Companies at this point. As an integrated growth partner to our clients, we will contribute to their top-line growth as well as our own. At Dentsu International, we announced a number of new client wins. GlaxoSmithKline selected 360i for creative and digital agency of record duty for a portfolio of their consumer brands in the U.S. LinkedIn chose iProspect in the U.S. as its paid media partner. Hilton, BNP Paribas, and Kroger are additional clients we welcome to our roster. The quarter also saw us expand our existing relationships with a number of our key clients, including P&G and Kraft Heinz. Our media net new businesses wins in Dentsu International for the first quarter was $800 million, with the pipeline for the rest of the year very strong.
The media pipeline for Dentsu International is currently the highest we have ever seen at $10 billion, with over 80% of those opportunities offensive. It is and will continue to be a very busy year for our pitch teams. Dentsu International also launched dentsu health, formally bringing together our 2,000 health marketing experts across 85 markets to combine our specialists in health, wellness, and pharmaceutical marketing. Our industry recognition continues. Merkle was recognized as a leader in The Forrester Wave for loyalty solutions in Q2, receiving the highest possible score against all 13 criteria. Isobar was named a leader in Gartner's 2020 Magic Quadrant for global marketing agencies for seven consecutive years. Dentsu Group was named the most creative network at the Spikes Asia. Finally, The Drum announced Dentsu Tokyo topped the worldwide ad agencies rankings at the World Creative Rankings 2021.
The breadth of these awards demonstrate the wide range of capabilities the group offers, and I would like to offer my thanks and many congratulations to all our teams involved. With our continued focus on sustainability at the heart of our business, we have a number of announcements. Wendy Clark, CEO of Dentsu International, became a member of the World Economic Forum's Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders. We became founding members of the WEF's Partnering for Racial Justice initiative. We also launched the pilot of DIMPACT, a pioneering tool to manage the media industry's digital carbon footprint. Other corporates involved include Netflix, BT, the BBC, and Sky. We became a signatory to the Biden letter, calling for the highest level of climate ambition as part of the We Mean Business coalition.
I would now like to hand over to Soga-san, who will talk us through the financials for the quarter.
Thank you, Yamamoto-san. I would now like to take you through the financial results for Q1 2021. Next page, please. The group reported organic revenue decline of 2.4% for the first quarter. The negative organic revenue decline in January and February was due to the pre-COVID comparators in 2020. However, client confidence and spend increased throughout the quarter, with March showing positive organic growth of +2.5% for the group. In Japan, we saw recovering demand in the TV market and the digital advertising and digital solutions business. Telecom and technology clients were very active throughout the quarter. Demand for digital and other media was also strong in our international business. The group expects to continue to benefit from the post-pandemic recovery throughout 2021.
Underlying operating profit and operating margin improved significantly, benefiting from cost management through daily business operations and from the structurally lowered cost base due to the accelerated transformation plan announced last year. Net profit was down year-over-year, mainly due to the earn-out revaluation resulting from the improving outlook projection for our acquisitions that are still under earn-out. Total revenue and organic growth by region. The regional organic growth performance reflects the different speed of impact of the pandemic across the globe, with earlier recovery we observed across Japan and APAC in Q1. Japan, which represents 46% of the Group revenues in the first quarter, maintained the same level of revenue less cost of sales as the previous year, with organic growth rate of -0.9%. The pace of recovery increased every month, with an organic growth rate of +5.2% from March.
The recovery reflects the improvement of TV spot ad at Dentsu Inc., and the strong performance of our digital assets across Dentsu Japan Network. In the Americas, which reflects 24% of group revenue, organic revenue decline was 4.1% for the quarter, given the stronger comparable from Q1 2020, primarily driven by a stellar performance from Merkle in the U.S. market. EMEA, which reflects 21% of group revenues, saw organic revenue decline of 2.9%. Germany and Switzerland posted positive organic growth for the quarter, but many markets still face restrictions due to the pandemic. APAC, which reflects 9% of group revenues, saw organic revenue decline of 3.1%, with positive growth for the quarter recorded in India, Indonesia, Singapore, and Taiwan. Next page, please.
From the group basis, the organic growth rate has been on an uptrend since the second quarter of last year, and we expect to see a continued improving trend as we start to lap the COVID-related comparatives in the second quarter. Moving to the performance of main DJN Group companies. Dentsu Inc. experienced a reactionary decline in the marketing and promotional domain, which was strong in Q1 2020 before the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. However, Dentsu Inc. reported organic decline of just -1.9% due to the recovery of TV spot advertising through the second half of the quarter. The pitch environment remains very active, and our win rate has improved year-over-year. The revenue, less cost of sales of Dentsu Digital, ISID, and CARTA HOLDINGS increased, supported by growth in both digital advertising and digital solution.
It is to be highlighted that Dentsu Digital and CARTA were able to show double-digit growth by capturing demand from telecommunications and other clients. ISID faced strong comparable from Q1 2020, yet still reported over 6% organic growth in the quarter. As a result, CT&T ratio, which is one of the KPIs of the medium-term management plan, was 24.0% for Japan, an increase of 210 basis points year-on-year. Dentsu Live, which provides events, and Dentsu Tech Group, which has strength in marketing promotions, reported double-digit decline due to the continued impact of the COVID-19 crisis. DJN underlying operating profit showed significant growth and operating margin improved significantly as a result of the efforts to reduce operating costs and our shift towards the high-margin solutions business. Operating costs are expected to rise as we proceed through the year. The next slide explains the performance of Dentsu International.
The pre-COVID comparators impacted the first quarter performance across DI Group and resulted in negative organic growth. The media service line benefited from the post-pandemic recovery, with the U.S. media business recording a strong performance in Q1 FY 2021, up mid-single digit, benefiting from a combination of new client wins in FY 2020, scope expansion from existing clients, and an overall improvement in client spend. The creative service line showed negative growth due to a reduction in revenue associated with our events business and client losses in FY 2020 in the U.S. and APAC. CXM service line showed negative organic growth, reflecting the high hurdles from Merkle's double-digit % growth in the U.S. market in the first quarter of last year. CXM is expected to return to growth in Q1 and record positive growth for the full year.
Customer transformation and technology accounted for 33.5% of the total revenue, less cost of sales, up from the previous year. Underlying operating profit increased 49.9% due to lower base costs. Operating margin improved by 330 basis points. This is on a constant current basis, a 360 basis points improvement. The operating margin comparable become more challenging from the second quarter onwards, but Dentsu International still expects to deliver margin improvements on a year-on-year basis. It is the first time for the international business operation margins to exceed 10% in Q1 since the establishment of Dentsu Aegis Network.
This slide covers the movement of revenue less cost of sales. After the negative impact of the COVID-19 crisis materializing last year, we have continued to put M&A activities on hold. As a result, the effect from M&A activities are limited. Organic growth was negative group-wide due to the effect of COVID-19 crisis. Revenue less cost of sales decreased by JPY 4.6 billion from JPY 227.1 billion in the same period previous year to JPY 222.4 billion. This slide shows the movement of the underlying operating profit at the year-on-year basis. DJN's revenue less cost of sales was same level as the same quarter last year. DI's revenue less cost of sales was negative. The reduction in operating expenses for both segment contributed to an increase in underlying operating profit of approximately JPY 7.76 billion. Reconciliation of operating profit from underlying to statutory.
Compared with the same quarter last year, underlying operating profit was JPY 7.7 billion plus, while adjusted items totaled minus JPY 3.6 billion, resulting in statutory operating profit of plus JPY 4.1 billion. One of the main adjustments were amortization of purchased intangible assets at minus JPY 7.4 billion, which was a similar level of impact as last year. Next is one-off items. Previously announced business transformation costs amounted to approximately JPY 7 billion, which is in line with the plan announced last year. Impairment losses include impairment losses on tangible and intangible assets and goodwill of group companies in Japan. The next slide is on the reconciliation from underlying to net profit. Adjustments in total of JPY 22.3 billion was recorded, including adjustments made to the operating profit explained in the previous slide.
The largest adjustments was gain and loss on revaluation of earn-out liabilities and M&A related put option liabilities of approximately JPY 6.8 billion. This was due to an increase in the corporate value subsidiaries that are expected to improve as a result of reviewing the future performance of overseas subsidiaries in line with the improvement in economic conditions. As a result, statutory net profit for the quarter was approximately JPY 4.9 billion against underlying net profit, which was approximately JPY 27.2 billion. This slide shows cash flow movement for the quarter. Cash out on business transformation cost spend is JPY 24.1 billion. Working capital improved by about JPY 82.3 billion year-over-year. Although it normally has negative impact in the first quarter due to seasonality, improvements in overseas operations contributed significantly.
Regarding other cash flows from operating activities, it is to be noted that income tax is paid to increase year-on-year, mainly due to extraordinary income from the sale of Recruit Holdings shares, which was announced last year. In summary. We expect to continue to benefit from the post-pandemic recovery in 2021, as well as the structural growth in customer transformation and technology. As we mentioned, the group has had better than expected start of the year, and we are confident that we have, over the fiscal year, positive organic growth and broadly flat margin from 2020 as I commented in February. I am pleased to report the execution of business transformation is showing good progress, and we expect to deliver full year forecast in August.
We still expect to achieve the group-wide cost reduction of JPY 50 billion in 2021 and annualized reduction of JPY 75 billion from 2022 onwards. The transformation will accelerate. Thank you. I will now hand over the microphone to Yamamoto-san. Back to you Yamamoto.
Thank you, Soga-san. I'll now give an update against our strategy. This is Yamamoto speaking. Please turn to page 17. The pace of transformation within the group continues at speed. As a reminder, we launched the comprehensive review in August last year and continue to execute against the clear objectives we set ourselves. One, simplification. DJN, Dentsu Japan Network, has announced the mergers of Dentsu Digital and Dentsu Isobar, as well as Dentsu Direct Marketing and DA search & link to strengthen the capabilities of CX and DX. Dentsu International, the brand optimization continues with the successful launch of iProspect after the merger with Vizeum, the largest agency merger we have planned. The rationalization of 166 brands continues ahead of schedule with over 50 brands already consolidated. This process is mostly small and specialized brands being integrated into leadership brands.
Therefore, there is a low risk of disruption across the group. This is because this process has been a long time in planning. Over the past two years, we have created a master service set. The firm-wide agreement determines which capabilities are within each service line, ensuring no duplication of services and no competition between our own agencies, a model many of our peers still have. This allows us to optimize the brand portfolio, integrate more effectively, and collaborate across the group. The groundwork has been done for improved connectivity among the service sets of three service lines and ultimately will result in a truly simplified and integrated organization. Two, lowering operating expenses. We remain committed to the JPY 75 billion cost saving target we announced to support our future margin delivery. We expect to deliver around JPY 50 billion cost saving for this year as we previously announced.
At DJN, we are beginning to see the cost impact from the transformation announced last year. At DI, Dentsu International, over 50 property leases have been renegotiated, and well over 50% of our targeted cost savings planned for 2021 have already been achieved. Three, the review of our non-trading assets continues to improve our balance sheet efficiency. In Q1, we announced the sale of two property assets in Tokyo, generating a gain on sales of fixed assets of around JPY 30 billion. We announced a further reduction in our investment in securities with the sale of our Macromill shares. The review of the headquarters buildings in Shiodome continues. All of the previous three objectives will contribute towards our final objective of improving shareholder value. Number four, simplification of our business will drive top line.
Margin is improving through lowering our cost. The balance sheet review gives us the flexibility to invest for growth whilst balancing that need with improving shareholder returns. Page 18, please. We committed to at the FY 2020 results in February, we see customer transformation and technology, CT&T, rising to 50% of the group's revenues over time. At the end of the first quarter, customer transformation and technology had reached 29% of group revenues, with 24% at DJN and 33% at Dentsu International. A reminder, the major brands that contribute to these revenues are Merkle, ISID, and Dentsu Digital. The result, the revenue ratio at CT&T is increasing both in DJN and DI. Increasing our exposure to customer transformation and technology brings a number of benefits to the firm. First, a structural growth area.
This is an area where corporates will need to continue to invest given the increasing importance of first-party data to develop and maintain direct customer relationships, particularly in light of changing privacy regulations and the removal of third-party cookies. Second, a deeper client relationship. Partnering with clients on projects such as data transformation and data solutions embeds us within their business, resulting in long multi-year relationships, leading to a greater percentage of revenues that are recurring. Finally, it will bring transformation to our existing services. Customer transformation and technology will enhance media and creative. It will be a new platform for service lines. DJN today announced a collaboration with Dream Incubator Inc. to strengthen business in the business transformation domain. Dream Incubator will become an equity method affiliate of Dentsu Group Inc. Please go to page 19.
As we look forward through 2021 to 2022 and the demand for our services in the coming years, the Dentsu Group remains well-positioned. The group is and will continue to benefit from the cyclical recovery in advertising in 2021. We saw early investment in media and advertising from clients in the first quarter as they look to reinvest in their brands. The quickest and easiest way to reengage your customer base is through media, and that is where we have seen the fastest increase in spend, both in Japan and internationally. The pandemic has also brought a number of changes to consumer trends that will remain: increased digital adoption and the D2C, direct-to-consumer channel combined with increased focus on customer experience across every touch point as the consumer engages with a firm.
All of this requires an enterprise-wide identity and management solution, particularly as brands face and adapt to a cookie-less future. This is where our strength in customer transformation and technology can support our clients as we look forward. This is where we see the fastest growth in our firm and where we see structural growth opportunities for the business in the years to come. Page 20, please. In February, when Dentsu Group reported its FY 2020 results, we also announced new midterm targets for the group for 2021 to 2024. These publicly stated targets are aligned to four pillars that remain central to our vision for the business. One, transformation and growth. Two, operations and margin. Three, capital allocation and shareholder returns. Four, social impact and ESG. Our midterm investment case remains intact.
We have committed to organic growth of 3%-4% from 2022-2024. An annual improvement in operating margins reaching 17% by 2024, and a progressive dividend policy reaching 35% payout ratio on basic EPS. Our commitment to social impact and ESG remains at the core of our group. Last, page 21. Our purpose as a group remains to realize a better society by contributing to the growth of our clients, partners, and all consumers. By realizing our purpose, we will create value for our employees, our shareholders, and all stakeholders. As always, I would like to thank our employees as we look forward to a year of growth and recovery across the business. Thank you very much.
Now we will start the Q&A session. We accept your questions using Zoom's raise your hand function. As shown on Zoom, please click the raise hand button. For those of you joining from the telephone line, please press asterisk nine. I will confirm who are in the queue, then call the name to invite each person to the microphone. When I call your name, I will request you to unmute your microphone. For those participating from the telephone line and did not register your names in advance, I will ask you to unmute without calling your name. As the voice guidance instructs you, please unmute and introduce yourself. When asking your questions, please tell us your name and your company name and ask your question. I may need to ask you to say your name again in case the voice was not clear.
In order to receive questions from as many participants as possible, I need to limit to two questions per person. Please state your two questions at one time. The first question is Nomura Securities, Mr. Nagao, please. Please unmute yourself and state your name and your company name and ask your question, please. Can you hear me?
Yes. Thank you. My first question is operating margin. In the January-March quarter, operating margin improved significantly. In April-June quarter and onward, how do you foresee the operating margin trend in Japan and Dentsu International? What is your forecast? Thank you. That is my first question. Next, second question. At the outset, President Yamamoto said the establishment of the joint venture and these initiatives are now underway. Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Toyota Motor, and last year, Kirin Holdings, you've been taking these steps.
This format, this joint investment, co-investment, the positive impact, what kind of positive impact do you think this has on Dentsu, and what was the history or the background that led to these moves?
Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Nagao. The first question, operating margin and the future forecast, Mr. Soga will explain. This is Soga speaking. Thank you very much, Nagao-san, for your question. As you correctly mentioned, operating margin in the first quarter improved significantly. DJN and DI, there are different factors. First, starting from DJN, the variable cost control was successful, and this proved to be successful. As you remember, last year, the work style reform, new style working, was implemented among the staff. New Horizon was the system that was introduced, and I think we are seeing the positive impact from that.
DI, our overseas international business, starting from two years ago, cost reduction plan started, which we call ATP. This is now coming to fruition. From second quarter onward, with the improvement in economy, the variable cost will increase. As you mentioned, the variable cost will increase, we think. DJN, first quarter variable cost was reduced. In addition, going forward, like the international side, ATP will be implemented at the same level as the international side. On the DI side, the operating margin improvement that we're seeing this time, if you could remember last year. To counter the pandemic, the personnel cost and the variable cost was largely controlled. The result came out in second quarter and onward. The hurdle is higher. The comparator is tough.
As you remember, on the DI side, on a full year basis, operating margin, even under COVID-19, 1.5%, 150 basis point improvement was achieved. There's this comparator factor. On a group-wide basis, the business environment is favorable. Under ATP, we are pursuing restructuring, and this result will come out. Taking all this into account, on a group-wide basis, operating margin improvement is expected year on year. Some key countries' performance still has some uncertainties. The overall business and the operating margin, we will clarify when we announce the second quarter results. I hope this answers your question. Thank you.
Thank you. Your second question was the Japan business, the collaboration with the new customers, new clients, and how we are collaborating, and the co-investment, and the strategic intent. Mr. Igarashi will answer.
Yes. Nagao-san, thank you very much for your question. This is Igarashi speaking. This joint investment and evolution of our relationship with our clients, the purpose is, first of all, our client customers are now pursuing the business transformation and business growth. They're trying to accelerate the growth, we are fully committed to that. First of all, on a CXO level, including CEOs, with CXOs, we are sharing the goal of this strategic transformation and involve and commit ourselves to customers' marketing overall. It's not just a simple communication area, but overall marketing is where we want to commit ourselves to. Furthermore, we commit to customers' medium to long-term growth. We are trying to strengthen our medium to long-term relationship, and that is the intent behind these moves.
Other than the capital and business alliance, we are asking to second our personnel to important positions on client side. Including all these, we are trying to reinforce our relationship with our clients. Thank you. I hope I answered your question.
Thank you very much.
Just quickly on the second question, could I ask a follow-up question?
Yes, if you could do this quickly.
Sorry about that. These joint investment formats may face the competition with the consulting firms, but do you think this will lead to the differentiation? You can differentiate yourselves by doing this? Yes. We are committing to customers' growth. Growth above anything else. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much, Nagao-san, for your question. Next, the question is from Mr. Julien Roach. Please unmute yourself and start by stating your company's name and your name.
Yes. Good morning. Can you hear me? It's Julian Roach with Barclays.
Yes. We can hear you.
My first question is for Wendy. You did -1% in media for international, while WPP did 5.8% and Publicis did mid-single digit in the U.S. Why did you underperform in Q1? Is it account losses or something else? If account losses, who are they, and can you quantify them? My second question for everybody, impact of the end of cookies on Dentsu. Bad, good, neutral, and why? Thank you.
Hi, Julien. It's Wendy. Thank you for the question. Yes, as you noted, we ended the quarter slightly down on media. I think you have to take a bit of a broader view on looking at our trajectory and our recovery based on where we ended fourth quarter last year and the sequential improvement we have made into first quarter. It is not something that's down to any particular loss. We have higher exposure, as you know, into some of the sectors that were more impacted and lower exposure into some of the sectors that were more protected, as we've mentioned before in our previous discussions, particularly around health. I think we've just seen a slower recovery. That said, as we look outward, our confidence is quite high.
As we already mentioned that in April, we've seen positive growth at a holistic level for DI of over 17% organic revenue growth. While we're a beat or two behind our peers, we are just coming out of a tougher starting point. The other thing I would mention, Julien, is that I think we always have to keep in mind, yes, we're restoring growth from a pandemic, but we're also leading this transformation of the business. I think that it's a twofold restructuring of the business. We stand to be, as we go through this process, the most integrated agency group network in the world. We're doing a twofold action here that will be in front of our peers on the second piece on this integration front. We're doing it now. I'm mindful of that when I talk to our people, particularly.
We are very confident in our outlook for the year for Dentsu International. As I said, we've already seen ourselves swing into growth in April. We're just a beat behind. It's not anything in particular. It's not one account. We're doing additional and incremental hard work in this transformation, and I think that you're just going to see that start to ease as we come into, obviously, better comparables, and feel the benefits of this integration. You heard Yamamoto-san mention that we've already optimized 53 brands of the 160. We feel very positive about where we are, and our endpoint will be seismically different and differentiated in the marketplace.
If I could ask a really quick follow-up before we move to cookies. Thank you very much for giving April. Will it be possible to have April year-on-year last year so we can have a sense of the two year run rate?
I think we'll just stick to the Q1 discussion right now, Julien. I wanted to mention that from a confidence perspective, and we can follow up with anything in particular, if that can be helpful. I don't want to get us off track on the Q1 results. I am happy to kind of bridge into your next question around third-party cookies. Obviously, this brings to bear the significant investment we've made around Merkle, and the fact that we've been preparing for the removal of the third-party cookie for some time. We've got the underlying data and identity platform already in Merkury. You've heard us talk about it endlessly, probably. This is a conversation we've been having with our clients for a long time. Our cookieless platform is already running for our clients.
Every conversation I can say I'm a part of, it includes first-party data now and the need, quite frankly, for brands to own this relationship, not platforms, to own the data and the relationship with the consumer. We see our progressive clients moving into this space and feel like we have the capabilities and platforms to help them accelerate their programs here. Again, not a surprise to us, something we've been planning for, something we feel very well positioned for. I think, frankly, a positive step in marketing overall.
Thank you very much.
Next. This is Igarashi from DJN. For DJN, this type of development is considered positive. We have been making a thorough plan for preparation with the clients and platformers. We are able to respond with a unique solution. We have been able to prepare ourselves quite well, and there is a definite progress there as well. Also, DJN and Dentsu International, this type of solution will link to greater collaboration, will be positive for group overall. Thank you very much for your question.
Next question comes from SMBC Nikko Securities. Mr. Maeda, please. Please state your name and your affiliation and your question, please.
This is SMBC Nikko, Maeda speaking. I have two questions. Earlier you said that your key focus is CT&T, and the ratio is improving. Merkle and ISID, Dentsu Digital are the core of this movement. Merkle has been strong in this area, but once again, ISID and Dentsu Digital, are you accumulating know-how already there? You are off to a good start. As a background, you are deepening and exploring customers and increasing the number of customers, or are there any key information that you could share with us that is driving this forward? My second question, Merkle program is underway. As of the end of February, you are not holding any share. The share buyback, you have not done it yet as of April.
Maeda-san, thank you very much. First is the initiative of CT&T. This is Igarashi speaking. CT&T initiatives in Japan, let me explain ISID and Dentsu Digital, what they are doing. Now, from the past, ISID and Dentsu Digital had been independently offering client service in digital solution and building track record independently. Now, we are trying to do this in a cross-functional manner, and there are many initiatives that are now cross-functional in nature. Dentsu Digital, ISID, Dentsu Link, and Isobar, all these Dentsu Group companies are working together to make inroads into clients. We have this formation now, and this is accelerating this year. Of course, in the communication domain, we have worked with clients' business divisions. We've approached our clients' divisions. Now ISID and Dentsu Digital, the division now, we are working with these different divisions to drive business transformation and building new businesses.
We're seeing more and more examples now. We're using that as a breakthrough to add more solutions and commit to the entire marketing activities. This activity is expanding. Let me share with you some concrete examples. One platformer's cloud service domain approach is now accelerating. This is CT&T and DX. We're seeing more successes in CT&T and DX. I hope this answers your question.
This is Tsubota speaking. I will talk about the second question. As you rightly mentioned, our share buyback has not progressed. The background to that is, as mentioned earlier, in January, we announced Shiodome headquarter building sales. We are still discussing, examining this. This fact is important fact, privileged information. Based on the advice from the law firm that it is privileged information, we take that possibility into account.
We decided not to do share buyback. Once this becomes clear, and once it becomes possible for a buyback, we will do so. We plan to do so. At any rate, following the plan we announced in February, JPY 30 billion will be bought back, repurchased, and this plan remains unchanged.
The next person would be Ms. Fiona Orford-Williams. Please state your name, your company name before you ask your question.
Thank you very much. It's Fiona Orford-Williams from Edison Group. My first question is around margins, but into FY 2022. Are you still confident that you can achieve your intended cost reductions? What additional levers do you have to achieve them over the ones that you're using in FY 2021? My second question is around the brand rationalization progress. You talked about how you'd prepared for that internally, but it's a huge shift. How do you communicate that with your client churn? Why does having fewer brands inherently boost the growth potential?
This is Tsubota speaking. Thank you very much for your question. I will respond to your first question and jump into the conclusion. For 2022, this Accelerated Transformation Program, as a result of this program for the group overall, we are going to reduce cost by JPY 75 billion. The scheduled target remains unchanged. This fiscal year, around JPY 56 billion of cost will be spent, and ATP for the Japanese business. Next year, we do intend to book some cost, but for this fiscal year, about JPY 50 billion and JPY 75 billion for next fiscal year. These were the levels of cost reduction that we intend to achieve, and this plan remains unchanged at this point in time. Additional levers that you spoke of as to whether we need to have those.
Well, even if we don't have additional levers, we will still execute on this plan and business transformation or structural reform. These are not just limited to this fiscal year. We will continue this, and I think this is necessary. We are fully aware of that. The current plan remains unchanged. In order to make ourselves into a more efficient organization, we'll continue to make efforts. That completes my response.
This is Yamamoto speaking. Nick will also add a comment. Nick, please go ahead.
Everybody, it's Nick Priday speaking. Fiona, in terms of the question, are we confident around delivering our margin goals for 2022, which, as a reminder for everybody, was a 15% margin goal for 2022 for the international business. The answer to that is a clear yes. We are confident we can deliver that margin given the line of sight we had to margin delivery in 2021, and the return to growth. In terms of the other levers, just to complement and add to what Soga-san said, we're obviously looking at our office portfolio across the business. We're obviously also looking at nearshoring and offshoring models, which benefit not only us in our efficiency but also our clients, in terms of lowering the cost of delivery, making us more competitive. We're looking at a number of automation techniques, accelerating deployment of automation across our business.
We have deployed something like 300 plus software robots in the last three years, saving a significant amount of manual work. That does really deliver a strong return on investment and provides us not only with improvement in margin, but with our clients with more effective agency partners. The answer to your question is a clear yes on the margin goal for 2022. Thank you.
Fiona, it's Wendy. I think I'll jump in on your second question, which was around our brand optimization. As we've already announced, we're going to go from about 160 brands to six brands by the end of 2022. It's a thoughtful plan. I think at the heart of your question is, well, can that be disruptive to clients and therefore revenue? As we mentioned, you heard in Yamamoto-san's opening comments, we've already optimized 53 of those brands so far. That's ahead of actually 56. It's ahead of our target. We're on track. He also mentioned that those tend to be smaller and more specialized. There's less risk in that. He also mentioned our most visible optimization, which came between iProspect and Vizeum earlier this year, is the largest agency integration that we've done ever.
I am quite pleased to tell you, and I'm touching wood, you can't see me, but we've had no client attrition from that. Client attrition is not something that we can project or forecast, as you all know and understand, but there was nothing that came outwardly from that integration at this point. Again, as Yamamoto-san said, these are very well-planned and thoughtful transitions. We include our clients in those transitions. We listen to them. I think ultimately, I cannot underscore enough the number of clients that I talk to as we talk about this integrated future. It's exactly what they want. They most need these new and incremental sources of growth, which they know don't come from singular or finite thinking. It comes from expansive and integrated capabilities.
They need agility and speed in their business more than ever, and so having a patchwork of agencies, it just slows everything down. Of course, they need efficiency. They've got to reinvest in their top line of their marketing. They're looking for efficient models. This is how we're going to get there, is having truly integrated capabilities with radical collaboration of our network. You see it again and again, and I have the benefit of seeing it up close in our clients' work, where you just see the unlocks come very quickly now, and we just couldn't feel more confident about the plan. We'll be the most integrated agency group at the end of this heading into 2022. I think that that also answers your first question. It gives us some assurances around the growth and the profitability of our business.
Thank you for your question.
Next question is from Daiwa Securities. Mr. Ishihara, please. Please state your name and your affiliation.
Ishihara from Daiwa Securities. Can you hear me?
Yes.
I have two questions. They are both on CT&T. First, CT&T gross margin proportion will be 50%. 50% of revenue will come from CT&T in the future. What shortfalls do you think you have in terms of resource? What do you need to capture? People, organization, collaboration, or software? What is still in short now? What do you need to achieve 50%? Second question is on CT&T, too. Once again, in your headquarter group, which group company drives CT&T in Japan and overseas? Which companies are they? Which companies are the drivers? Thank you very much.
Yes. Thank you very much, Ishihara-San. First, Igarashi will answer your question from DJN side.
What we still lack are many. Of course, we set a very ambitious target. People capability, of course, we have to reinforce, strengthen this going forward. Whether we can do this with the internal resource or utilize external resource, we have to examine both. In CT&T, AX, BX, CX and DX. CX and BX and DX. Customer experience and business transformation and digital. We have set these, especially in BX, business development, our development format and manpower and talent is still lacking. We have the Dream Incubation capital alliance. We announced this today. This is significant in terms of boosting our capability in this area. We want to quickly enhance this capability going forward. Let me also answer your second question from DJN, ISID, and Dentsu Digital. These two companies are the strong, compelling driver that will take initiative.
Dentsu Digital, as Dentsu Isobar, they merge with Dentsu Isobar. E-commerce companies are also merged. We will make them stronger going forward. That was from DJN point of view, from Igarashi. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.
This is Wendy. Just to build on Igarashi-san's answer for Dentsu Japan, I'll speak to Dentsu International. Look, this is the fastest and most rapidly growing sector of the industry right now. Your projections, if we read all of your analyses, point to the fact that we're going to have double-digit growth in this area before long, and in some cases, we've already experienced that, in particular capabilities. Yes, to your point, there is a war on talent here. It's a prized capability set, and we have to do everything in our power to retain our critical people, and we take that focus very seriously. That's one thing, and of course, are always in the marketplace looking to recruit the talent we need and new leaders in this space. Talent is crucial to the plan. I would say M&A is going to be important.
We announced, as you know, that we are returning to M&A. We have a very focused M&A strategy specifically to what we call on the international side of the business, CXM, the CT&T space. That is going to be a crucial part of it. The type of capabilities that we're looking for in M&A are commerce, obviously more advanced technology, customer transformation. We also have geographic needs. We're going to be looking very specifically to fill in some geographic areas that need this capability. I think that would be crucial to the delivery too. I can reiterate our confidence on the DI side of reaching that 50% revenue target in our midterm plan, as we announced before, by mid-2024, 2025, by the mid-20s. We feel very confident that we've got exactly what we need.
The final piece of your question was that is delivered through Merkle on the DI side. We've got what we need. We need to execute the plan as noted.
Ishihara-san, Yamamoto would like to start answering your second question. CT&T is driven by which company? That was your question. On the international side, Merkle, and DJN side, ISID and Dentsu Digital. In Japan, the two companies are not working independently. Those two are the center. We have a group, cross-functional, group-wide organization centering on these two companies. That is the feature in Japan. Merkle is not just international, but including Japan. It's also a group-wide CT&T driver. It's a big driver. Thank you. I hope this answers your question. Ishihara-san, thank you for your question.
Next question. Mr. Rajesh, please unmute yourself and state your name and your company before starting your question.
Thanks a lot for this opportunity. My name is Rajesh Manwani, I'm from J.P. Morgan Asset Management. One of my questions was on the share of CT&T. That has already been answered. The other question is on the use of the proceeds from sale of Shiodome Building. The news reports suggested that it is around JPY 300 billion, which is almost 30% of the market cap. It's a very sizable sum. How do you plan to use it in terms of shareholder returns, investment and further growth, et cetera? Can you give us a rough idea about that?
This is Soga speaking. Thank you for your question. In regards to the sale of the Shiodome building, we are considering this right now. The objective of this is a part of the comprehensive review. Non-business assets are to be disposed so that we can make investment towards our business. That is the key objective. The cash after the sale, irrespective of how much this will be, but the cash flows generated by the assets sale will be spent on business investment. As part of a medium-term management plan, we work on business transformation, and we will achieve business transformation through the structural reform that we are working on. The TMT will be brought to 50% of the group's revenue, as we explained before. For that, we need people, we need technology, and business which is the multiplication of our people and the business.
We intend to spend the proceeds for M&A. You also ask about shareholder returns. In regard to shareholder return, we will look at business environment at that time, and we'll take that into consideration. The proceeds from the sale of the building similarly has not been realized yet. Of the cash that's generated, what portion of that will be used for shareholder return? In this regard, nothing has been decided at this point in time. Thank you very much, Rajesh San, for your question.
Thank you very much for asking many questions. Time has come, so we would like to conclude the Q1 2021 earnings announcement call of Dentsu Group. Thank you very much for your participation today. Thank you very much. Thank you. You may now disconnect from the Zoom or from the telephone line. We will close this webinar shortly. Thank you very much again for today.