Earnings Call: Q2 2021

Aug 3, 2021

This is Miyasako of Jefferies Securities. Thank you very much for this opportunity. I think that the operating margin of the Cosmetics was very good. Is this thanks to the impact of the beauty counseling company integration? Could you talk about this? Yes, this is a great opportunity. So I'd like to hand the microphone to Mr. Murakami in charge of Cosmetics Business. Thank you very much for your support. I am Murakami in charge of Cosmetics business. Thank you for your question. Now concerning the Q2 operating margin, I talked about this in May. The fixed cost is relatively high in our business structure. So profit depends on top line very much. So if the top line is about 50,000,000,000 yen as in Q1, the profit is difficult, but now with the 60,000,000,000 yen with the higher top line, the profit was pushed up. And also we are promoting structural reform. And first thing that I can mention is to increase the percentage of skincare. According to SLI Index, before COVID-nineteen, it was 48. Now it increased to 58, So about 10 percentage point increase in skincare. As for the business structure reform of makeup, as I mentioned several times in the past, we are trying to reduce the disposal or waste. So we are refraining from oversetting and reducing the returns and reducing the disposal. And this is something that we are working on and this has had some effect. And as you mentioned, the beauty counseling company integration is also something that we're working on. So as a whole, this led to the higher profit in the second quarter. Thank you. Mr. Yamauchi earlier said that the 10,000,000,000 to 15,000,000,000 yen is expected for the full year. Is this in line with your initial forecast? Yes. 5% operating margin is something that we want to achieve. So in that sense, we are in line with our plans. So we should not expect that this would exceed the plan. Well, it's up to the Japanese market. Frankly speaking, as we discussed, we thought that Q3 will get better, but July, we had a state of emergency and this would continue until the end of August. We are positive about Q4, so it's up to the Q3. Thank you very much. Thank you for your questions. Next is Ms. Kawamoto of UBS Securities. Thank you for the presentations. This is Kawamoto speaking. Could you speak up a little bit? Can you hear me now? Yes, thank you. I have a question to the President. On Page 15, you are showing the brand management. This is about the domestic household and personal care. So could you give us some specifics that you are reducing the number of brands from 44 to 32? So what would be the timing of the sales? I think you are in the final stage. So do we see several possibilities happening by the end of this fiscal year? And in the midterm plan, 1,800,000,000,000 yen, I think you are aggressive in terms of top line. So this brand reorganization, is it included in the midterm plan? Thank you for your questions. Let me answer your questions. Now we have been making preparations for the brand reorganization from the beginning of this year, which one would be the core brand and how do we compete. And this slide shows the summary of that. So 13 category leading brands would include Attack and Mary's and 15 niche segment brand would include rerise, very edgy products. Concerning this, which brand belongs to which group, we are hoping that we will make announcement soon. So how do we reorganize those brands which are not included? We have to consider the relationship with the retail stores and customers. So I would like to make such announcement at a good timing. It is often said that at store Cosmetics, we have G11 and R8. And we have clarified the differences and we are gradually decreasing the brands. So just as we did for cosmetics, we will be doing the same. So this time, we are talking about the domestic brands, but also the overseas brands, we would need to make some decisions. So for this briefing session, we cannot talk about the details. But as for when I make the announcement, I would like to just say that soon we will be making such announcement. I hope that answers your question. In the previous small meeting, you mentioned that less than 5,000,000,000 yen in sales and less than 15% in terms of operating margin. And you said that you want to make a decision in 1 or 2 years. Is that the correct understanding? Yes. What I talked about is just a criteria or yardstick. So for example, even the lower than 5,000,000,000 sales, maybe some brands could have a future growth or if the sales exceeds 5,000,000,000 yen and generating profit, maybe we need to revisit some of the brands. So those are other criteria I talked about. And as we are doing for Cosmetics, it will take a year or 2 years to complete this. But of course, we are not going to wait for the announcement. So how we would plan to do this is something that I'd like to talk about soon. Now with this, what is the impact on the midterm plan, 1,800,000,000,000 yen, 250,000,000,000 yen? When you have more concentrated brands, maybe the margin would increase. So how much of that is included? Well, naturally, those brands which are not going to be reorganized, they are not included in 1,800,000,000,000 yen. So what would be the reorganization? How do we integrate? How do we integrate some of the brands to the larger brands? And we have to consider the customers and how big a brand should be. So vis a vis the K25 targets, through the reorganization, operating margin would, of course, increase. So that is included. And it's not just reducing the brands, but integrating and selling some of the brands and utilizing that capability to obtain the new larger brands and also new investments are included here. Thank you. Thank you for your questions. Next is Ms. Yamaguchi of Goldman Sachs. Thank you. This is Yamaguchi speaking. I hope you can hear me. Now from my side, I'd like to ask about the full year forecast. In comparison to the initial forecast, the actual sales growth is half and net impact of the higher raw material prices is now from changed from 2,000,000,000 to 8,000,000,000 yen. But still you are trying to achieve the operating income target. So how do you plan to reduce cost and how do you plan to offset those? Probably you plan to use 15,000,000,000 yen for marketing and 15,000,000,000 yen for DX, so 30,000,000,000 yen increase in expense year on year. So in view of that, with the higher sales and cost increase, this might lead to the lower profit. So even offsetting with the TCR, the profit might decline. So do you plan to improve the efficiency of the expenses? Could you talk about those changes? Thank you for your questions. I talked about our plans for the second half. Increasing market share, increasing sales, those are our targets. We will be making well focused investments. Until now, we try to reduce expenses to secure the final profit. That was the major thing that we have been doing. But this time, by increasing the market share, we want to secure the higher than expected profits. In other words, unless we can increase the market share, even if we generate some profit, there is no bright future for us. So in the second half, the Q3 and Q4, the Household and Personal Care market and Cosmetics will be tough. So we have to take measures now so that we can exceed our expectations. And as a result, we believe that the profits can be generated. That is our tactics. So we don't want to reduce various things in order to secure the profit. That is not something that we plan to do. TCR, total cost reduction, is our strength. So we have been increasing this. And of course, we would utilize it at the end, especially in chemical. The operating margin is increasing. It's higher than 11% now. So the consumer products are negatively impacted with the higher material prices. But our values and demand are increasing. So in that sense, we believe that we can manage the higher raw material prices. I hope that answers your question. More specifically, in Hygiene and Living Care, your second half forecast, I think it doesn't really make sense to me. Now the sales in Japan, even in the second half, you expect lower sales. But with the increase of the cost of JPY 8,000,000,000, the operating income forecast is flat. So they're talking about the sales. I think those are not necessarily consistent. So how do you plan to reach this? Well, starting with this year, we introduced the OKR objectives and key results. And this is something that we are challenging to ourselves. We aim for higher levels. It is not our purpose to try to match the forecast. We want to exceed our targets. So as for the sales numbers, the sales number that we announced, of course, we want to go even higher. Otherwise, as you said, it will not make sense. With the current share market share and sales, the only way we can do this is TCR and reduce budget. So in order to change that, we have to be more challenging. We have to challenge ourselves in increasing sales and increasing market share. I hope that answers your question. Finally, so you're focused on which product in terms of increase of the market share? I cannot find much products that you have a very low market share in the Household and Personal Care. Yes. That is something included in my presentation. It's on page 25. If you can show that page on the screen. I should have given you more details here. When we launch products, there are a lot of expectations. And for example, cosmetics, we put a lot of thoughts into these cosmetic products. So until now, maybe you expected a single digit, but I mentioned Kate earlier. I think that the customers' expectations are much higher than what we imagine. So the new products for new normal, there are a lot of expectations. The other thing is, could you please bring up the slide for Household and Personal Care? You asked me which products. We have put them in the category of create dominant leading brands with technologically innovative products. The soon to be announced Bass Magic Cream, Essential and Marys in China. These are new products that aim not to realize big increase in numbers, but maximize our brand value. They are products for which we have very high expectations. For essential, we have taken all the various technologies and products that have been deployed in our brand and distilled those values into single essential product. Essential, the beauty, is that product. It is a new product that we have created, putting in all of our hair care products, brand and technologies. If this brand is not revived, our hair care business may be stagnant for a long time to come. That is how seriously we are banking on this new product. Then there is MAGICLEN. We have the number one market share here, but unfortunately, we have recently lost some share. And although we still have the top market share, it has deteriorated. We are going to launch a new product that will overcome this. If we can exceed our expectation in this area, we will surely be able to increase our market share and contribute to profits. As I mentioned earlier, if we are able to grow as planned in response to the investments we have made, we will be able to secure the profits associated with the increase in sales that was mentioned earlier in the question. In other words, if we cannot increase sales, we will not be able to achieve our plan. In order to prevent this from happening, I would like to work together with the business divisions to put forward with these initiatives. Does that answer your question? Yes. Thank you very much. Thank you for your question. Next question, Ms. Sato from Mitsubishi UHJ Morgan Stanley Securities. I am Sato. Can you hear me? Yes. I'd like to ask about the future rather than the short term business performance. This time, it was reborn cow, and you said you will talk about another cow going forward. You have been talking about some initiatives since you first announced the mid term plan like mosquito repellent technology and the Miobio or presymptomatic solutions to suppress health care costs, when do you think you will start to see any one of these things? I am expecting to hear something about therapeutic drugs next year, but I do want to know about the progress of such things. So please explain. What is the progress and when it will be ready to be announced? For example, whether you are a little behind schedule or are things going well? [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] I ask because these things can be big growth catalysts for your company. I know you said next time, but please give us your update now. I understood. Let me explain about this. Thank you for your question. Can you show the slide for another cow? I apologize for making you wait a little while since we made the announcement. First of all, we are close to commercializing the mosquito repellent technology. It will first be launched from the ASEAN region. We'd like to make an announcement in the near future about what kind of products will be released in which areas. This is about what kind of technology we will be developing in the area of infection prevention. Testing and prevention in the middle here. And body monitoring using the digital platform, I think we will be able to talk about this within a year at the latest. In fact, the progress of the digital platform is exceeding my expectations, and I am really looking forward to the time when it reaches a level where I can talk to you about it. This is going to be key in realizing the next call. In order for us to become a platformer to make the next call, we need to have these three points before we talk about it as a new initiative. I hope to be able to talk about this in the near future. The public relations department of Kao has drawn up a plan on when to talk about this. I have had a chance to take a look at this plan. And in the near future, we will be talking about these products 1 by 1 in detail, but products for what purposes and how that helps to expand our business. So please give us a little more time. We can assume you are ahead of schedule rather than being late, right? Yes. In fact, our easy platform that I talked about a little today will become quite useful here as well. By creating this platform, we are now working to enable customers here to easily get on the platform on the right side or to connect the systems and data of this platform themselves. The use of bulk monitoring data and looking at SIVA, RNA monitoring data is a very timely technology, and I'd really like to talk about it so you can see what we are working on. In terms of progress, my recognition is that it is moving ahead a little more than what we expected. We can't see that at all, so we can't factor it into our earnings forecast. And I think our stock price evaluation is probably lower than what you see. Is it safe to say that when things becomes clear, little by little, a plan will be announced that will allow us to raise our earnings forecast. Yes, in fact, we had a board meeting today, and we resolved to communicate this issue as early as possible. We will not be postponing the announcement of the plan. I think we will be able to show you what we are doing at an early stage. Next question, Mr. Hirozumi, Daiwa Securities. I have just one question. I'd like to ask you to confirm what the President said at the sell side meeting in June. I believe there happened to be an interview article of Mr. Yamauchi in the newspaper in which he mentioned that the company would return to operating income of 200,000,000,000 yen in fiscal year 2023. The President also said that since Kawo is undergoing major structural reforms and conducting various reforms that will accompany paying, return to 200,000,000,000 yen would be basically in 2023. Now that the first half results are out, has there been any change in this view? I don't actually recall saying that we go back to 200,000,000,000 yen level in 2023, but I think the newspaper captured my comment and depicted it as 200,000,000,000 yen in 2023. I don't think I said such things at the small meeting though. I'm sorry. It was when we were discussing about Nikkei interview with Mr. Yamauchi. What Yamauchi said was also based on our estimate at that time. And of course, we are trying to improve the situation more rapidly than that. In fact, we were able to achieve around 220,000,000,000 yen in 2019. So in terms of recovering to that level, with the current situation of Chemicals and through prioritized investments, I think it is more likely that we'll be able to shorten the time to recovery a little. However, since we are currently in the 1st stage of structural reform rather than aiming for profit growth at this point, we'd rather increase sales and build relationships with customers first and then strive to increase profits. That has not changed. As was mentioned in the question by Ms. Yamaguchi earlier, I think we are seeing more of sales declines this fiscal year, especially in Japan. Aside from Chemicals, I think that the downward revision in the consumer business has been rather conspicuous. It's been 2 months since June. So can I assume that the progress in generating profit and your conviction have increased compared to 2 months ago? The impression for this fiscal year's forecast is that it is slightly reduced, but should I assume that you are making progress for the future? There are two things. 1 is internal reforms. Internal reforms have actually seen more progress than before. So I can say with confidence that, that would be moving in the direction of raising our forecast. As for the situation surrounding COVID-nineteen, we are assuming an expansion of vaccination coverage and the return of human activity in the second half of the year. So we think that the situation will not be like last year. But if there are broad calls against going out and restrictions on a lot of things, people will not travel much. And if they are not seen by others, there is a possibility that Cosmetics and other businesses or indeed whole industries may underperform somewhat. Including this, it is a little difficult to predict. We are pushing forward internal reforms with much confidence, but the situation outside the company remains unstable. We are striving to increase our sales despite such situations. But if you look at the current situation, I would say there is no one who can accurately foresee what's coming down the road. That is how tough the situation is. I think I'll narrow down my question to one point. I'd like to ask one more time what you mean by painful structural reform. In responding to the earlier question, you talked about selection and concentration. So are you talking about divesting various businesses? What I mean by painful is that without causing a major downward movement of the business and while maintaining our current position or slightly raising it, I envision conducting major structural reform. Therefore, this is not just about simply revamping or consolidating brands. For example, Murakami is currently working on a major restructuring of the fixed costs of cosmetics. Put it differently, there still remained such a large target in KAO. And so there are many more things that need to be done. I believe that Murakami is working very hard to make drastic changes in those areas, which will be accompanied by pain. I am saying that the reform will include all these things. So in summary, are you saying that this reform is progressing well? Yes. I think it is safe to say that we are definitely making progress. That's all from me. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your questions. Any other questions? Mr. Ohala from Okasan Securities, please? Thank you for your time. I am Oha from Okasan Securities. I'd like to ask you a question about sanitary products. I understand that figures were quite challenging up until the 2nd quarter, but you are going to introduce new products in the Q3 and recover over the next few years. However, in terms of operating profit and loss, the sanitary business is profitably in the red right now. So when do you expect it to turn profitable after introducing new products in the Q3 and beyond? You said that it would take several years to complete the reform, but when do you envision the profitability improvement to begin? Thank you very much for the question. I'd like to divide the sanitary products business into sanitary napkins and baby diapers. Actually, the sanitary napkin business is profitable. It is growing mainly in China. So we need to continue to work on it. In the Japanese market, the number of sanitary napkins in use has been declining somewhat because of restrictions on going out. I think it is important for us to take steps to address this issue, bearing in mind the situation. I think your question is mainly focused on baby diapers. About this, we have come to a point where we need to drastically change our way of thinking about fixed costs and the investments we have made so far. Therefore, rather than simply thinking about what to do with the business, when we launch new products and we can see the direction forward, I think we will have to make a decision. We will continue to make new proposals in this business. But if you consider local markets in China, for example, it is not an easy market. The same is true for Japan. We are now deciding how we will strive in these markets. We are now in the final stage of discussions on how to fight against this tough situation with our huge brand of more than 100,000,000,000 yen and how to make it profitable after the structural reform. I understand. So for now, rather than trying to increase sales, you are going to review fixed costs, including factories and production facilities. In particular, since you are going to start up a new plant for production in China this time, there will be some impairment of production facilities in Japan. Do you see this as unavoidable pain associated with the structural reform? Yes, I think that is one of the options. I understand. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for your question. Next, if there are any questions, Mr. Miura of Citigroup Securities, please ask your question. Hello. My name is Miura. I am with Citigroup. I can hear you. Thank you. I'd like to ask you a fundamental question. What is important for Kao right now is that despite great technology and brands you have, your world is too small. In other words, your regional portfolio is too small. That is my view. You say that you will increase your market share by investing in existing competitive markets such as Japan and China. But I feel that this is somewhat contrary to the idea of achieving the maximum effect with the minimum investment that President Hasabe has been talking about By expanding the regional portfolio, I think you will be able to maximize the effect with the minimum use of technologies and assets. What are your thoughts on this? I don't know if this is blue ocean or not, but how do you feel about expanding your regional portfolio? [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Thank you for your question. I think this is a very important question. We may have been developing areas with similar brands and products. We were taking different approaches too, but more or less that was Kao's approach. The challenge we are facing now is whether we could have been successful with a weak sales network or in overseas markets where we had no experience. The result was no. However, we are now entering a critical phase. One turning point for Kao was sales companies we created in the 1980s, changing our approach to sales. Likewise, the touch point with the customers and sales approaches are being transformed with digital as we speak. In the past, it was common to rely on experts of the market such as retailers and distributors. But going forward, huge air battle will unfold. Kao is a small manufacturer overseas. How to fight in those overseas markets? There is no choice but to get into the air flight. To that end, we built a digital that can compete in the world. And while having the power to compete with platformers, we decided to place our products there. So we talked about our China strategy today, but it is not just simply placing the products, rather, we will make our way into China's digital world, create bidirectional digital platform and place our products so that our products will definitely be selected. Kao has never experienced this zone, so to speak, but I believe this way of competing will allow Kaol to expand globally. It was not just about bad communication, for instance. We were wrong in our approach. We reviewed ourselves, although we had good technologies and strong products and brands, we did not succeed. So we are changing our way of competing and transforming ourselves through digitization. Did that answer your question? Thank you very much. I can understand that very well. In a sense, because of COVID-nineteen, aerial warfare allows small companies to expand into new markets. But in order to be successful, you have to have good technologies and quality products, which means that there is a strong follow wind for Kawo. So the story sounds exciting, but I am at a complete loss when it comes to which business or what regional portfolio KAWO is to compete with. I want to get excited, but I can't. My apology. Well, can you explain so that I can get excited? I briefly explained about two points, but the circular economy is one of our focus areas. This is what the world is waiting for. However, it is an area or category that is challenging in terms of measures. Another thing is to protect people's lives with daily necessities. It is not just medicine. There are many ways to save people's lives. This is another area lacking in solutions. Still, it is said that there are only vaccines and treatments. There are more that could be done, and that was my starting point. But unless we share with you what measures to take and be specific, it will remain to be abstract. And I believe that is the source of your non excitement. And Mr. Sato was saying earlier too, so I would like to create an opportunity to share with the investors about audacious proposals so that you could be more convinced. Is that okay? Any other questions? Ms. Yuu Sato of SMBC Nikko Securities. Please. This is Sato of SMBC Nikko Securities. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. I have a question regarding how you will compete in Chinese market. You mentioned that you are being aggressive in overseas markets and KAWO is obviously ready to launch new diaper this August. But your competitors like P&G and Kimberly were performing very well in April to June period. So how is Kaou positioned against these competitors? And what is your market share? In other words, as Kao launches a new product in August, can we expect to see the impact of your battle? I also would like to know about the situation of sanitary napkin Lorier in China market. Yes, thank you for your question. Mr. Matsuda, who is overseeing the consumer products, will elaborate on your question. I am Matsuda in charge of consumer products. I would like to answer the question of what is happening in China right now. In fact, Mary's has entered a stage of revamping the brand and the business is struggling a bit. But L'Oreal is doing very well, especially in parts of South China. It was reported that its share is to become number 1 for the first time. L'Oreal has been popular in China to start with because very thin napkins have good breathability. So we increased distribution to various channels, resulting in big share. In addition, in China, the self selection cosmetics such as Free Plus and Curel are growing. Therefore, the challenge for us is Mary's. The price of Mary's has been fluctuating wildly because various parallel importers were trying to sell in quantities, which undermined the brand image. So now Mr. Nishiguchi overseeing the Chinese market is working to protect the brand image even with the sacrifice of its sales in the first half. And finally, we are becoming offensive with the launch of a new diaper in August. There are a lot of thin diapers that are thin before babies pee, but this is based on an epoch making technology that remains extremely thin even after babies pee. Through this launch in August, we would like to raise the value of Mary's brand once again and thereby expand the total sales of the brand, including Japan. That concludes my answer. I believe you are doing test marketing of the diaper. How is the reaction? Is it well accepted? Yes. We have found the new product being well accepted through test marketing, and we will incorporate digital marketing, which was mentioned earlier. In Japan, it is often said that babies who eat well, sleep well and play well will grow healthy. So we created a similar concept in Chinese with the brand concept of strongly supporting growth of babies. Mobile apps will be used to capture walking data and other data. And together with consumers, the brand will see babies through their development. We will take on the challenge of such new digital marketing. Thank you very much. Thank you for the question. Now, we received a question from Mr. Miyake of Morgan Stanley Securities through chat function. I will read it aloud. Please tell us a little more about the profit gains and losses in the second quarter that just ended. Sales of cosmetics increased by 9,100,000,000 yen whereas profit increased by 7,500,000,000 yen Perhaps a little more than 5,000,000,000 yen came from increase in sales. So what is the breakdown of the remaining 2,000,000,000 yen? Can you give me a split between reduction in fixed cost due to structural reform, reduction in marketing expense and others? This is the first question. Mr. Yamauchi, would you care to answer? Okay. Mr. Murakami in charge of cosmetics will take this question. Thank you for your question. Is it okay to answer the breakdown of the increase in profits? Right. Profit increased more than sales. I believe the question is regarding contributing factors. I will not be able to give you exact figures, but indeed, profit was higher than the marginal profit that comes from increase in sales. And so the additional increase came from structural reform, as you've pointed out. And for company wide expense, travel expense and other expenses are contributing greatly to higher profit. So additional increase in profit came from structural reform, which is underway and reduction in expenses related to business activities because of the pandemics. Also, Europe is very good now. But for example, Molton Brown received government subsidy and saved partial labor cost while shops were closed. All these contributed to higher profit than sales. That's all. Related question is, how much will cost reduction impact continue in the future? I see. For example, once the business activities return, like I said, the government subsidy savings from the labor costs during the closure of Molton Brown's directly managed stores and business trips will disappear. These will turn into cost. But I will refrain from talking about the details of breakdown. Next question is related to the overall cost, overall marketing cost. The company wide marketing cost increased only by 1,100,000,000 yen year on year basis. What is the breakdown by segment? Can you also break down the reason behind significant reduction in income of hygiene and living care? Yamauchi speaking. Marketing expenses include not just what is explicitly recorded, but also those that have directly been deducted from sales. If the latter is included, the total marketing expenses increased from the previous year. In the case of e commerce, for example, the cost of advertising directly related to sales is deducted from sales. If those expenses are also added, the marketing expenses have already exceeded in the first half the level of the previous year. I would like you to figure out the breakdown of the expenses on your own. As I said, in hygiene and living care, we are spending money in marketing because unlike last year, when we did not have to do anything special, this year, we would not have been able to deal with the competition if we had not taken some sort of measures. Thank you for the question. We are approaching the scheduled time to end the meeting, but there are several more hands raised. And therefore, we'd like to carry on a little bit longer. If you have other engagements, please feel free to excuse yourself at any time you like. Now I would like to ask Mr. Hirozumi from Daiwa Securities to ask questions. Thank you for taking my question, though this is my second time to ask questions. I want to clarify your response to Yamaguchi san's question. Yamaguchi san asked the breakdown of the full year forecast when there was a dip in sales and cost reductions. And Mr. President said in his response that you are aiming for the levels higher than the one disclosed. You're good at TCR, and so you're obviously engaged in cost reduction. But President said that you will make decisive investments and increase shares and generate profits more than expected. Does that mean that though you have kept the concerted full year forecast for sales unchanged at 1,430,000,000,000 yen, but you will aim for a higher target in sales while seeking to top 177,000,000,000 yen in operating income. Thank you for your question. As I said, the breakdown is expected to change over time. However, as we aim for 1,430,000,000,000 yen, this is the profit margin assumed for the sales. Therefore, we do not expect to merely follow the extension of the trajectory from the results of this fiscal year so far. However, with regard to the more immediate forecast, we would like to enhance the value of our presence in the market and increase the profit margin. Since there are not enough customers to capture, we will need to retain loyal customers and enhance the profit margin from them. If you're asking us to translate them into precise numbers, that will mean we will need to disclose exactly how much profit we are expecting to generate in what brand. I do not intend to go into that much detail this time. Therefore, I believe we will not be able to answer your question perfectly. I was under the impression that up until last year, that you were more focused on TCR or cost reduction to generate as much profit as possible. But are you saying that you have a different philosophy this year? Up until K20, we had been coming forward with stretched goals and managed to achieve them. However, during the 3 year period, if there are brands unlikely to achieve the goal, you suddenly started to try to secure profit only or sustained a drop in its market share with sales not growing as expected. Therefore, learning a lesson from that experience, we have decided to give priority to increasing our shares in the market to lock in customers. Then would it be correct to say that you are making decisive investments while continuing with CCR, and yet you are determined to achieve the disclosed operating income, 177,000,000,000 yen That is the determination that I have in running the company. Got it. Thank you. Thank you very much for your question. Ms. Sato from Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. Thank you. Since this is my second time to ask questions, I would like to ask a more detailed level of question. My question is about cosmetics, so it would be better answered by Murakami san. If you look at the cosmetics markets in Europe, China, representing Asia and Japan, The Japanese market was initially assumed to grow 4% to 5% annually, but the forecast has been lowered significantly according to the way you look at the market you explained to us earlier. So first of all, how much do you think the focus for the growth of the market has been lowered? When you say you are in line with your plan despite that, which is true? You expect to achieve your plan because you have been taking some additional measures or you have come up with excellent products like Lip Monster in the first half despite the overall market doing poorly and therefore, you are confident that you will be able to achieve the plan. Whether you will be able to achieve the plan in cosmetics is of the greatest concern for investors with the overall market declining from the initial forecast most. Could you please clarify your take on the forecast for the growth of the market and your company? And how you believe the probability of achieving your plan to be so high? Thank you for your question. Murakami from Cosmetics will answer the question. Thank you for your question. I would assume everyone is most worried about the Japanese market. I said the forecast for the year would be 104% at the beginning of this year, as you pointed out rightly. But back then, our assumption was that the declarations of the state of emergency and quasi state of emergency would not be as serious as they are currently. Looking at the actual results up to June, we believe things will remain difficult for July to September quarter, while in the Q4, our initial forecast can remain unchanged. Based on that, our forecast for the Japanese market would be 102%. With regard to your question of why we believe we can be in line with the plan despite this context, We believe our performance in Japan will be behind the plan. However, while we are underperforming in Japan, we expect to overachieve the plans in China, cross border e commerce, travel retail and Europe. In other words, except with Japan, where we will be short of the plan, we will exceed the plans in all the other regions, leaving us to forecast that the cosmetics business as a whole will end up being in line with the plan. I see. Could you also share with us how your annual assumption for China has changed from which level to which? As for China, our original assumption was slightly less than 130%, but our latest forecast is to achieve slightly more than 130%. In Europe, the market recovery has been faster than expected. Mott and Brown, which is mainly a lifestyle brand and Sensai, which focuses on the skincare, both experienced a tailwind in the overall market with double digit growth achieved in the first half. Therefore, if the current rate of growth continues over to the second half, we expect Europe to significantly exceed the plan. The next question will be the last one that we will take today. Ms. Miyasako from Jefferies. Miyasako from Jefferies. I apologize for asking questions twice. Well, my question is how you actually performed as compared to your However, even though we say we were in line with the plan, we were actually behind in some parts, and we believe we could have done a bit more to perform better. When you say you were actually behind, which part were you referring to? We have presented the numbers incorporating the effect of currency translation, and the net income attributable to owners of the pad did increase, but this is a number which incorporated various factors. And if all these factors are excluded, we are slightly down in like for like comparison. If you ask us whether that was in line with the plan, no, it was slightly behind the plan. However, in terms of net income attributable to owners of the parent and net sales on a like for like basis, we reached the levels that we had promised to some extent. Earlier, when you answered Yamaguchi san's questions, you said that in the second half, you plan to increase shares to secure profit, so depending on the products. In your presentation, you said that your shares increased in home care products, hand sanitizers, laundry detergents and bath additives. You also said that decisive investments are going to be made, which I understand would be your strategy in the second half. But is it correct to understand that strategy has already started to work in the first half? [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] In a sense, we used to invest across the board and in brands evenly. As we scrutinized investments, we found areas where the impact from the investments were less. So we decided to spend that amount of money to make concentrated investments in core brands. Because we cover such a broad area, if you collect all this extra money, you will end up making the core brands much stronger. Since we felt positive reactions in the first half, we will continue with the practice in the second half. Does that answer your question? [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Then you have taken such a measure in the first half, and it worked. However, in terms of profit, you were in line with your forecast, weren't you? [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Yes. It is not the case that we have been able to do so in all brands at once. Therefore, we are in the process of doing so 1 by 1 by figuring out how we will invest the money in which brand. Had we been able to do so in all brands at once in the first half, we probably would have been able to achieve the initial plan, but unfortunately, that was not the case. Therefore, we are planning to further pursue that strategy 1 by 1 in the second half. Then are we supposed to expect that the decisive investments, which was done slightly in the first half, to be expanded further in the second half and the next fiscal year? In other words, can we expect more growth in profits next fiscal year and the years after next with a mid- to long term perspective? [SPEAKER UNIDENTIFIED COMPANY REPRESENTATIVE:] Yes. With regard to the investments we used to make evenly across the board in a sense, we will focus the money in the areas which can be made stronger so that focused investments will make them more competitive, which in turn is expected to bode well in terms of market shares, sales and profits. However, as in the case of Life Care business, where new brands are created, a separate set of investments may be necessary. It is not the case that the single strategy will work for everything. So I would like to ask for your kind understanding. Thank you. Thank you very much for asking so many questions. So many so that we have run over the scheduled time. This concludes our earnings briefing. Thank you once again for your attendance. Thank you very much. May I make one comment before we go? Ideally, we wish we could have invited everyone in person and had a face to face meeting. Unfortunately, however, the end of the COVID-nineteen pandemic is not in sight yet. Once the breakout of COVID-nineteen is subsided, I definitely want to have a more intimate meeting in person. Today, the whole team worked closely together and did their best to organize this online meeting. I'm determined to put more efforts as part of the senior management, so we can have more intimate discussions with you. And I would like to ask for your continued support. Thank you very much for today.