My name is Ando, CEO of USS. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to attend the Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Results Briefing. I would like to highlight our current status, future outlook, and our growth strategy. In the Q&A session, we would like to take as many questions as time permits, so please do not hesitate to ask. Now, please turn to page 4. Let me begin by explaining the market environment. New car registrations for the full year were 101% year-on-year. Growth was limited, but since January, it has clearly turned around and increased strongly. Clearly, we see recovery. Used car registrations are progressing steadily. While the delivery lead time of new cars is getting longer, the demand to us for immediate delivery is helping to keep exports boosting.
The auction market as a whole saw a 98.1% increase in the number of vehicles consigned and a 101.3% in contract completions. In contrast, we USS achieved 103.8% in number of vehicles consigned and 108% in contract completions, clearly outpacing the market. As a result, our market share for calendar year 2024 is 41.4%. In 2025, our market share growth is accelerating further. In fiscal year ended March 2025, we surpassed JPY 100 billion in net sales and JPY 50 billion in operating profit. All profit categories reached record highs. Next is our mid to long-term growth strategy. Our goal is clear. It is 50% market share. To achieve this, we've already begun the renovation of the Yokohama venue to be opened in January next year. In addition, we will renovate Tokyo and HAA Kobe, and we will build a new multi-story parking facility.
We plan to invest a total of JPY 50 billion over the next three years. Regarding shareholder returns, we plan to pay a dividend of JPY 43.4 per share in FY24, 115% versus last year. From FY25, we will raise the consolidated dividend payout ratio to 60% or above. As for the dividend in FY25, we aim to hike it for the 26th consecutive year to JPY 48.6, 112% versus the previous year. In addition, we also announced a new policy of increasing the total payout ratio to 100% or above during the three-year period starting from FY25. I will go into more details later. Please turn to page 7. First, regarding the operating profit in FY24, these are the factors behind the top-line growth.
In the auction business, both the number of vehicles consigned and contract completions increased, and the fee unit prices also rose substantially due to the hike of the internet or CIS successful bid fees from JPY 17,000 to JPY 20,000. The used vehicle purchasing and selling business was also strong, boosting the top line. Next, let's look at cost of sales. The decline in procurement was due to fewer large-scale demolition work in the plant recycling business. On the other hand, the increase in cost of goods sold was due to growth in the used vehicle purchasing and selling business. Next is the reason why the SG&A grew. We increased the provision for allowance for doubtful accounts due to increased volume of auto loans. Now, please see page 9. I will now briefly explain the market trends.
I already touched upon the number of new and used vehicle registrations earlier, but what's particularly noteworthy is the trend in used vehicle exports. Exports, which are generally said to account for about one-third of used car demand, have remained generally flat or steady this fiscal year after a record high last year, and the number of vehicles circulating in the entire auction market is also basically flat. Please see this slide. This slide compares the unit price per contracted vehicle or a successful bid between USS and the industry average excluding USS. In February 2025, the unit price per contract for the USS reached a record high. However, in March and April, we saw a downward trend. This is due to a sharp increase in the number of new car registrations since the beginning of the year.
This has been accompanied by a large volume of traded-in and purchased used vehicles flowing into the market, increasing supply and easing the supply and demand balance. But what I would like to draw your attention to here is the difference in unit price between USS and industry average. Before COVID, the gap was about JPY 200,000, but by March 2025, the gap had widened to nearly JPY 500,000. USS's overwhelming advantage is its unrivaled competitiveness in high unit price, relatively new models, used vehicles for retail. This is the brand equity that we've built up over 40 years since the foundation of the company. We will continue to hone this strength and lead the auto auction industry as the top runner. This slide shows our auction business track records. First, please take a look at the market share trend in the lower left-hand corner.
Our share is 41.4% during calendar year 2024. This is a steady increase from 39.6% in the previous year. There are two main drivers for this growth. The first is the increase in the number of lanes at the Tokyo venue from 12 to 16 last October. This has led to an increase in number of vehicles consigned, and the effects have become even more apparent since January of this year. The other factor is that the slump in new car sales has reduced the market share of manufacturer-affiliated auctions and increased the relative presence of USS. We will seize this momentum and continue to make steady progress towards achieving 50% market share. Next, regarding unit fees. As I explained earlier, we raised the successful bid fees by JPY 3,000 on the internet auction or CIS.
But even after this hike, the percentage of successful bids from outside has been on an upward trend, so we can say that the impact of this hike on our customers was limited. Also, from April this year, we raised the successful bid fees for USS Japan, the external bidding system with a proprietary terminal, by JPY 3,000 from JPY 12,000 to JPY 15,000. We have not observed any major impact, such as reluctance to buy, and the transition has been smooth. We expect to see an impact of about JPY 1.4 billion from this price hike. Next, I will explain the used vehicle purchasing and selling business. At Rabbit, net sales were JPY 7.3 billion, up 106% year-on-year, thanks to steady growth in sales volume.
Operating profit was JPY 190 million, 107% year-on-year, achieving a steady growth in both sales and profit. Next, regarding the accident-damaged vehicle purchasing and selling business.
Sales volume increased, but gross profit per vehicle declined slightly, resulting in net sales of JPY 5.3 billion, 117% year-on-year, and operating profit JPY 85 million, 55% year-on-year. We will continue our efforts to improve our margins. Now, I'd like to move on to the recycling business. First, the resource recycling business operated by our subsidiary, ARBIZ Corporation . Sales were strong, reaching JPY 5.3 billion, 100% year-on-year, as the market prices of non-ferrous metals remained at high levels. On the other hand, operating profit declined slightly to JPY 473 million, 99% year-on-year, due to an increase in outsourcing costs and other factors.
Next, the plant recycling business operated by SMART Corporation . This one was affected by a decline in orders for large-scale demolition work, resulting in a significant decrease in both sales and profits. Net sales were JPY 3 billion, 58% year-on-year. Operating profit was JPY 69 million, 10% year-on-year.
We are quickly building a team that can flexibly respond to changes in the market and solidify our foundation for regrowth. Regarding our auto loan business, we've been steadily delivering results over the past two years since its inception in April 2023. As of March 2025, the number of member agencies was 850. The number of loans executed was 8,000, and the total amount of loans executed was JPY 10.1 billion, showing steady growth. In fiscal 24, the second year since the start of operations, the auto loan business turned profitable on a non-consolidated basis. We will continue to expand our business steadily. I would now like to explain our full-year earnings forecast. Net sales were JPY 111.8 billion, 107.5% year-on-year. Operating profit was JPY 55.8 billion, 102.9% year-on-year.
The next few pages explain some of the factors that may cause fluctuations in the full-year operating profit and our forecast for each segment, so please read them later on. Now, please turn to page 22. I'd like to explain the market environment and our midterm initiatives. This slide shows our market share from 1990 to date. As of 2024, USS reached a market share of 41.4%, the top position in the industry. However, we are not complacent, and our next goal is to achieve 50% over the mid to long term. To achieve this, we are planning to renovate the Yokohama venue, followed by Tokyo and HAA Kobe venues over the next three years to substantially increase our capacity.
We will focus on promoting DX, digital transformation, such as digital consignment of vehicles, to provide more convenience to our members, and also to invest in human resources, such as more training and increasing headcount of vehicle inspectors. Through these measures, we intend to build a solid infrastructure to establish a firm position in the industry. This slide shows our mid- to long-term management goals. To date, we've built a well-balanced business portfolio centered on stable growth of our auction business and expansion of the recycling business. However, in the next growth phase, we will become more selective in what we do in our executions to concentrate management resources such as people, goods, and capital towards achieving 50% market share. At the same time, we have no intention of slowing down our efforts in the recycling business.
In the resource recycling business, we are developing technologies now to recycle aluminum and solar panels. In the plant recycling business, we will aim for growth that is realistic rather than just going after expansion while keeping a close eye on changes in the competitive environment. We will continue to make steady efforts on our recycling business, not only for short-term results but also for the long term. Next, I would like to explain the cash flow allocation, the use of funds over the next three years. From FY25 to FY27, we will invest a cumulative JPY 50 billion for growth. This shows our intention to shift to strategic investments even more than today to increase our corporate value. Regarding total payout ratio, our policy is to aim for 100% or more.
We will allocate our ample cash reserves to growth investments in a balanced manner to pursue both sustainable growth and maximizing shareholder value. Next, regarding our plans for future growth and investment, the Yokohama venue is scheduled to reopen on January 13, 2026, after the renovations. As I explained earlier, we will continue to renew the high-potential large-scale venues and also revamp the mission-critical auction system. This slide shows the path to 20% ROE. We would like to achieve this ROE level at an early stage by increasing business profit and reducing equity capital through buybacks. This slide shows the change in dividend since our stock listing. As I explained at the beginning, the annual dividend for FY24 is planned to be JPY 43.4, marking 25 consecutive years of dividend hikes since our listing.
In FY25, we are planning for JPY 48.6 per share, aiming to achieve 26 consecutive years of dividend hikes. This slide is regarding the share repurchases buybacks conducted from October to March. As a result, JPY 7.36 million shares were repurchased at a cost of JPY 9.9 billion. This slide shows the changes in the total payout ratio. We'll raise the total payout ratio to 100% or above over the three-year period starting this fiscal year. This slide shows our image regarding growth and shareholder returns. We intend to improve our corporate value by spinning both cycles, not just one. This concludes my presentation on our financial results. Thank you very much for your attention. Yes, I would like to answer. So we've made a fee hike for both CIS and USS Japan. Well, USS Japan was hiked one year later after CIS.
But in terms of the effect, as I mentioned earlier, just with USS Japan, we see a positive effect of approximately JPY 1.4-JPY 1.5 billion per year. We started from April 1, but so far, we don't see any decline in the number of vehicles contracted, not at all. And some people did give us some comments regarding the fee hike, but it's not that they have refrained buying it at all. So they continue to make their deals like they did before the fee hike. Well, as I explained earlier, currently we have 19 venues in operation. Since a few years ago, we have been discussing about the 20th venue, but we've not been able to really narrow down on the locations, the candidate locations.
It's not that we have changed our directions, but for now, we would like to use our existing auction venues, revamp them, and maintain the environment. The customers' thoughts have changed a lot. It's not that all they need is the buyer's seat. They also need to use their laptops, their PC, and their seats. A lot of people want that, so that's why we have more venues with outlets to supply power at the buyer's seats. These are some of the things that we need to think about in revisiting the design for our venues. For the Tokyo venue, we want to provide more space per person, so that's why we have designed a larger table for our customers.
Since we know that the internet auction is being very much used frequently nowadays, and so due to that, there is a slight decline in the number of customers who actually come to the venues physically. We will try to make better accommodation to the customers so they come to the venue. As for the Tokyo venue, we have about 160,000 tsubos, give or take a few, but you know, because of the size, it's hard to see the cars. It's far away. We would like to provide better service to the customers so that they can see well the vehicles before the auction. Also, we want to make sure that the customers can come without getting wet under the rain.
Nagoya is the only one where we have a route where the customers can sit at their buyer's seats without getting wet under the rain. We would like to build a multi-story parking lot in Tokyo, and this is just for our customers. They can go to the multi-story parking lot, come down from the elevator, and they can go straight to the buyer's seats. This is the design so that we can accommodate our customers with better convenience. We'd like to increase the lanes too. Currently, we have 20 lanes in Tokyo venue, which we are planning for. It's not going to be maybe they're not going to use 20 lanes all at once immediately, but we can reduce the lanes to maximum 20 in the future. Currently, we'd like to operate 16 to 18 lanes.
The number of vehicles coming into Tokyo venue is approximately 20,000 units right now. There is a lot, and we would like to operate so that the auctions can end by 7:00 P.M. if possible. We'd like to also invest in the auction venues so that the customers can see the cars better with better photos. Right now, we're taking photos from beneath the car, upwards, and also rust. These conditions, we want customers to see better, and we're taking photos to accommodate that. We'd like to expand this to other venues in the future. Yes, currently Tokyo venue has 16 lanes. Yes, and we'd like to operate 18 in the beginning. In the new venue, we'll start from 18 lanes. The status of Tokyo venue is that we've finally been able to complete the design. Yes, after the Golden Week holidays ended.
Now we're going to ask for estimations based on this design, but as you know, construction costs are up by 30%-35% nowadays. It's really a headache, therefore. Actually, but having said that, it doesn't mean that we can stop construction. We need to, even if it is 30% more expensive. Yes, so for the Tokyo venue, we would like to open it in two years from now. Yamanaka-san will answer. For this fiscal year, because we know that we're going to start the construction of Tokyo venue in the second half, we're thinking of accelerated depreciation, so to say. So this is how we estimate the depreciation of the existing buildings. So we will have more depreciation burden from the second half of this fiscal year. This is reflected in our plan today.
Yes, well, we have been targeting ROE 15% or above, but nowadays our track record is exceeding this, so this is one of the reasons why we would like to target ROE 20% or above, but please make sure you understand that this is a target. Yamanaka-san will answer this one. As the CEO has just mentioned, we have increased the ROE target from 15% to 20%, so now that the target is ROE 20%, we need to execute so that we can achieve this, and in order to achieve this, we also changed our total payout ratio from 80% to 100%, making sure that the denominator does not increase and expect that the profit will build up in the future. This is how we would like to achieve ROE 20%. This is the math that we had had in our mind.
So with total payout ratio 100%, the dividend payout ratio has also been changed from 55% to 60%. This is the chain of thoughts that we have had. Oh, currently we have no visibility whatsoever. What's going to happen? The issue of China, suddenly we hear a number like 125%. Things keep changing. So it's very difficult to forecast any sort of picture with confidence today. But in terms of the exporters, the overseas players who are using our auction right now, we're wondering what the tariff for them will be like. Maybe used cars are not included in the tariff scope. We don't know. So we would like to wait and see. We hear from some of the overseas people, and they say there's no impact so far, but we don't know what the future will bring us. So we will continue to monitor this.
This will be answered by our president. Currently, we're aiming for a share of 50% in the long run, and we're very grateful that we've been able to achieve 42% so far. So in your question, you asked about any structural changes, but the answer is no, not any major changes there. But as our chairman presented earlier, the current USS's auction environment is in a very good place. We have a very good virtuous cycle spinning. Compared to the other venues, our average unit price is high, and we provide a good environment to our customers where they can consign their vehicles with comfort. We have 48,000 member companies, and by providing a better auction environment to these 48,000 customers, last year we've been able to see an increase in the members who actually consign vehicles, the actual members who participate.
So the small-scale members increased, but also large-scale members increased too. Gulliver, Nextage, WECARS, yes, these large-scale member customers who have franchises now consign more vehicles, and this is why we're able to expand our market share. In the near future, we're committed to achieving 45% share. As we've been mentioning, we will be making large-scale CapEx and also strengthen our sales activities to achieve 45% for now. Well, in terms of Tokyo venue, we've finally been able to see the completed design. And so now going forward, we're going to ask the contractor to give us their estimates, but as I mentioned earlier, they say that the cost is up by roughly 35%. So yes, that is why we're thinking about JPY 20 billion on the higher end. In the case of HAA Kobe, there is another headache here.
Now, the thing is that land in Kobe, from the Great East Japan Earthquake, there were the destructive buildings that collapsed, and the debris from that concrete is actually buried in the land, the soil, near our HAA Kobe venue. So when we try to revamp this and we do some boring activities there, we don't know what kind of negative impact the debris will give us. This is something we're still talking with the contractors, so we don't know what the outcome would be. Whether it be Tokyo venue or HAA Kobe venue and Yokohama venue too, we also need to see how much asbestos is included. Now, if we have some asbestos included, then the demolition will not be easy because we need to prevent the asbestos from scattering. So this is a difficult one again.
But in terms of Yokohama, we know that they basically do not include any asbestos, hardly any. The highest one is HAA Kobe, and this was not a venue that we built ourselves. We don't have the track records from the past, and so we really don't know how much asbestos is included here. So far, it's not clear yet. Although through visual check, they have told us that there is a little bit of asbestos, but how much is a little bit, we still don't know. So anyway, in terms of HAA Kobe, there is debris in the soil, right? And so it would be a very big difficulty in planning how to build the foundation on top of such soil. It might cost us JPY 3 billion-JPY 4 billion more. We might have to be mentally prepared for this. So yes, we will reduce the buyer's seats.
We will because many of our customers are moving on to the internet auction. So in the case of buyer's seats, well, when we built the Tokyo venue in the beginning, we had around 2,600 seats. Yes, 2,600 seats. But now we've reduced the number of seats, like brought two seats to make one seat. But still, we're making sure that there are enough seats for the customers, and we're making various considerations in this regard. So we're trying to measure the average, and based on that calculation, we've decided the number of buyer's seats in Tokyo venue. Yes. So currently, it is true, exactly as you said, that the equity ratio is extremely high. But what we'd like to do is not to increase borrowing to reduce equity ratio.
Rather than that, we would like to make sure that the equity ratio does not go any higher than it is today. To do that, we would like to increase total payout ratio. Hypothetically, for example, let's say we have a new M&A deal, a large-scale deal, and we might need some cash. If we are not able to cover that large amount with equity capital, then we would like to go through borrowing at a low cost to reduce the equity ratio. That is a scenario that we may have to think about if that happens. Currently, if we borrow money, how are we going to use it? Currently, for Yokohama and Tokyo and HAA Kobe construction, we don't need to borrow because we can cover this fully with our cash on hand.
That's why we have no plans to borrow for the construction work.