Good afternoon. Thank you very much for your attendance today despite your busy schedule. I will now present the financial summary for the FY 2023. First, a summary of the financial results. As previously announced in the third quarter results, the U.S. business has become a discontinued operation following the transfer of shares in U.S. subsidiary, Upsher-Smith Laboratories, which was announced in January.
Accordingly, the figures for net sales, profit before tax, and net income attributable to owners of the parent, represent the amounts for the Japanese operation, which is continuing operation. The sum of the continuing and discontinued operations is the figure for net income attributable to owners of the parent. The transfer to Bora in Taiwan was completed on April 1st. Net sales increased by 8.0% year-on-year, driven by the products launched in FY 2022 and FY 2023.
Core operating income increased by 11.7% from the previous year, primarily due to an increase in gross profit and the fact that cost increases were reflected in selling prices, particularly for lower priced products, despite the impact of NHI price revisions, cost increases, and recovery costs for certain items.
Currently, 249 items are experiencing limited or suspended shipments. All employees are working together to strengthen the system and increase production in order to eliminate further limited shipments. The next section, titled "Overview of the Financial Results," presents the company's financial performance in numerical terms. Both net sales and each of the profit categories demonstrated an increase in revenue and profit, with earnings per share reaching JPY 312, 8.1% growth compared to the previous year. This page presents the results for the U.S., a discontinued operation. Net income attributable to owners of the parent was JPY 1.016 billion.
The following section presents an analysis of the changes in core operating income. Despite the recall costs incurred for some products, gross profit, excluding the recall costs, increased by approximately JPY 4.7 billion compared to the previous year, resulting in an increase of approximately JPY 2.5 billion. This is the full basis analysis of factors for increase or decrease in operating profit. While there have been impairment losses on certain products and other gains and losses, there's no significant difference in the factors affecting the increase or decrease in core operating income. This is sales by product launch year for Sawai Pharmaceutical on a non-consolidated basis. The sales figures were driven by products listed from FY 2022 onwards, including esomeprazole, azacitidine, zinc acetate, and azilsartan. This is the balance sheet situation.
Following the completion of the sale of the U.S. business on April 1st, the equity ratio and net debt-to-equity ratio are expected to improve in the balance sheet. Next is the cash flow statement. Cash flow from investing activities totaled a net outflow of JPY 23.112 billion, reflecting the company's strategy of investing heavily in capital to expand production capacity. This included the construction of a new solid dosage form building at the second Kyushu plant. Next is a forecast for the FY 2024.
Net sales are forecast to increase by 14.2% to JPY 202 billion, primarily due to growth in new and core products. Due to the effect of revenue growth, core operating profit is forecast to increase by 17.0% to JPY 28 billion, and operating profit by 39.6% to JPY 26 billion.
However, costs will increase due to the strengthening of recruitment and training of human resources for further future growth and the commencement of operations at the new solid formulation building at the second Kyushu plant. Net income attributable to owners of the parent is expected to increase significantly to JPY 30 billion, primarily due to the inclusion of a foreign exchange gain of JPY 15.5 billion resulting from the completion of the sale of the U.S. subsidiary. This is the increase in net sales and cost of sales for this and the previous year.
The 14.2% increase in net sales is primarily attributable to the impact of higher sales volume of existing products and increased sales of products launched in recent years. Conversely, the cost of sales is anticipated to rise by 12.4% due to higher depreciation and labor costs, as well as elevated procurement costs for raw materials, et cetera.
However, we anticipate that gross profit will increase by 17.8% to JPY 64 billion. This section outlines the company's capital expenditure and research and development expenses. We will continue to invest in R&D and manufacturing facilities with the aim of further boosting our domestic GE business. This will involve concentrating management resources to further strengthen our formulation technology and production capacity. I would now like to discuss shareholder returns. As announced in the timely disclosure today, a 3-for-1 share split will be carried out on October 1st. The dividend for FY 2024 will be increased for the first time in eight years from JPY 130- JPY 159 on a pre-split basis. The DOE target, based on the basic policy for reviewing business portfolio and capital policy as outlined in the January disclosure, will be included in the new medium-term management plan scheduled for release in June.
I would now like to hand over to Mr. Kimura, President of Sawai Pharmaceutical, who will explain our initiatives to strengthen supply capacity and measures to prevent the recurrence of inappropriate testing at our subsidiary.
My name is Kimura, President of Sawai Pharmaceutical. Thank you for joining us today. From here, I would like to explain our activities to strengthen our production capacity. This page provides an update on the construction of the new solid preparations building in the Kyushu Plant Number 2. The project is on schedule to commence operations in July of this year. In order to respond to the current increase in demand, we have brought forward our original plan and will commence step 2 investment within this fiscal year. Consequently, the production capacity is anticipated to expand by 500 million tablets from the initially projected 3 billion tablets to 3.5 billion tablets.
This is an overview of the projected production volume for Trust Pharmatech and the new building in the second Kyushu plant. The transfer of items to Trust Pharmatech is proceeding according to plan. The current fiscal year's production plan is for 900 million tablets, while the new building in Kyushu Number 2 is expected to produce 300 million tablets by the end of the fiscal year. This is the forecast for future production capacity. Our company has the highest production capacity in the industry as a result of our strategic investments in production facilities and personnel in the past, in anticipation of growing demand. In the current fiscal year, we anticipate an 11% increase in our production plan, reaching approximately 17.7 billion tablets, including subcontracting. This growth will be driven by increased production at our six existing plants in Sawai and Trust Pharmatech.
Furthermore, we will increase our own production capacity by nearly 20% from 18.5 billion tablets in the previous year to 22 billion tablets in FY 2026. We will continue to enhance our capacity to provide a reliable supply and further expand our market share within the domestic GE market. Next, I'd like to discuss measures to prevent the recurrence of inappropriate testing at our subsidiaries. At present, five recurrence prevention measures are being implemented consistently across all relevant departments, including the Corporate Culture Reform Project. The details of the initiatives and progress are regularly disclosed and updated every month on our website. Regarding measures to prevent the recurrence of inappropriate testing, one of the points we have reflected on is the too much reliance on the individual staff's knowledge and skills, which we will address through personnel training and the creation of a system at each company.
In addition, we intend to regain the trust we have lost through proactive information disclosure to the outside world. It is also important to share information within the company. We will ensure that our activities are shared internally via the intranet sites. As for human resources, we have made a personnel change in which the person who was previously the executive officer and deputy general manager of the headquarters and the general manager of the production control division is now appointed as the general manager of the Kyushu plant effective April 1st, and will be in charge of the two plants in the Kyushu area. Finally, I'd like to talk about directions of the new medium-term management plan, which is scheduled for release in June. As you can see, there are four important points I would like to highlight about.
The first is to firmly restore the trust that was lost due to the improper testing last year, and to firmly set a course over the next three years toward achieving the long-term vision for 2030. The second objective is to direct management resources towards ensuring quality and expanding production capacity in the domestic GE business, while simultaneously establishing a structure for further growth in the next mid-term plan, in addition to growth during the current mid-term plan period. Third, in order to achieve long-term growth, it is important to continue investing in areas where there is potential for synergy with the domestic GE business. Fourth, in accordance with the overarching business portfolio and the capital policy review, prioritize management actions based on relevant performance indicators.
In addition to resetting the numerical targets of the long-term vision, the target values will be published as management KPIs in accordance with the directions outlined above. To meet expectations of our shareholders even more than ever, we are committed to improving our management. Please refer to page 22 and onwards for the financial data and other reference material. This concludes our overview of the financial results for the 2023 financial year. Thank you very much for your attention.