Hello everyone, once again I am Yoshitada Miyoshi, Corporate General Manager, Corporate Management Planning Headquarters. Thank you so much for joining us today for the first-half results briefing of Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. in spite of your busy schedule. The first-half results were higher both year-on-year as well as compared to our July upward revision. Net sales, operating profit, and ordinary profit were all record highs. As we alluded to in July, energy and industry were drivers for the financial performance, and this trend was more obvious in the first half. This page shows the summary of consolidated financial results for the first half of FY 2025 compared to the last fiscal year. Net sales, operating profit, and ordinary profit were record highs. Net sales were ¥543.2 billion, ¥45.8 billion higher year-on-year.
If you look at the right-hand side for the breakdown of changes in net sales, you see a gain on translation of earnings of overseas subsidiaries of ¥2 billion, which pushed up net sales. Without it, net sales increase would have been ¥43.8 billion driven by demand increase. Operating profit increased by ¥2.4 billion year-on-year to ¥42.8 billion. I will explain the details of changes in operating profit later. Operating profit ratio was 7.9%. There was no major change in non-operating profit in the first half, but with the impact from the exchange rate, ordinary profit was ¥41.7 billion, ¥2.8 billion higher year-on-year. Extraordinary profit declined ¥17.6 billion to ¥-1.2 billion because we had a gain on sales of investment securities last year, but it did not repeat this year. Profit attributable to owners of parent was ¥26.6 billion, down ¥8.9 billion year-on-year.
Let me explain factors behind year-on-year changes in operating profit. We had negative factors such as fixed costs, increase in raw material costs, exchange rates, and so on, totaling a little bit over ¥10 billion. These negative factors were offset by an increase in sales and production volumes of ¥10.6 billion, and furthermore, added values and others such as selling price, better model mix, profitability difference among products, and cost reductions, which accumulated profits on top. As a result, operating profit was ¥2.4 billion higher year-on-year. With regards to the increase in sales and production volumes of ¥10.6 billion, energy drove the strong results. Around 60% of the profit was generated by energy. The second largest contribution was industry, in particular IT solutions, where net sales increased a lot, therefore contributed to the profit. Fixed costs increased by ¥7.5 billion.
Labor costs, depreciation, and leases paid increased, the majority of which related to the semiconductor business. With regards to added value and others, impacts from rising raw material costs have continued mainly from silver and copper, which totaled ¥2.8 billion as negative factors. Business units which were impacted mostly were semiconductors and ED and C components. Most of the impact was on these two divisions. Next, I'd like to explain net sales and operating profit by segment. Net sales of energy and industry increased year-on-year by ¥21.2 billion and ¥31 billion respectively. Operating profit of energy increased by ¥8.9 billion and industry by ¥2.9 billion year-on-year, which offset the decline of profit in semiconductors and food and beverage distribution. We achieved operating profit ratio improvement in energy up to 11.5% in the first half. In energy, net sales increased by ¥21.2 billion, and operating profit increased by ¥8.9 billion year-on-year.
Operating profit ratio was 11.5%. Revenue drivers were clearly energy management systems and power supply equipment and facility systems in particular, contributing greatly to net sales. Accordingly, operating profit improved significantly in those two subsegments. Let me go through each subsegment. With regards to power generation, we achieved increases both in net sales and operating profit as a result of the benefits of an increase in large-scale renewable energy projects. With regards to energy management systems, we achieved increases both in net sales and operating profit driven by storage battery systems for grid stability and substation equipment. Regarding power supply equipment and facility systems, demand from data centers stayed strong, achieving increases both in net sales and operating profit. With regards to equipment construction, good momentum is continuing, and we achieved higher net sales and operating profit. Net sales in industry increased by ¥31 billion to ¥206.3 billion.
Operating profit increased by ¥2.9 billion to ¥11 billion. Operating profit ratio was 5.3%. Of the increase of net sales by ¥31 billion, around two-thirds was contributed by IT solutions. Other businesses, factory automation components, automation, social solutions, ED and C components saw net sales increase of ¥2 to ¥3 billion respectively year-on-year. With regards to automation systems, net sales increased, but unfortunately, profit decreased due to higher expenses associated with large-scale projects, as we explained in the first quarter. In the semiconductors, net sales increased by ¥0.7 billion year-on-year to ¥108.7 billion. Operating profit declined by ¥6.1 billion to ¥9 billion. Operating profit ratio was 8.3%, a significant decline in profit. At the bottom on the right, we show the breakdown between industrial and automotive. In industrial, net sales increased by ¥5.3 billion year-on-year.
As we explained in Q1, it is driven by strong demand from renewable energy, mainly in China. On the other hand, in automotive, net sales declined by ¥4.6 billion due to a decline in demand from power semiconductors both in Japan and overseas. Compared to the magnitude of net sales decline, operating profit fell more because of higher raw material prices and an increase in depreciation and leases paid, which could not be fully offset by an increase in sales and production volume. In the food and beverage distribution segment, net sales declined by ¥5.9 billion year-on-year to ¥52.4 billion. Operating profit declined by ¥2.9 billion year-on-year to ¥5.8 billion. Operating profit ratio was 11.1%. In the last year, we had special demand from automatic change dispensers that stemmed from the issuance of newly designed paper currency in Japan.
Due to the reactionary decline from that, both net sales and profit declined. For your information, if we exclude the impact from the last year's special demand from new paper bill change dispensers, net sales were flat year-on-year, and operating profit was up year-on-year. Let me give you more color by each subsegment. In vending machines, we struggled because weak domestic demand we saw in Q1 continued. On the other hand, in store distribution, an increase in convenience store renovations and demand for store fixtures trended strongly. Therefore, excluding the impact from last year's special demand, both net sales and operating profit would have been higher year-on-year.
Next, I will discuss changing net sales by Japan and overseas area in comparison to the previous fiscal year. Of the ¥543.2 billion net sales, ¥389.8 billion was for Japan, up ¥35.2 billion year-on-year, and ¥153.4 billion for overseas area, including the FX impact of ¥2 billion, up by ¥10.6 billion year-on-year. By segment, energy was up by approximately ¥2 billion, industry by ¥6 billion. Semiconductors was up by approximately ¥3 billion, but semiconductor automotive is continuing to struggle. Overall, the strong domestic demand drove sales higher. Looking at the situation by region, excluding FX impact, Asia, China, and India recorded higher sales of products, even excluding FX impact, while Europe and Americas remained flat year-on-year. Next is orders for the first half. Orders for the first half had increased ¥113.2 billion year-on-year from ¥571.7 billion in fiscal year 2024 to ¥684.9 billion.
Power plant systems business was a major driver, with an increase of more than ¥100 billion compared to the previous year. The breakdown of the increase is shown on the right-hand side, with a ¥45.2 billion increase coming from the energy segment and ¥58.8 billion from the industry segment. Power generation business and energy management business led the orders higher in the energy segment. Power supply and facility systems businesses were up year-on-year as well. As for power generation business, we received an order for thermal and geothermal power plant systems, which led to higher demand. Energy management business saw higher demand for applications related to renewable energy stabilization and substation systems. Power supply and facility systems captured growth in data center-related demand, while equipment construction business saw growth in demand for electrical and air conditioning equipment construction.
In the industry segment, as explained earlier when I talked about the different segments, IT solutions business made up most of the order increase, with demand growing from the academic sector for the second GIGA program and orders for transportation systems in social solutions business making its contribution. This is the status of orders for major components shown on a year-on-year as well as quarter-on-quarter basis. Year-on-year, orders were up ¥3.4 billion, but with an FX impact of ¥6.3 billion in actual terms, it will be negative compared to the previous year, but we are seeing a gradual recovery trend. Factory automation and ED and C components businesses saw a rebound from the lump sum and advance orders received from a specific customer, resulting in lower orders quarter-on-quarter, but demand remains flat year-on-year. We will continue to closely monitor the component market, responding appropriately through initiatives including production control.
Next is on consolidated financial results for the first half of FY2025 in comparison to the forecast announced on July 31 of this year. Net sales were ¥543.2 billion, up ¥9.2 billion, or excluding the FX impact of ¥6 billion, up ¥3.2 billion. Operating profit was up ¥2.3 billion, or excluding FX impact, resulting in a net increase of ¥1.6 billion. By segment, notable contributions to net sales were made by the industry segment. As for the operating profit, significant improvement was seen in the energy segment. Notable contributions were made by the power generation business, energy management business, and equipment construction business. Many of you may be interested in power supply and facility systems business, which saw project delays, resulting in a slight underachievement compared to the forecast announced in July. Next, consolidated balance sheet and cash flow status.
Total assets decreased by ¥7.3 billion from the end of March to ¥1,304.9 billion, with inventory assets increasing due to strong performance of plant and systems business. While notes and accountable receivables trade, contract assets decreased. Retained earnings increased by ¥14.1 billion, and accordingly, equity ratio rose 2.2% to 54.9%. With commercial paper financing partially offset by a decrease in lease obligations, interest-bearing debt increased by ¥16.3 billion. Net interest-bearing debt increased by ¥23.9 billion to ¥66.1 billion, and net D/E ratio is 0.1 times. This is a consolidated cash flow statement. Cash flows from operating activities deteriorated by ¥51.6 billion to ¥35.9 billion, primarily due to a decrease in advance payments received and an increase in inventories. Cash flows from investing activities deteriorated by ¥18.8 billion to a negative ¥44.6 billion, impacted by the absence of proceeds from the sales of investment securities recorded in the previous year.
As for free cash flow, it was an outflow of ¥8.7 billion. We have revised our earnings forecast upward based on the first half results. Compared to the full-year forecast announced in July, this represents an upward revision of ¥30 billion in net sales, ¥4 billion in operating profit, ¥5.5 billion in ordinary profit, and ¥3.5 billion in profit attributable to owners of parent. We will aim for an operating profit ratio of 10.8% and a ratio of profit attributable to owners of parent to net sales of 7.5%. The exchange rate assumption for the euro has been revised from the previous ¥154 to ¥164, reflecting current market rates. By segment, both the energy and industry segments are expected to exceed expectations, while the components business, including factory automation components, is projected to continue facing challenges in the second half, similar to the first half.
Comparing the full-year forecast to the previous year, net sales are projected to increase by ¥61.6 billion, operating profit by ¥10.9 billion, and the operating profit ratio is targeted at 10.8%, aiming higher than the previous year's 10.5%. Ordinary profit is projected to increase by ¥9.2 billion, but profit attributable to owners of parent is expected to decrease by ¥3.2 billion compared to the previous year. This is because last year's results included gains from the sales of investment securities, which are not currently factored into this year's projections. In the segment breakdown compared to the previous year, the energy segment is expected to raise its operating profit ratio to 13.5%. The food and beverage distribution segment aimed for a 12% operating profit ratio, despite the absence of the special demand seen last year due to the change in banknotes.
The industry segment is expected to remain at 9.7%, while the semiconductor segment continues to face challenges, with an operating profit ratio of 10.4% projected. Lastly, I will explain the dividend of surplus. The interim dividend has been set at ¥91 per share, an increase of ¥16 from the previous year. As stated in the medium-term management plan, in pursuit of a payout ratio of 30%, which we aim to achieve this fiscal year, calculation was made based on the full-year profit attributable to owners of parent. That concludes my explanation. Thank you very much for your attention.