Thank you. I'd like to now present the financial results and make presentations based on the PowerPoint presentation material that you have. Before talking about the details, there are three key points that I'd like to describe about the Q3. Last year, there were JPY 130 billion extraordinary gains. At the end of the first half, there were views that it's going to go below the year before. At the end of the Q3, although the increase was small, we once again recorded the highest net profit. Next is the operating cash flow. We had the record high number two years in the row, 10% increase year-on-year. Excluding the working capital, the Core operating cash flow also grew by 13% year-on-year. I think we can say that our capability to generate cash remains very strong.
The point three is that the trends stays the same as I mentioned at the end of the first half, and the non-resource businesses, especially the consumer related, remain strong. In Q3, we started to see some differences among the different companies. We are making a good progress. In addition to those three points, based on the results up to Q3, we have decided to execute the additional JPY 25 billion share buyback as a return to our shareholders. I'll explain the details later. In January, we announced the management structure for FYE24. We have a good results of the management team. Our management policy will continue. Management team, including CEO, are basically the same. I think you can feel reassured that we would achieve the targets of the Brand-new Deal 2023.
Starting with page two, I'd like to now explain the numbers. The net profit was JPY 682.2 billion, the record high number up 0.5% year-on-year. The trends remain the same as the first half, especially Q3. The Q3 net profit was JPY 199.2 billion, which is the record high number. The next page shows this, the food company, the progress is 53%. ICT and financial business is 60%, they are at low levels. The metals and minerals, machinery, and energy and chemicals have updated their highest record profit number. We are also seeing the strength in general products and Realty.
Vis-à-vis our forecast of JPY 800 billion, the overall progress is 85%, and the percentage of the non-resource is 76%, which continues to be at high level. Next page shows the segment numbers. Before explaining that, in order to make things easier for you to understand, we are now giving the breakdown of the core profit. You see the total on the right, and you see the breakdown of non-resource and resource and others. The core profit of JPY 634 billion is a record high and 15.3% higher. Among the growth, JPY 84 billion is the total increase of the core profit, and 73% comes from the non-resource. The non-resource is JPY 61 billion and JPY 19.5 billion for the resource business.
There was a major impact of the weaker Japanese yen, the impact of the foreign exchange is JPY 69 billion. The improvements of the COVID related is JPY 18 billion. At the same time, the iron ore and other natural resource prices, the impact was JPY 8.5 billion. Excluding all of those factors, the net increase was JPY 5.5 billion. Non-resource account for JPY 11 billion. The resource is minus JPY 8.5 billion. For your reference, the foreign exchange impact, it's 50% from non-resource and the remaining 50% from resource businesses. In non-resource, ICT and financial business, minus JPY 19 billion. CITIC CP, JPY 14 billion in a negative area, and the food is minus JPY 11.5 billion. Energy and chemicals is minus JPY 10 billion.
I would explain this later, but there were funds and mobile phone related in ICT and financial business, and Conexio Corporation are included here. As for the CP and CITIC, especially CP. The pork price in China and Vietnam were sluggish. Also, as for CITIC, there was an extraordinary evaluation gain. CITIC has been very profitable. CITIC Securities, evaluation gain, if you look at the core profit there, it is strong. There is a Sino Iron, and in comparison to that, there is a negative impact. In CITIC and CP, we look at it as one segment. This includes the investment by the CITIC, and it shows negative. Food, I would explain this later, but in Q3, the Dole and HyLife did not improve very much, and the profit declined.
As for Energy and Chemicals, the price and Forex impact was big. Excluding them, the upstream dividend was low, and Azerbaijan and Japan Sakhalin oil volume were down. This is a net negative. This is the new information that we are making it easier for you to understand. The page 5 is Extraordinary Gains and Losses. The total of the Q1 to Q3, as you can see on the right-hand side, was JPY 48 billion. Last year, it was JPY 129 billion, so it's down by JPY 81 billion year-on-year. In Q3, as you can see here, it was a loss of JPY 5 billion. In Machinery company, there was losses on the aircrafts, at least to Russian airlines, and that was booked and that was the major item. There are no other major ones.
If you look at the major impairment losses, there is a sale of North American Beverage Equipment Maintenance company, and also, as I mentioned, the lease to the Russian airlines and a revaluation gain on securities business in CITIC Limited. Those are included, and they are major ones. In Q4, we do not expect any major impairment losses. In comparison to our annual forecast of 800 billion JPY, core profit is 770 billion JPY. Extraordinary gains and loss is 30 billion JPY. As of now, you can see that it's 48 billion JPY included. That means that about the loss of 18 billion JPY can be expected for Q4. It is the second year of our medium-term plan.
Of course, toward the end of the fiscal year, we would discuss the potential impairment losses with ACP, but there are no major concerns that we have. If I may talk about the annual forecast on page 30. Here, we are showing a bar graph of the annual forecast. The progress up to Q3 is shown here. Annual forecast is JPY 800 billion and remains the same, and the progress is 85%. The first half, it was 60%, we are making a steady progress. We have not yet used the buffer of JPY 20 billion. There are some differences in among the segments, but we are not making any revisions to the numbers of segments. The strength is seen in metals and minerals and energy and chemicals, and food is weak.
Later on, if you refer to pages 12 to 20, you find that, if you only look at the Q4, the conservative views are in Machinery, General Products & Realty, and The 8th. Because in Q4, the construction machinery, for example, the IPP business in North America, and the car trading and export numbers. We have a conservative view on some of the assets that we have. In General Products & Realty, the pulp price, which remained at the high level, is expected to come down. In North America, with the deceleration of the economy, the construction material related business is expected to slow down. Freight market is coming down. We see we have a conservative view on the General Products & Realty.
The 8th, in Q4, less cross-holding and also the FamilyMart has the lowest earnings and also the lowest customer traffic in Q4. The numbers are considered to be conservative in Q4. Going back to page nine, which is about the additional shareholders' return. As I mentioned, we decided to execute JPY 25 billion in additional share buybacks. As we announced at the beginning of October, the JPY 35 billion share buyback was already executed by the January 31st this year as planned. In the medium-term business plan, we say that we execute the share buyback actively and continuously without any numerical targets. In January, we have completed the share buyback of JPY 35 billion, we would like to continue with this.
At the end of the first half, as we explained to you, we will make judgment about the share buyback based on the level of the excess cash at the end of each quarter. At the first half end, the Core free cashflow was JPY 127 billion. This time, as you see on page 22, the Core free cashflow was JPY 182 billion. The difference is about JPY 55 billion. As we did before, the half of that will be used for shareholder return. That is our way of thinking. In the medium term, in FYE23, the total shareholder returns was 33%. In addition to that, there is a commitment to a dividend payout ratio of 30% in FYE2024.
As we promised, we are reviewing the cashflow frequently, and in addition to the qualitative targets, we are making the steady initiatives. As for the share buyback, part of it will be off auction using ToSTNeT-3, and also the small lot purchase from the market until March. Now, let me talk about each segment now. Page three has the details. It shows the net profit changes. The ones with the asterisks, three companies recorded the highest numbers, and others also has the asterisk. There are a lot of extraordinary items, and now we refer to four companies, and the details are shown from page 12 to 20. Net profit of JPY 682.2 billion. I would like to talk about the businesses with the higher Core profit.
The highest Core profit was recorded by the Metals and Minerals, also based on the net profit. The Core profit was JPY 197.9 billion, which is a little less than JPY 40 billion higher than the year before. There was a major impact of the weaker yen. In addition, in the Metals and Minerals, there is a trading business of the non-resource. Marubeni-Itochu Steel, which sells the steel products, showed strength mainly in North American construction materials and pipes and so forth. In comparison to last year, the coal price has recovered. EMEA coal business showed strength. The iron ore business, in Brazil, the dividend increased.
The iron ore price is down year-on-year, so EMEA iron ore core profit will be coming, is down. But still, we made more than JPY 40 billion increase and achieved the core profit of JPY 197.9 billion. The second highest core profit is the machinery. They had the highest net profit, and the core profit was JPY 82.6 billion, up JPY 24 billion year-on-year. It has a wide-ranging businesses, and overall, they show strength. North American IPP business and the import of the cars, Yanase in Japan, and American the construction machinery business, Multiquip, and also Hitachi Construction Machinery, which started to come in from Q3, and also the car dealer business overseas. Those were all strong.
The Russian-related, the leasing of the aircraft, that was negative, but all of those contributed significantly. The third, also the highest, Core profit is the energy and chemicals. Core profit was JPY 79.8 billion. The trading of the energy and the power were strong, and also Azerbaijan business was strong. Now overseas and Japan. The chemical companies, they are good ones and bad ones. There was no dividend of the Sakhalin business. Offsetting the negative factors, there were JPY 18.5 billion growth, so achieving the Core profit of JPY 79.8 billion. The one without asterisk, the general products and realty also had the Core profit of JPY 79.8 billion, which is up by JPY 17.2 billion year-on-year.
Construction material related business in North America and also Japan were strong. The pulp price stayed at high level, and therefore the pulp business in Finland was very strong. European tire business, ETEL, was successful in increasing the prices and increased the profit. ITOCHU Property Development, Ltd. selling the condominiums in Japan, they also had the good results up to Q3. Including the freights, the logistic prices were high and ITOCHU Logistics Corp. showed strength. It was not the highest record, but they did contribute significantly. In comparison to the year before, based on the Core profit, this company showed a growth. Other companies, Textile and The 8th Company, numbers are smaller. The 8th Company has grown by JPY 3 billion and Textile has grown by JPY 3.9 billion.
As for FamilyMart, their costs, water and electricity included, have come up. Also the support expenses increased. In order to recover to the daily sales before COVID, they have increased prices, and they're making good progress. The annual target of JPY 33 billion is likely to be achieved. The Textile is smaller, but we are capturing the recovery from the COVID, so apparel business is positive. It's not the company, but the CP CITIC, the total is JPY 80.3 billion increase of the Core profit. CITIC, the iron ore price was down and Sino Iron was down, but the CITIC Bank and CITIC Securities showed strength. Also yen was weaker vis-à-vis the renminbi, so they're making a good progress. Now the CP Group.
The pork related, the businesses in Vietnam and China, just like food business, the pork prices were lower, therefore the negative performance up to Q3. Including The 8th Company and Textile and Food, we see positive trend in seven segments. In terms of the progress, there are some concerns in ICT and financial business and food. ICT and financial business, there was extraordinary gain, the major one last year. Excluding that, we are struggling. Last year, the share prices were at high level and it has come down. As a result, the investment by our venture capital funds suffered. Venture capital fund related numbers have not yet recovered from Q2. Also the mobile phone related, the sale of the used phones and others, we are not showing the growth that we achieved last year.
The other day, CITIC announced their earnings. The top line and the gross profit are strong, and also the backlog is at the highest level. In ICT there is a shortage of semiconductor as well as other personnel, and there have been delay of the projects, so they have lowered the annual forecast. They have not yet absorbed the increased cost. As for Conexio, there is a lower volume of sales. Because of this ICT and the financial businesses, the core profit is down by JPY 17 billion. Our net profit forecast of JPY 64 billion... As you know that Nojima is doing the TOB of Conexio, and next week this TOB will be completed. There will be a replacement of the assets and we are likely to achieve the net profit target.
As for food company here. You see that the results of the food is here, JPY 36.7 billion and JPY 33.2 billion in Core profit, which is down by JPY 12.1 billion year-on-year. As it happened in the first half, the upstream area, upstream area has been very strong. ITOCHU-SHOKUHIN and NIPPON ACCESS, the food distribution is also strong. Dole has been weak, and due to the lower pork price, HyLife is suffering. That's what I said in the first half. These two actually worsened in Q3 very quickly. We are taking countermeasures, and we expect a recovery. In Q4, probably, this is likely to continue to some extent. In Q3, we saw the quick decline of the North American business.
Those businesses are suffering. Food, the negative trend and also the ICT and financial businesses are likely to catch up in Q4. Overall, we believe that we are making good progress vis-à-vis our overall forecast. Now I'd like to talk about cash flow. Page six. The operating cash flows, the metals and minerals and and energy and chemicals, those three companies are generating operating cash flows. 11% increase year-on-year, the operating cash flow of JPY 632 billion was achieved. Excluding the working capital, the Core operating cash flow increased 13% and reached JPY 691 billion. At the bottom, you see the Core free cash flows and net investment cash flows, which shows JPY 386 billion, which is the third highest.
I would explain this later on pages, page 22, the total of the major new investment is JPY 518 billion. We are making good progress there. seven, we are showing the financial position. With the weaker yen and new investments, the total assets increased JPY 1.4 trillion and reached JPY 13.6 trillion. The total shareholders' equity, due to the higher profit and weaker yen, increased JPY 1.5 trillion to JPY 4.7 trillion. The page eight shows the assumptions. Those assumptions have not changed from November. Now I'd like to talk about the foreign exchange impact. The total impact was JPY 69 billion, which is shown on page four. If you look at the assumptions, the exchange rate average is 135.08.
JPY weakened by 24.53. This is the impact. The total assets, there is an impact of JPY 210 billion and JPY 79 billion on equity. Net interest bearing debt was up by JPY 64 billion. That's the calculation. As for investments, I'd like to go over to page 21. As I mentioned, the gross investment up to Q3 was JPY 518 billion. Exit was JPY 132 billion. Net investment amount was JPY 386 billion, which is the third highest in the history. This includes the construction material, construction machinery, chemicals, and iron ore and storage batteries and so forth in the three quarters.
There are many small ones, but for the future growth of the profit, we are making those investments so that we can grow the profit within the cash that we have. On this page, the biggest investment was in the second quarter, the investment in [TC] construction material, JPY 132.5 billion. The second is the iron ore business held by ArcelorMittal in Canada. The third is the North American construction material investment. If you only look at the Q3, as you can see between the parentheses, the gross investment was JPY 161 billion. This includes the investment in Canada for iron ore and also the share buyback of Yanase and the investment for the chemical distributor in the United States. That concludes my presentation. Thank you for your attention.