This is Tsuyoshi Hachimura, CFO of ITOCHU. Thank you very much for joining us despite very hot weather outside. Now I'd like to present the Q1 business results for FY 2020. Please turn to page 2, which shows the summary of Q1 financial results for fiscal 2020. There are five major points. First, net profit attributable to ITOCHU increased JPY 33.9 billion, or 30%, to JPY 147.3 billion. This is the quarterly net profit, which is the highest in the history. In terms of the progress against our fiscal year forecast, it was about 30%. The business results were very strong. I think we can say that ITOCHU is indeed doing very well.
When we have too much concentration on the particular businesses or particular regions, we would suffer when there are a lot of uncertainties, and that's something that we learned in fiscal 2016 as a general trading company. We have been focused on earn, cut, and prevent so that we can do better than the market expectation in each of our businesses so that we can achieve the high records. As a result, we achieved the record high number in the first quarter. We are not complacent, but we are making sure that we achieve our target, and we are doing very well. As a management team, we remain calm despite this record high number, and we continue to have uncertainties about the market environment. I think we can say that we have a very healthy sense of crisis.
Now turning to the core profit, excluding the extraordinary gains and losses, although there were extraordinary gains of JPY 30 billion, the core profit increased to JPY 117 billion, which is the record high first quarter number, and this showed the growth of JPY 8 billion year on year. We can say that our core profit is growing. Profit and losses of our group company reached JPY 126.3 billion, which is the record high three years in a row, and 84.9%, or about 85%, of the companies are making profit. At the end of the last year, it was 90%, so it is slightly higher, but we can say that the 292 consolidated companies exist in our group, and 85% of them are profitable. Seventy percent are the small and medium-sized businesses, which is below JPY 2 billion.
The ones that exceed JPY 10 billion are, first of all, IMEA, Iron Ore Business in Australia, and Orchid, which is the investment company for CITIC. So we can say that the small and medium-sized businesses are doing very well. As for the core operating cash flows, this was also a record high number at JPY 148 billion. EPS, which we have started to focus on since last fiscal year, was about JPY 98, which is also a record high number. Now let's look at each segment. On page 3, profit increased by JPY 33.9 billion year on year. Out of the seven division companies, five achieved higher profit. The highest increase was achieved in the general products and realty, the increase of JPY 16.2 billion. Metals and minerals increased by JPY 11.5 billion. ICT and financial business also grew, and energy and chemicals also grew.
The decline was recorded in food and textile. As for food, I would explain this later, but negative factors included Dough and grains elevator business in the United States. Those are the two negative factors. As for textile, there were extraordinary gains recorded last year, so there was a change from that. In actual terms, there was a growth. Division companies showed strength. In metals and minerals, which showed the actual highest growth, the JPY 34 billion profit increase, this is related to the iron ore business, and the IMEA operation in Australia was very strong. Also, Brazil-Japan Iron Ore Corporation, the CM Iron Ore Business, was very strong. Therefore, the dividend came earlier, and because of this, this JPY 34 billion profit was achieved in metals and minerals. The general products and realty, JPY 32.8 billion.
In fiscal 2019, there was a pulp price decline, and we started our forecast for this fiscal year with that factor included. Actually, we have been planning to replace some of the assets. We sold CIPA and PWT in North America, and in the U.K., the tire retail and wholesale manufacturer ETEL. In North America, Alta , which is the wood fence business, and ITOCHU Property Development, the condominium sales business in Japan, have done well. As for the food business, which had a profit of JPY 19 billion, FamilyMart UNY profit was JPY 9.2 billion, and equity earnings increased JPY 3.6 billion. Compared with last year, our equity holding increased by 9%, which pushed up our profit. Through the reorganization of FamilyMart UNY, there was a tax advantage and a cost improvement effect. Those are the positive factors.
The sale of UNY led to the lower profit of the UNY part, and last year, there was a sale of the UNY Hong Kong, and as the FamilyMart UNY became the subsidiary, there was a booking of a PPA. Including all of them, there was a positive change of JPY 3.6 billion. In food, driven by the FamilyMart UNY, the Nippon Access and Canadian pork business HyLife , as well as ITOCHU Sugar, increased their profits. At the same time, Dough profit declined year on year, and grains elevator business in the United States declined, not because of the U.S.-China trade friction, but due to the weather and lower profit in relation to the insurance. These were the negative factors in food.
ICT and financial business profit was JPY 17.1 billion, and there was a gains on sale of Wellness Communications, and CTC, Connexio, Pocket Card, and overseas consumer finance business were strong. At the same time, Orient Corporation struggled, as we saw in last year. The burden of the system expenditure, the depreciation, was quite heavy. Now the machinery, the profit improved by JPY 2 billion year on year. Tokyo Century will be announcing their results soon, and we hear that they are doing well. The IPP operation in Central Java and the export of the machinery plant, ITOCHU Plant Tech, and also North American IPP and environmental business in Europe are profits increased. Yanase is recovering in terms of profit, but there are some red numbers remaining, so we still see some weakness in this business.
The energy and chemicals is the next, the profit of JPY 11 billion, which is almost flat year on year, increase of JPY 0.2 billion year on year. The earnings in Azerbaijan, the number of the vessels increased from one to two, and profit expanded. In Japan, the Chemical Frontier did well, and South Sakhalin project in Russia did well, and ITOCHU ENEX also showed strength. Last is textile, JPY 7 billion, Edwin, Converse, and small-sized but peer companies improvements in profits were shown. Descente and Sankei and JOIX showed some weaknesses. At the very bottom of this slide, you see the others and adjustments and eliminations. Equity in earnings of the CITIC Limited, which is still doing very well in the financial sector, and equity in earnings was JPY 13.4 billion in Q1, and CPP, which is listed in Hong Kong. This is the livestock agriculture company.
The equity in earnings was JPY 0.6 billion, and those were the positive increase year on year. As I mentioned, the increase of the 30% profit, that is the JPY 33.9 billion, half of that, JPY 16.2 billion, is in the general products and realty, and one-third, JPY 15.5 billion, is in metals and minerals in relation to iron ore. The remaining 11%, JPY 5 billion, is ICT and financial business. In terms of different regions, out of the 30% growth, 22% was in Japan, 5% in Brazil, and 5% in Australia. Those are iron ore related. We have a distribution in terms of the regions. Concerning core profit, on page 6, you see the JPY 30 billion extraordinary gains, and I'm not going into the details, and you can see the details at the back of the presentation material.
A simple presentation is that the core profit increased by JPY 8 billion year on year. Out of the seven division companies, five division companies increased in profits. The biggest was metals, followed by machinery, energy and chemicals, textile, and ICT and financial business. Decline was shown in food. As I mentioned, the dough was negative. Also, in North America, the two elevator businesses came down. As for the general products and realty, the pulp prices were very high last year, and there was a reaction to that this year. As for the extraordinary gains and losses on page 6, out of the JPY 30 billion total, the gains related to investments, you see JPY 20 billion. Gains on partial sales of the foreign companies is JPY 16 billion. This is the CIPA and PWT sale in North America. JPY 4 billion is the sale of the Wellness Communications.
As for the gains related to property, gains on sales of the logistic warehouses, ITOCHU Logistics and ETEL in U.K. The sales of the headquarter building of Edwin is included. As for the income tax expense, the decrease in tax expenses relating to the group restructuring in FamilyMart UNY, which was about JPY 5 billion. The total is JPY 30 billion. Now this extraordinary gains, number JPY 30 billion, is the third highest quarterly figure. However, as I mentioned, our core profit is not declining. Our core profit also grew by JPY 8 billion year on year. Now turning to cash flow, there are a lot of asterisks on this page. First of all, the operating activity cash flow is the highest at JPY 153.7 billion. The impact of IFRS 16 is JPY 52 billion.
Half of the 100 billion is due to the impact of IFRS 16. Also, the core operating cash flows, as it was mentioned, more than 550 billion, but in Q1, it was JPY 148 billion. The progress was about 26%, which was a very good number for us because our results are larger in the second half. Actually, out of the increase of the JPY 59 billion, more than half comes from the consolidation or making the FamilyMart UNY subsidiary, and also the higher prices of the iron ore of IMEA and Brazil-Japan Iron Ore Corporation, and also the Pocket Card. Now the net investment cash flow, JPY 30 billion.
If you turn to page 19, on the right-hand side, you see the JPY 90 billion as a total of the major net new investments and exit of JPY 60 billion, and net investment amount of JPY 30 billion. The consumer-related sector, there was a fixed asset investment of FamilyMart UNY and Dough, so that was about JPY 50 billion, and the major factor was FamilyMart UNY. In basic industry-related sector, there was a fixed asset investment of ITOCHU ENEX and C.I. Takiron. There was a purchase of the share energy-related, which is JPY 8.3 billion, so ITOCHU ENEX was quite active. As for the resource-related, the CapEx of IMEA and ACG, including replacement, was JPY 10 billion in total.
We are making good progress in terms of exit out of the JPY 60 billion, mainly in the consumer-related sector in North America, the construction material, as well as the sale of the subsidiary of the emulation to the FamilyMart, and the sale of the warehouses in logistics and collection of the investment in textile, and the sale of the Wellness Communications. The total is JPY 60 billion exit. Net investment amount is about JPY 30 billion. Now free cash flow and EPS on page 20. The core free cash flows after the deduction of the shareholders' return was about JPY 56 billion, and we will continue to make disciplined investments when there are good candidates, but we will continue to have good discipline in the area of the investments.
In Q1, JPY 62 billion, the share buyback was included, and the total free cash flow remaining was JPY 56 billion. We still have an investment pipeline for this fiscal year, and we would try to maintain the positive number for these core free cash flows after the deduction of the shareholders' return, as we mentioned before. As for the EPS, record high JPY 98 was achieved. Going back to the balance sheet, page 5, because of the strong yen, there was an impact of the Forex, and due to the effects of the application of the new accounting standards, IFRS 16, the total assets increased to JPY 11 trillion, which is an increase of about JPY 850 billion year on year. In food, there was a lease liability increase of about JPY 700 billion in relation to the FamilyMart.
As for the net interest-bearing debt, this is almost flat. As for the lease liabilities, this is separate from the net interest-bearing debt. Due to the introduction of the new accounting standards, we did not want to lose consistency, so again, the lease liabilities are not included in the net interest-bearing debt. All the general trading companies apply the same treatment. Now, as for the shareholders' equity, you see the decrease of JPY 72 billion. The net profit was JPY 147.3 billion, and there was a cash out through the dividend payment of JPY 70 billion, and also the cash out through the share buyback of JPY 62 billion. The IFRS standard change led to the decline of the surplus by JPY 26.5 billion.
There was a foreign exchange-related negative of JPY 30 billion, and the impact of the FVTOCI financial assets, which lowered the equity by JPY 20 billion. We will continue to accumulate the profit in second, third, and fourth quarter. The shareholders' equity ratio and net DER, we will try to achieve the fiscal 2020 forecasts, which are shown on the right-hand side. Now turning to page 8, which shows the fiscal 2020 annual forecast. We just ended Q1, which showed very strong results, and we will make sure that we would execute the JPY 500 billion that we committed. We continue to see the uncertainties in the market, so we have not yet revised our forecast. On the 1st of July, we established The 8th Company.
This company will be within the framework of JPY 500 billion, and we'll try to build a foundation of a retail platform. We are shifting some of the numbers to 8th Company, for example, JPY 1 billion from machinery, JPY 2 billion from energy and chemicals, JPY 24 billion from food, and JPY 8 billion from ICT and financial business. With this, 8th Company, the revised forecast is JPY 30 billion. If you turn to page 28 of the material, you see the breakdown of profits and losses from major group companies out of the JPY 30 billion that I mentioned earlier. As you see, FamilyMart UNY Holdings, all of them will go to 8th Company. others, you see the shares of 8th Company range from 40% to 5%.
8th Company will be trying to build the retail platform, and we calculated all of those businesses which are related to the retail platform so that we came up with this share of 8th Company. now, about 8th Company, there is an explanation on this page. The other day, one of the presidents of the food company at the earnings call said the following. With the digitization, the structure of the retail is changing. The mass brand is struggling, so only the small mass will survive. The various products and a small lot, and you have a wide range of the assortment, you might have a very high inventory level, and that will not be beneficial for the trading company business model.
Instead of looking at it from the product side, we would like to have a market-oriented perspective to think about what is needed by the consumers utilizing e-commerce or big data. We would like to overcome these challenges. Building the new retail platform is what 8th Company is trying to do. Out of the number, you see that the FamilyMart UNY 100% is shifted to 8th Company. the mission of 8th Company is not to work in the area of the routine businesses. For example, in the case of FamilyMart, instead of ITOCHU working alone, we work via Nippon Access. We are trying to build the new businesses or new projects, and 8th Company will be working with FamilyMart UNY to build such platform. Creating those new projects is the mission of The 8th Company.
In order to generate the new businesses based on the framework that we have, we are starting 8th Company. we have a little more than 40 people in this company, so we are not focusing on just the regular routine business, but rather we are trying to expand into the new businesses. Rather than talking about the conceptual thing, we would like to start to show the results from 8th Company. with that, I'd like to end my presentation. Thank you for your attention.