My name is Yamamoto, Director, Representative Corporate Executive, President, and Group CEO of Azbil. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you also to all of you who have joined us online. Today, I'll first present our new medium-term plan, and then Mr. Yokota will explain our financial result for fiscal year 2024 and the financial plans for fiscal year 2025. This is what I'll explain today. I'll begin with a review of the previous medium-term plan, followed by the outline of the new medium-term plan, and then a summary. First, I'll explain the general overview. As for our financial performance during the previous medium-term plan period, from fiscal year 2021 to fiscal year 2024, we exceeded the plan formulated in fiscal year 2021 in terms of net sales, operating income, operating income margin, and ROE. In particular, we are able to significantly improve profitability.
During the new medium-term plan period, from the current fiscal year to fiscal year 2027, we expect the business environment to remain highly uncertain, but we'll achieve both sales growth and profitability improvement by promoting Azbil Group's unique business model through group-wide evolution and co-creation. With regard to profitability, we intend to achieve a long-term operating profit margin target of 15% ahead of schedule. Specifically, we plan to achieve net sales of JPY 340 billion, operating income of JPY 51 billion, operating margin of 15%, and ROE of 14% in fiscal year 2027. With regard to our long-term target for fiscal year 2030, we have revised our target upward for both net sales and operating income.
Although there are uncertainties in the business environment, we have made considerable progress in strengths in profitability during the previous medium-term period, and in addition to business, based on our long-standing strong relationship with customer base, we are aiming for further growth by exploring growth markets where there is demand to harness technological innovation or respond to social issues. Specifically, our new long-term target are net sales of JPY 420 billion, operating income of JPY 65 billion, and operating margin of 15.5%. Next is the review of the previous medium-term plan. The financial result for fiscal year 2024 was almost in line with the plan originally set. As part of our transformation for growth, we have steadily made investment in product development and done portfolio review, including the sale of Azbil Telstar, and significantly improved profitability.
Specifically, we started the previous medium-term plan under the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the transformation of work styles, strengthening of human capital, enhancement of product competitiveness, enhancement of profitability including cost pass-through, enhancement of procurement and production system, and business portfolio structuring. Having said that, the challenges for the future are to restrict the growth scenario for further expansion, to grow our overseas business and make solid investment realities, and to strengthen our procurement and production system to be resilient to supply chain risks in light of the current situation. Which is the review of the previous medium-term plan. We see some changes in the business environment. Broadly speaking, there are three mega trends, namely technological advancing areas such as semiconductor and generative AI, social issues, and geopolitical risks.
In terms of technological advances, semiconductor will continue to be one of the most promising growth markets globally, and Azbil sees this as a growth market. As for social issues, they include carbon neutrality, infectious diseases, labor shortages, and various others, and we see the first two mega trends as business opportunities where we can particularly make a contribution. In terms of geopolitical risks, including existing risks between the U.S. and China, as we want to expand our business in India going forward. Given recent regional conflict and other factors, we intend to respond appropriately to these risks while also seizing growth opportunities. Now we have chosen evolution and co-creation as our new themes. Originally, our long-term goal was to contribute in series to a sustainable society.
In order to achieve this goal, we will first see further growth through evolution, in which we will transform ourselves to adapt to changes in the business environment and co-creation, in which we will collaborate with industry, government, and academia to create new value. Next, I'll explain the outline of the new medium-term plan. In this plan, we work on evolution and co-creation, targeted contribution in series to a sustainable society, and aim to realize the well-being of society and group employees through business expansion. We believe that the business environment will continue to be uncertain, but to further strengthen Azbil Group's unique business model, which enables us to achieve solid sales and profits even under such uncertainties during the previous medium-term period. To reinforce our business model, we steadily invest in strengthening of human capital, enhancing product continuousness and DX promotion, while we bolster our management foundation.
Next, I'd like to explain the Azbil Group's unique business model. First, we have built up a broad customer base over many years, specifically factories, commercial buildings, and lifeline utilities, which have been one of the characteristics of our company. We are firmly committed to two ways of businesses: core businesses based on strong relationships with these customers, and growth businesses that see technological innovation in semiconductor and other areas, as well as responses to social issues such as carbon neutrality as business opportunities. Furthermore, in growth businesses, we work hard on promoting overseas expansion and expansion of our competitive advantage by strengthening product competitiveness, and we aim for steady business expansion by repeating the cycle of growth businesses to core businesses to growth businesses. At the same time, we actively and continuously evaluate and review our business portfolio from the perspective of cost of capital.
In growth businesses, our customers need to realize technological innovation and respond to social issues, and we expand sales by introducing our cutting-edge product and service to them. In core businesses, we expand profitability by providing product and service to customers who are already using our product and system in a sustainable manner through DX utilization, and etc. At the same time, customers newly acquired in growth businesses will become customers of core businesses after a few years. As it redefined the Azbil Group's strength as ensuring a steady cycle of growth and core businesses, we plan to invest to reinforce this strength and expand our business through these investments. I'll present two examples. The first is the overseas building automation business.
Although this business is still developing compared to our domestic side of the business, we believe we can achieve sustainable growth by providing product and services throughout the lifecycle of buildings. As we aim to increase overseas sales, we specifically focus on local building owners. Until now, we have mainly worked with Japanese owners, but now that we have a growing track record with local owners, we aim to expand our business by acquiring important local customers, which we call global accounts. This allows us to apply our domestic business model of acquiring new customers and following up with maintenance and services. Therefore, we would like to pursue this effort. Another example in Advanced Automation business is strengthening product competitiveness as an expansion of competitive advantage.
Through the creation of new automation technologies based on our proprietary technologies, we are planning to expand our business by including sales by JPY 10 billion over fiscal year 2024 by responding to new social issues. For example, we would like to realize new and differentiated products, including high-performance sensors for the semiconductor market and services such as crowd-based diagnosis, which can optimize the regular maintenance cost of valves that we have been working for, thus transforming more than half a century of practice. To strengthen this business model, we invest steadily in three major areas: human capital, strengthening product competitiveness, and DX, which contribute to both. Regarding human capital, we focus on developing and securing human resources who are consistent with our business strategy, who can provide solutions, and who can demonstrate one's capability globally.
In terms of product competitiveness, we invest to expand our unique core technology of measurement and control and our application areas. Regarding DX, we are using DX to improve both our business and efficiency, and we will continue to invest steadily in both areas. Compared to the previous medium-term plan, we plan to invest JPY 32 billion more in human capital, JPY 9 billion more in product competitiveness, and JPY 5 billion more in DX. One example of DX investment is the use of generative AI, which other companies are also already working on. We will continue to invest in generative AI in terms of both product enhancement and DX promotion. We have been incorporating generative AI into our products and services to increase their added value, and we will further strengthen this initiative to enhance this Azbil's unique business model.
Under our business, we will firmly respond to a certain number of new entrants in our business domain, especially in Japan, as well as to the risk of information management when we use generative AI in-house. Next, among our business strategy and performance targets, I'll explain our growth businesses and core businesses. As explained earlier, our growth business is to provide our new products and services to our customers in response to their demand for new investment, technological innovation, and respond to social issues. We expect sales of these businesses to grow from JPY 88 billion in fiscal year 2024 to JPY 125 billion in fiscal year 2027. Our core business is to provide existing facilities, refurbishment, and services to our existing customer base that we have built up over many years.
We plan to increase their sales from JPY 197.7 billion in fiscal year 2024 to JPY 215 billion in fiscal year 2027. One of the characteristics of the Azbil Group is that these core businesses still account for a large proportion of our business, but we would like to achieve both growth and profitability by firmly increasing the proportion of growth businesses in the future. This is the plan for each segment. We are targeting group net sales of JPY 340 billion and operating income of JPY 51 billion for fiscal year 2027. We have planned for the building automation, advanced automation, and life automation businesses, as well as overseas operations, which are shown here. I'll explain each plan. First is the building automation business.
We tend to focus firmly on three areas: expanding our domestic market, which still has considerable room for growth, increasing sales in overseas markets, and strengthening product development to achieve these goals. In growth businesses, we will provide a GX Solution in highly value-added systems and services to buildings, including data centers. In overseas market, we will firmly engage with overseas local customers. In core businesses, we have taken time in developing products just to save construction work and eliminate the need for construction work, especially in the domestic construction area. Where there is still a growing shortage of engineers and construction workers, we managed to bring those products to market during the new medium-term period to make them useful for the still growing domestic market.
By doing so, we aim to grow sales from JPY 148.7 billion in fiscal year 2024 to JPY 174 billion in fiscal year 2027, and segment profit of JPY 24.3 billion to JPY 26.9 billion. Next is the Advanced Automation business. We would like to move forward with the next medium-term plan based on three pillars: acceleration of global business, creation of new automation, and enhancement of profitability. In particular, with regard to creation of new automation, we utilize Azbil's proprietary technologies such as flow sensors, control valve management technology, and automatic plant operation, which are core technologies, to meet demand for measurement and control technologies. I have just explained. We also believe that we can continue to improve profitability and are working to further improve the business mix and cost of product and services.
By achieving solid growth also on a global basis, we plan to expand sales from JPY 106.8 billion in fiscal year 2024 to JPY 123 billion in fiscal year 2027, and segment profit from JPY 15.9 billion to JPY 21 billion. Next is the life automation business. The major difference from the previous medium-term plan period is that we now start a new medium-term plan without Azbil Telstar, in which we transfer its equity interests. We focus on growth through synergy between smart meter and smart metering as a service and researching our business portfolio. In particular, in the area of meters, we intend to firmly promote next-generation smart meter business and smart metering as a service business as growth businesses. At the same time, as for core businesses, we steadily capture meter renewal demand required by law.
In a sense, this is Azbil Group's broad customer base I'm explaining today, and we work hard to meet steady demand. We also expect solid growth in central air conditioning system business and the unit of the life automation business. As a result, we expect sales to grow from JPY 32 billion in fiscal year 2024 to JPY 43 billion in fiscal year 2027, and segment profit from JPY 700 million to JPY 2.8 billion. We will accelerate overseas business by promoting business development and strengthening management systems tailored to regional characteristics. Until now, our overseas operations have been mostly led by headquarters in Japan, but now that we have developed the ability to expand our operations locally, we will firmly implement locally-led initiatives suited to regional characteristics in the current medium-term plan.
Specifically, as locally-led initiatives, we aim for solid growth through deep regional strategies and locally-driven initiatives, such as business expansion by sharing resources within the region, mainly through the strategic planning and development office for Southeast Asia in Singapore. Through these initiatives, we plan to grow sales to JPY 62 billion in fiscal year 2027, mainly through growth in the Southeast Asia region. At the same time, we would like to make firm efforts to strengthen our management foundation. To achieve sustainable growth, we will move forward with the establishment of a new organizational system, the creation of a mechanism for management that is conscious of cost of capital, and the practice of sustainability management. As part of our reorganization growth, we are developing a new organizational system in the Group Management Strategy Department to expect the establishment of a promotional strategy for the entire group.
Regarding promotion of management that is conscious of cost of capital, we are also promoting the wider adoption of ROIC as a management tool. In addition, as for the practice of sustainability management, we would like to strengthen our efforts to address materiality and achieve our own SDG targets. We would like to make sure that our BCP is well addressed. Furthermore, in terms of corporate governance, we are continuing to implement improvements in elimination policy and other areas. After the transition to a company with a three-committee board structure, we would like to make steady progress on this front. One of the major initiatives of strengthening the business foundation is to increase profit and enhance profitability.
We have been working to enhance profitability of the Building Automation, the Advanced Automation, and the Life Automation businesses by improving business mix, improving the cost of products and services, and optimizing selling price, including cost pass-through. Fiscally, we improved operating income margin for the group from JPY 10.4% in fiscal year 2020 to JPY 14.4% in fiscal year 2024, and further planned improvement to JPY 15% in fiscal year 2027. We are promoting a management focus on profitability. We would also like to make sure that the practice of growth investment through effective use of balance sheet will be addressed during this medium-term period. In particular, we will invest firmly in human resources, products, and DX for growth. In addition, we expect to invest approximately JPY 50 billion during the current medium-term period as growth investment for business expansion, with a view to actively utilizing not only cash on hand but also debt.
We will also be conscious of cost of capital and look at cash investment and shareholder returns. In terms of dividends, we aim to continuously increase dividend on equity (DOE) of over 6%, which Mr. Yokota will explain in a little more detail later in the capital policy for fiscal year 2025. This is a summary of our new medium-term plan. Under the theme of evolution and co-creation, the three-year medium-term plan through fiscal year 2027 aims to achieve both sales expansion and profitability improvement while proactively investing human capital at the necessary areas with Azbil Group's unique business model and to achieve well-being for society and group employees through further growth. This time, we have also revised upward long-term targets for fiscal year 2030.
Although the business environment is becoming increasingly uncertain, based on the achievement in the previous medium-term plan, which I've explained today, we believe that we can achieve growth in core businesses based on strong customer base over many years and growth businesses in areas where customers need to make new investments leading to technological innovation and responses to social issues. We believe that we can achieve growth by making solid investment in human capital, enhancement of product competitiveness, and DX promotion. As the first year of the new medium-term plan, the strategic level has been slightly lower due to the impact of the business portfolio structuring, which is the transfer of equity interests in Azbil Telstar. Excluding this impact, we aim for sales growth and increased profitability.
The Azbil Group will make investments to firmly strengthen the group's unique business model, as I explained, in order to contribute to society, realize the well-being of society and group employees, and achieve further growth. Thank you very much for your attention.
My name is Yokota, Director, Representative Corporate Executive, Deputy President. I have seen the consolidated financial result for fiscal year 2024 and the consolidated financial plan for fiscal year 2025 as a shareholder return and investment in human capital. These are the main points I'll explain today. Although the consolidated financial result for fiscal year 2024 was affected by the exclusion of Azbil Telstar from the scope of consolidation due to the sale of its equity interests, we achieved record financial results for the fourth consecutive fiscal year with increased revenue and profits. The research in itself, the sales of the business, also made steady progress.
As for the consolidated financial plan for fiscal year 2025, due to the impact of the transfer of Azbil Telstar, net sales are expected to decrease slightly year on year, but the exceeding impact of the transfer, net sales are expected to excellently increase based on the strengthened profitability achieved during the previous medium-term period. We plan to achieve a fixed consecutive year of increase of waiting income. Regarding the shareholder return, we plan to increase year-end dividend for fiscal year 2024 and further increase the dividend for fiscal year 2025. As a result, the ratio of dividend to net asset dividend to equity (DOE), which we use as an indicator, is expected to be 5.6%. We plan to repurchase JPY 50 billion over shares, and we also cancel JPY 20 billion over treasury shares.
Separately, we repurchase approximately JPY 3.5 billion over shares from the market, which we use for the Trust Save Employee Shareholder Incentive Plan as an investment in human capital. These are the subjects I'll explain today. First, here are the consolidated financial results for fiscal year 2024. Despite the impact of the transfer of equity interests and Azbil Telstar, although the received, net sales, and operating income increased year on year, mainly due to an increase in the building automation business. The building automation business exceeded plan in both sales and segment profit, but overall net sales fell slightly short of the plan due to the impact of the transfer of Azbil Telstar. At the same time, operating income exceeded plan.
Net income attributed to owner of the parent increased significantly year on year and exceeded plan, mainly due to a gain of approximately JPY 7.6 billion from the sales of equity interests in Azbil Telstar, despite non-operating foreign exchange loss due to the strong end at the end of the current fiscal year. This page explains the financial result by segment. In the building automation business, orders received increased significantly year on year against a backdrop of a robust business environment, and partially due to the renewal of large-scale multi-year service contracts. Sales increased year on year in all fields, including overseas, and steady progress was made with initiative-driven workload. Segment profit also increased due to the effect of increased sales and strengthened profitability, achieving the plan.
In the advanced automation business, orders received increased year on year due to recovery in demand in the factory automation market, in addition to the strength of the process automation market. Sales are on par with the previous year due to the robust process automation market, despite the impact of struggling market conditions in the factory automation market. Segment profit is also on par with the previous year due to the effect of measures to strengthen profitability, despite rising bill expenses, but the plan was not achieved. In the life automation business, orders received, sales, and segment profit all declined year on year as a whole due to the impact of the exclusion of Azbil Telstar from the scope of consolidation. Plan was also not achieved. Please see the following pages for more detail on each business segment, including the business environment.
Now, please turn to page 10, overseas sales by region. Overseas sales decreased 6.2% year on year, mainly due to the effect of the transfer of equity interests in Azbil Telstar in the life automation business. Sales in the advanced automation business also decreased due to the impact of the slow factory automation market in China and other countries, while sales in the building automation business increased mainly in Asia. Consolidated financial position is shown here. The exclusion of Azbil Telstar from the scope of consolidation not only impacted the decrease in inventory and treasury receivable, but the trade payable and short-term and long-term borrowings also decreased in terms of liabilities. In addition, proceeds of monetary transfer also resulted in the increase of cash on deposit. Net asset increase due to net income attributed to owner of the parent and other factors, despite the repurchase of shares and dividend payments.
As for consolidated cash flows, looking at cash flow changes year on year, we can show an increase by JPY 20.8 billion. This is mainly due to the decrease in inventory in the current fiscal year, which increased in the previous fiscal year as a result of measures to secure funds and strengthen procurement capabilities. There is an increase in operating cash flow due to higher income before income taxes. Net cash used in financing activities increased year on year. This is due to an increase in expenditure for dividend payments, in addition to the repurchase of shares. I will now explain our consolidated financial plan for fiscal year 2025.
Although net sales slightly decreased due to the exclusion of Azbil Telstar from the scope of consolidation in the previous year, the business environment surrounding the building automation business remains strong, and expect further automation market recovery in the advanced automation business as well. Against the backdrop of this environment, we plan to increase both sales and segment profit in both building automation and advanced automation business, and exceeding the impact of the transfer of Azbil Telstar, we plan to increase net sales as a whole. Currently, there are increasing uncertainties in the business environment, including geopolitical risks, the impact of the U.S. diplomatic tariff on industry and economy, inflation, rising costs such as labor costs. The current plan incorporates the effect of uncertainty within the foreseeable range, and while making the necessary investment, we expect operating income to increase for the fifth consecutive fiscal year.
Through major strengthened profitability and cost pass-through, which have proven successful, as well as through operational efficiency improvement through DX. This page describes the financial plan by segment. In the Building Automation business, we expect an increase in sales on the back of fair market conditions and large order backlog. Although other sources and labor costs expect increase, we plan to increase segment profit by increasing sales, improving profitability at the time of order taking and cost pass-through. In the Advanced Automation business, we plan to increase sales due to the steady process automation market and expect a moderate recovery in the factory automation market. Segment profit also expected to increase due to the effect of measures to strengthen profitability, including cost pass-through, despite impacts of the U.S. tariff policy, soaring part prices, and higher labor costs.
In the life automation business, we plan to grow in the lifeline field, but overseas and segment profit are expected to decrease due to the impact of the transfer of Azbil Telstar in the previous fiscal year. However, as you can see, excluding that impact, the life automation business also planned to increase sales and segment profit. For details of the business environment and other information, please refer to the next page. Please turn to page 17. From this point on, I explain shareholder return and investment in human capital. In line with the basic policy of enhancing shareholder return, investing for growth and maintaining a sound financial base while remaining conscious of the cost of capital. In the business operation and investment, we actually invest in businesses, R&D, equipment facilities, DX, and human capital. These are explained in the following pages.
Please note that ROIC and cost of capital disclosures are also provided at the bottom of this page. First is the dividend plan. For fiscal year 2024, we increased year-end dividend by JPY 2.24 per share for the full year. As record profit exceeded the revised earnings plan announced in last November, and we achieved steady results both compared to the plan and to the previous fiscal year. For fiscal year 2025, although uncertainty in the economic and business environment is increasing due to geopolitical risks and U.S. diplomatic tariff policy, Azbil's business profitability has been improving under the previous medium-term plan and expect growth in the future. Thus, we plan to increase annual dividend by JPY 2.26 per share. We will further improve the DOE level based on the continuation of stable dividend. For the current fiscal year, we are focusing a DOE of 5.6%.
I explain the repurchase of shares and cancellation of treasury shares. To improve capital efficiency and increase shareholder return by implementing a disciplined capital policy we have developed in the past, we repurchased JPY 15 billion worth 24 million shares of our shares. We canceled approximately JPY 20 billion worth 19.3 million treasury shares, which consists of JPY 15 billion worth shares we planned to repurchase this time and JPY 5 billion worth existing treasury shares. We recovered those JPY 5 billion worth treasury shares in the previous fiscal year in order to use for human capital investment, but we have decided to acquire shares for the purpose from the market. Thus, those JPY 5 billion worth treasury shares will be canceled as well. As for investment in human capital, we adopt a Trust Save Employee Shareholding Incentive Plan.
We plan to repurchase approximately JPY 3.5 billion worth shares from the market and use them for the plan. For details, please refer to the next page. Please also refer to page 22 for the history of dividend, which we increased for the eleventh consecutive fiscal year in the current fiscal year and the implementation of share repurchase. We continue to pursue disciplined capital management. This concludes my presentation. Thank you very much for your attention.