stores in Saitama Prefecture from this year. As a result, as shown in the right side, the total sales and customer numbers of target stores in February increased by more than 7%, which have been well received. The increase in the ratio of counter products, which have relatively high gross profit margins, has also resulted in an increase in the overall gross profit margin of the stores.
Please turn to page 15. 7NOW, our delivery service, as of end of February, has completed the recommendation campaign nationwide. In order to expand awareness of 7NOW and develop it into a pillar of sales, we believe that the usage of 7NOW at SIP test stores will provide important clues. Of the top 10 products ordered from 7NOW at the test stores, nine are freshly prepared products, and this characteristic is pronounced compared to the rest of the country. As shown, the number of orders is double the national average, confirming the steady effect of both daily sales and gross profit.
We believe that the expansion of the SIP element will be an important key for Seven & i Holdings to increase the number of sales as the store's assortment of freshly made products is highly compatible with that of Seven & i Holdings, which delivers products from store inventory. With the expansion of SIP elements by 2030, we are aiming for JPY 120 billion of Seven & i Holdings sales. Please turn to page.
This is a roadmap for the priority measures for 2025. The capital investment for FY2025 due to the rollout of these measures, as shown on the right, we will be spending about JPY 15 billion for the expansion of these SIP elements, and we'll capture the SIP elements and we'll roll this out to the existing stores. In that regard, we are conducting tests of the next generation store layout. Together with that, we are introducing the people-saving facilities with the aim of improving productivity. We are planning JPY 12 billion of spending to renovate stores.
Together with the renewal of the store system and also to realize a greater continuity as well as efficiency of the operation, we will be introducing a next-generation store system with the expectation of generating greater counter space. For this, we are planning to spend some JPY 27 billion. We will verify these measures, and we will be working on initiatives to realize as early benefit of these initiatives as possible. Please go to page 17. Because of the measures we have implemented thus far in FY2025, operating income increased by JPY 11.2 billion to JPY 245 billion.
Sorry, this is what we are going to achieve. The major KPIs that was achieving this, as you can see on the right, in terms of same-store sales, a growth of 2.5%. Their gross margin is an improvement of 0.1%. The SG&A ratio vis-à-vis sales, even under the cost inflationary environment, we will scrutinize the details and we will maintain this level at being flat. Please turn to page 18. This is my last slide. This slide explains the growth strategy for Seven & i Holdings in Japan towards 2030. We have the existing business centered around the merchandise and stores as far, and we have been maintaining the leadership position within the industry in Japan.
I would like to explain about our new business thinking that utilizes the first-party data. We also consider it very important to continue to work on initiatives to enable sustainable growth for the value chain overall. I will also give some explanation from such a perspective as well. First of all, in regards to a key strategy for the existing business, what is most important is to continue to provide high-value-added products that meet the consumer needs, and this remains unchanged into the future. Now, how are we going to realize that? We will introduce SIP, and we will propose new ways of using the convenience store.
In other words, we will be accelerating the growth of Seven & i Holdings in that regard. We will look into the detail of the unique features of each of the areas. We will promote a store opening strategy that is mindful of investment efficiency. In regards to the new business, we will roll out the retail media business that utilizes digital signage and application. We will also roll out the retail data business that utilizes first-party data. These will be positioned as new pillars of earnings going forward, and we will start with more earnest initiatives in this area. The increases in various costs in Japan are due to the progressive inflation, such as personnel expense.
We expect this situation to continue. We do recognize there is a risk that there could be impact towards franchise owners as well as the suppliers. In order to realize the various initiatives that I've explained thus far, it is essential that we optimize the value chain overall. From such a perspective, using the information that we gather from communicating with the owners as well as the various suppliers, we want to work towards maximizing the trading schemes as well as the introduction of more automated facilities.
By implementing each and every measure towards these risks, we want to work on enabling sustainable growth for the value chain overall. By doing this, we want to achieve more than JPY 6 trillion of sales in 2030 and the APSD of more than JPY 750,000 and growth profit margin of more than 32.5% in 2030. This completes my explanation. Thank you very much.
Thank you. My name is Stan Reynolds. I am the President of 7-Eleven. I want to spend a few minutes today discussing 7-Eleven's Q4 and fiscal year 2024 results and highlight some of the short and long-term tactics we are leveraging to drive traffic, sales, and margin. Next slide. While full year results were not what we wanted, we've made progress in same-store sales, margin, and units. Same-store sales, excluding cigarettes, turned positive in Q4. However, going into this year, our traffic declined in Q1, driven primarily by cigarettes. If we exclude cigarettes, we're expecting to see almost positive U.S. same-store sales growth in March.
We've also seen continued momentum in units per transaction and a significant improvement in merchandise margin trends, both in Q4 and year-to-date through February 2025. We expect these trends to continue in March. Our results have been impacted by the macroeconomic environment, with inflation up 27% versus 2019 and record high debt and delinquency levels, magnified by the recent economic uncertainty around tariffs and immigration policy.
We're closely monitoring the business and consumer impacts in response to the recently announced tariffs, and this uncertainty has impacted our customer, as we've seen consumer confidence fall to a multi-year low and declining consumer spending as they try to stretch their dollars by shifting to channels online and delivery in search of deals and discounts. Despite these challenges, we are well-positioned to deliver on the value that our customer is seeking throu gh our key growth strategies. Next slide.
I would like to take you through our short and intermediate-term tactics focused on four key areas. First, growing our proprietary products. Second, accelerating digital and delivery. Third, improving efficiency and cost leadership. Fourth, growing and enhancing our store network. Let's start by looking at our key initiative to grow proprietary products. To accelerate our growth, we've strategically invested in store enhancements and growing our assortment.
This includes investing in our food and beverage modernization program that offers our customers a wider assortment of back-of-store and hot food items and specialty coffee. We're expanding this program with an additional 400+ installs in Q1 of 2025, on top of over 2,100 installs last year. Early results have shown an encouraging APSD lift of $135 versus prior year for full implementations. We're able to drive further differentiation and value to customers through our portfolio of 900+ private brands.
In 2024, we launched 215 new items across high-growth categories that resonated with customers and plan to add another 200 items in 2025. In addition to driving traffic and sales to our stores, our private brands have a 51% margin, approximately 18% higher than national brands. We'll continue to invest in our private brand portfolio and launch high-quality, high-value products that customers are seeking. Next slide. Additionally, we've partnered with Warabeya in Texas and Florida to meet growing demand for high-quality food offerings supporting 2,000 stores.
Our 2025 growth plan with Warabeya is to drive quality improvement to core items, complemented by the introduction of innovative new items. Our restaurant portfolio continues to serve as a key differentiator and provides us another opportunity to deliver value that resonates with customers. With more than 1,100 locations across three brands, we're able to meet the ever-changing taste of our customers, and the benefits are meaningful as stores with restaurants drive 57% more traffic, 36% more APSD sales, and carry an additional 30 basis points of margin as compared to our non-restaurant locations.
Next, we're excited about the progress and opportunities for our industry-leading loyalty and delivery programs. With over 100 million total loyalty members, we're now focused on increasing our high-value customer base through personalized marketing and gamification to drive value and incremental trips to our stores. Since 2022, 7NOW has consistently grown and delivers our products to our customers at their doorstep within 28 minutes. We're very excited and on track to hit our $1 billion sales goal through this channel by 2025. Next slide. We remain focused on maximizing operational efficiencies while also investing in our store portfolio.
With a rigorous approach to cost discipline in 2024, we delivered $562 million in cost savings and plan to build on this momentum with the goal of reducing our OSG&A to sales ratio by 30 basis points in 2025. Since acquiring over 3,000 stores from Speedway in 2021, we've been working on integrating these stores into our portfolio and maximizing synergies. We are currently in the process of installing our proprietary point-of-sale system, RIS 2.0, and fuel dispenser experience, DEX, which will help standardize store systems across banners, simplify operations, and reduce cost.
Roll out of this system has been a key growth driver for sales and margin across our mature acquisitions. We plan to complete all of these conversions this year. Next slide. Finally, as we continue to invest in our store portfolio and leverage feedback from customers, we've developed and are implementing our new store standard. We plan to build 550 new stores between 2025 and 2027 with a focus on our new standard stores. These food-forward stores are resonating with our customers and driving APSD about 18% higher than our system average.
We'll continue learning from these stores and refine our new store standard to meet the needs of consumers both now and in the future. Next slide. Here you can see an overview of our 2025 plans. Along with an operating income target of $2.3 billion, we expect same-store sales of negative 1.5%, merchandise margin to grow by 40 basis points to 33.7%, and a ratio of OSG&A to sales to improve by 30 basis points to 16.5%. Our plans will not only improve our fiscal year 2025 performance versus 2024, but also provide the foundation for success in future years.
In conclusion, we remain confident in our long-term strategy, which is aligned with the customer's evolving preferences and will set us up for success through 2030. We've seen promising results from our proprietary product initiatives and plan to add 5,450 additional stores to our food and beverage modernization program by 2026 and add over 1,100 restaurants, as well as hit $1.9 billion in private brand sales by 2030. With consistent growth in 7NOW since inception, we expect to grow delivery sales to $1.25 billion by 2030.
As discussed earlier, we're focused on maintaining financial and operational discipline, and we're confident our efforts will lead to a 275 basis point OSG&A rate improvement by 2030. Finally, we're accelerating new stores with a focus on our new standard, and we plan to open 1,300 new locations by 2030, with 550 of them between 2025 and 2027. With that, I'll turn it back to Mr. Maruyama.
From now, I again would like to talk about the domestic and North American plans that are included in the consolidated forecast for 2025. Page 30, please. This is the forecast for 2025. Operating income: JPY 424 billion, 100.7% year-on-year. Net income: JPY 255 billion, 147.3% year-on-year. This forecast includes only the first half results of consolidated subsidiaries attributable to York Holdings in the consolidated results, and it reflects only equity in earnings of affiliates in the second half of the year in proportion to the percentage of ownership.
As for Seven Bank, we aim to deconsolidate within 2025. Although specific timing has not been determined, only the first half results of Seven Bank is included in the consolidated subsidiaries. Therefore, operating revenue decreased and operating income only increased JPY 3 billion. On the other hand, as for net income, as the structural reforms completed, the risk of posting extraordinary losses has reduced significantly, and we expect a significant increase in the net income. We plan a significant increase in EPS of more than 150% over the previous year, coupled with the effect of the share buyback.
Foreign exchange effects are expected to have a negative impact of JPY 5.7 billion. For your reference, on the right-hand side, we show the figures excluding the impact of making York Holdings and Seven Bank equity method affiliates. Next, page 31, forecast by segment. 2025, domestic convenience business and overseas convenience business. As explained, due to the measures, we expect to improve profitability, and we have a plan to increase operating income and profit, respectively.
In SEI's earnings forecast, as explained, due to the Trump administration's tariff policy and immigration policies, the consumer confidence has largely declined, and we have factored that in. In the third quarter in January, we explained our KPI targets for fiscal year 2025. Same-store sales growth rate from 1.5% to -1.5%, and merchandise gross profit margin have been revised down from 34.1% to 33.7%, and for the SG&A to sales ratio from 16.4% to 60.5%.
Although we assume that the consumption environment in North America will continue to be unpredictable, we will achieve our operating income and profit plan revenue and profit plan by steadily promoting strategic measures. In addition, since York Holdings and Seven Bank are expected to become equity method affiliates, operating revenues in the superstore business, finance-related business, and other businesses are expected to decrease significantly. Please turn to page 32.
This is a breakdown of the first and second halves in our consolidated earnings forecast for 2025. As explained earlier, we expect group sales. We expect to make York Holdings on the 1st of September an equity method affiliated company. In addition, although the timing is undecided, we will deconsolidate Seven Bank during 2025, and therefore we expect operating revenue to decline largely vis-à-vis the group sales in the second half. Therefore, operating income is expected to increase due to recovery of the CVS business. Earning income incorporates the recording of equity in earnings of affiliates in the second half.
Therefore, we plan to increase operating income in the first half and decrease operating in the second half. In terms of shareholder return, first for dividend, based on the progressive dividend payment, we are expecting JPY 20 per share at the end of the fiscal year. As for 2025, for the dividend forecast, we're expecting an increase of JPY 10 increase to pay out JPY 50 in total. Furthermore, based on the update related to management measures that were announced on the 6th of March, we will focus more onto the convenience business going forward to maximize value for shareholders.
In order to achieve returns, we are going to implement a series of initiatives to reform their business together with the capital structure and management structure. As one of those, we will be an IPO in the SEI, as well as an SST business group to be deconsolidated. We've already announced that we are going to acquire some JPY 2 trillion of own shares. As we made a press release today, as for 2025, based on recovering capital due to deconsolidation of SST business, we have set a share buyback quota of JPY 600 billion.
Please refer to page 24. These are the KPI expectations for 2025 on a consolidated basis. York Holdings will be added as an equity method company. Though the decision has not been made for the timing for fiscal year 2025, Seven Bank is to be deconsolidated, so EBITDA is expected to come down. As for ROE and ROIC, we are expecting to see a significant improvement due to a significant increase in net income. Because the invested capital, which is the denominator, is calculated by the average of the two halves.
Because of the impact at the end of 2024, when there was a significant weekend, the improvement is going to be smaller. However, as I said before, because of the execution of business strategy of a medium-term for the convenience store business in Japan and the U.S., we're going to make significant improvement in FY2026 EPS as well. This will be improved significantly due to significant share buyback in addition to implementing medium-term business strategy after 2026. Please refer to page 35. This is how we're going to generate cash based on the medium-term business strategy, which is going to be the basis of the capital allocation policy that
Mr. Dacus will explain later on. In addition to the size of cash generation due to recovering capital, we are going to increase the debt capacity due to steadily paying bac our debt. Let me explain. On the left is a chart. In addition to cash generated based on the domestic and international convenience store business, the cash that is generated through recovery of capital, you can see the recent six years as well as upcoming six years, how they change.
As you can see, in addition to the growth of the convenience store business in Japan and also abroad, since York Holdings will be made an equity method company and we're going to recover capital through IPO of the SEI, there is going to be significant room for us to allocate capital towards improving corporate value and shareholder value going forward. On the right, you can see the balances of interest-bearing debt as well as net interest-bearing debt, and this shows the transition to 2030. Due to a steady repayment, we can see that interest-bearing debt will come down quite significantly.
This forecast for paying down debt is based on the assumption that we are not going to engage in a large M&A during this period. Another way to put it is that for us, if there is going to be an attractive opportunity for us, we have the sufficient debt capacity to engage in a large investment inclusive of M&A should there be an interesting and attractive opportunity. This is one way for you to understand from the perspective of finance. We will take various options in terms of shareholder return as well as investment for growth towards enhancing corporate and shareholder value going forward. This completes my explanation. Thank you.
Thank you. You've heard a great deal today about how we will drive value for our customers and our shareholders. To summarize, our strategic priorities are as follows. One, we will execute with speed and accelerate the growth of our business in Japan and North America with initiatives laid out just a moment ago by Nagamatsu-san and Stan. Second, we will execute with discipline by focusing on our cost structure. We will improve cost efficiencies across the value chain to achieve a best-in-class cost structure. This is one thing we can absolutely control, and we have identified real opportunities that we can move quickly on.
Third, we will invest in a disciplined manner so that we deleverage quickly and maintain our strong balance sheet as we ensure appropriate returns on our investments. Fourth, we are committed to completing the IPO of SEI by the second half of 2026, in which we believe we'll have a number of benefits, including unlocking a great deal of value for our shareholders. Last but not least, we are committed to delivering on our enhanced shareholder return framework via share repurchases and dividends. Next, please. As you heard today, these are the specific areas we will focus on to accelerate our growth.
It's no accident that our key initiatives have a high degree of overlap across North America and Japan. This is because customer needs and expectations are becoming more similar across the world. This is an advantage for us as it gives us the opportunity to leverage our strengths and innovations in one market to other markets. It's something you will see us do more and more as we go forward. Next, please. In terms of profitability improvement and cost control, in North America, we have carried out a bottom-up process, which has identified some really significant opportunities for improvement.
Our senior management team there are already executing on these initiatives, which include some quick wins as well as initiatives to achieve longer-term growth and value creation. Next, please. In terms of our investment strategy, as you heard from Maruyama-san, over the past decade or more, we have maintained a flexible balance sheet with low leverage, which has allowed us to drive organic investment and accretive M&A. After the Speedway acquisition, the largest acquisition we've ever completed, we were able to deliver quickly, and we will continue to do so.
As you heard from Maruyama-san, this will provide flexibility for future opportunities. Next, please. We are planning an IPO of SEI because we believe an IPO of SEI will be beneficial to our shareholders as it will unlock the intrinsic value of SEI, and that will be reflected in Seven & i Holdings. It will also deliver significant shareholder return via share repurchases using proceeds from the IPO. SEI will also benefit from increased financial flexibility, allowing it to tailor capital allocation and M&A priorities. SEI will be able to retain top talent and execute M&A with the benefit of bespoke compensation and consideration packages.
Next, please. In terms of capital allocation, we plan to allocate JPY 3.5 trillion to growth investments in our convenience store business, as we discussed earlier, between now and 2030. This investment may also include smaller bolt-on M&A opportunities, but the vast majority will be for organic growth with the initiatives which we have just outlined. In addition, we also plan to repurchase approximately JPY 2 trillion by fiscal year 2030 while prioritizing consistent dividend increases with our earnings growth.
Finally, as I said, we will steadily and consistently pay down our debt and expect to continue to maintain our strong credit ratings, enabling us to pursue sizable M&A if attractive opportunities arise or further accelerate investment in organic growth drivers. This approach will allow us to balance increased return of capital for our shareholders with accelerated investment for growth. Next slide, please. As a first step, as you just heard, we are announcing a JPY 600 billion share repurchase in this fiscal year using proceeds from the sale of our superstore business group.
In addition, we plan to repurchase an additional JPY 1.4 trillion in a consistent cadence through 2030. We will enhance our capital returns by steadily increasing our dividend. These are all key components of our long-term growth algorithm, which I'll cover now. Next, please. Our shareholder return algorithm is pretty straightforward, with the operational initiatives discussed here today driving mid-single-digit EBITDA growth and the capital returns to our shareholders driving low double-digit EPS growth and the inclusion of increasing dividends resulting in mid-teens total shareholder return percentage.
Next slide, please. In summary, our disciplined execution of the customer-focused initiatives discussed here today, along with better cost control, will accelerate our growth in Japan and North America. In addition, we have identified what we believe is a billion-dollar opportunity to improve profitability across the entire value chain. This will support our return of capital initiatives that will generate real value for shareholders through the execution of significant share repurchases while steadily increasing our dividend.
Lastly, the IPO of SEI will be a huge value unlock for the business. Thank you for your time today. I hope you've seen that we are committed to accelerating profitable growth at Seven & i, and we are committed to delivering significant value to our customers, our shareholders, and all of our stakeholders. With that, we're happy to field any questions you may have. Thank you.