Hello, this is Katsuya Nakanishi, President and CEO. Thank you very much for taking the time to gather here today, despite the short notice. This is not on purpose, but we were originally scheduling to have this briefing today, but it coincided with the announcement by Mr. Trump regarding the reciprocal tariffs, but it was not intentional. We just wanted to announce our corporate strategy that we have been discussing about. It's our new Corporate Strategy 2027, leveraging our integrated strength for the future. We have made announcements of this at 1:00 P.M. I'd like to take this opportunity to look back on the past three years since I took up my post as president, and also to talk about the details of the new corporate strategy. Three years have already passed since we announced Midterm Corporate Strategy 2024 in May 2022.
In it, we set out the vision of creating MC Shared Value by continuously creating significant shared value by elevating the MC Group's collective capabilities in order to address societal challenges. Under a growth strategy that is comprised of the promotion of a Value-Added Cyclical Growth Model, EX and DX strategies, and future creation, we have been working to strengthen the profitability of existing businesses and developing cross-industry businesses that transcend industrial boundaries. In addition, we have reorganized our 10 operating groups into eight that we currently have in order to realize our goals. In terms of investment on top of EX and DX-related projects that we have set out as part of our growth strategy, we have been able to make a number of investments and projects that are expected to contribute to future earnings.
Furthermore, by implementing the Value-Added Cyclical Growth Model, we have completed an asset review for 160 underperforming or low-growth companies, resulting in a JPY 100 billion improvement in consolidated net income against fiscal year 2021. All in all, we expect to achieve all quantitative targets, namely net income, cash flow, and ROE. In addition, as a result of engaging in more aggressive shareholder returns than before, the total amount of returns over the three-year period was JPY 1.9 trillion, and the total return ratio was 62%, a higher level than before. Qualitatively, we have also seen a stronger mindset internally to improve capital efficiency, and the idea of creating synergies through collaboration between operating groups is steadily beginning to permeate throughout the company. As explained, steady results have been achieved under Midterm Corporate Strategy 2024. However, there are also challenges that we need to continue to address.
The first is to further strengthen our earning space by increasing the value of all our business investments. We need to shift gears from improving earnings and asset replacement by promoting the Value-Added Cyclical Growth Model to the phase of achieving further growth for all our business investments. Also, we will strive to realize MC Shared Value, or MCSV, which was the vision set forth in Midterm Corporate Strategy 2024. Although it's yet to be achieved, we are seeing multiple new initiatives coming forth that are expected to generate synergies that transcend operating groups, and we are determined to steadily work on these opportunities. We would also like to strategically allocate funds and further improve capital efficiency by leveraging our strong financials.
Next, regarding the external environment, like I mentioned at the beginning, as we can see in the announcements for reciprocal tariffs by President Trump this morning, uncertainty is increasing in all areas, whether it be politics, the economy, the environment, or technology, et cetera. The complexities of doing business are increasing dramatically. Changes in globalization due to the increasingly divided world and societies, restructuring of supply chains driven by the move toward localized production and consumption, excessive exports from China due to its economic slowdown, and persistently high inflation and interest rates. As geopolitical and economic risks become more complex than ever, one-time effects are beginning to be seen in the businesses that have traditionally supported our earnings.
Moreover, we are strongly feeling that even the business environment we are assuming when we formulated the midterm plan three years ago is changing dramatically day to day, such as moves to find practical solutions for decarbonization responding to regional attributes, new services emerging in the light of rapid development of AI, and strong demand for power accompanying the increased demand for data centers and semiconductors. In this highly uncertain world, we have formulated Corporate Strategy 2027 with the recognition that in order to strengthen the earnings base of existing businesses and creating new businesses, it is important to calmly assess the risks associated with changes and flexibly and boldly review business strategies in response.
In formulating Corporate Strategy 2027, based on the recognition of the internal and external environments that have discussed so far, we have defined our vision as the following: optimize our business portfolio to achieve sustainable growth and increase our corporate value by leveraging our integrated strengths in response to the rapidly changing business environment. We will challenge ourselves to achieve this vision through the integrated efforts of the entire MC Group. Regarding quantitative targets, we aim to achieve both growth and efficiency at the same time. For growth, we have set underlying operating cash flow as a new key indicator to measure our ability to generate earnings sustainably and also target an average growth rate of 10% or more, with an even stronger focus on growth over the medium to long term.
In terms of efficiency, we have set the target to reach an ROE of 12% or more in fiscal 2027 in order to clearly show our ongoing or yet-to-be-stronger management stance that focuses on capital efficiency.
In addition, while our previous Midterm Corporate Strategy 2024 emphasized generating positive post-return free cash flow, we will now leverage our strong financial base, including incorporating leverage. This strategic capital allocation will assist the simultaneous realization of both growth and efficiency. Regarding shareholder returns, we will maintain our basic policy of progressive dividend and flexible share buybacks. Although these targets are ambitious, we will pursue them through our value creation framework that builds upon and advances our existing Value-Added Cyclical Growth Model.
To realize Corporate Management Strategy, Corporate Strategy 2027, we will upgrade our Value-Added Cyclical Growth Model and redefine it under the three pillars: Enhance, Reshape, and Create initiatives, implementing initiatives that strengthen each area. Under Enhance initiative, we will shift from reviewing only underperforming or low-growth businesses, which had previously been subject to selection and concentration, to reviewing all business investments. Our goal is to further improve profitability and efficiency by expansion and additional investments based on strong existing earnings base. Under Reshape initiative, we will be ahead of the curve by proactively implementing industry transformative measures such as M&As and capital strategies to drive forward-looking growth. Under Create initiative, we will promote new investments that could become future pillars of growth, as well as collaborative projects across business segments that generate synergistic effects.
We believe our competitive edge in driving this value creation mechanism lies once again in our integrated strengths. Our core strengths include global business development, diverse business models, trust and reliability built through extensive operational experience, broad industry expertise, and deep insights. By combining these strengths through our top-tier and diverse talent base, we can stay ahead of change and flexibly evolve our business strategies, which is our unique integrated strengths. Leveraging our integrated strengths, we will drive various initiatives, including the establishment of three-year targets for each operating company, a financial alliance structure, a CVC promotion system, and an AI solution task force, all to powerfully advance our value creation mechanism. To support this value creation mechanism, we will allocate capital strategically.
Over the next three years, in addition to approximately JPY 1 trillion in sustaining CapEx, we plan to invest about JPY 3 trillion in gross investments aligned with the Enhance, Reshape, and Create initiatives exceeding the investment level of Midterm Corporate Strategy 2024. As for shareholder returns, as previously explained, we will maintain our policy of progressive dividend and flexible share buybacks to reward shareholders appropriately. Further details will be explained shortly. By implementing the aforementioned initiatives, we aim to achieve at FY 2027 an underlying operating cash flow of JPY 1.4 trillion and an ROE of 12% as a milestone towards mid to long-term growth. Given the high uncertainty in the current business environment, these are challenging targets.
However, we believe they are attainable through our integrated strengths, which drive a virtuous cycle of Enhance, Reshape, and Create initiatives, including large-scale expansion investments in our existing strong business domains, capital strategies to accelerate growth, new investments for emerging earnings base, and synergistic projects across business segments. This has been the content of the Corporate Strategy 2027. We have also announced our FY 2025 earnings forecast shareholder return today. For FY 2025, we forecast underlying operating cash flow of JPY 900 billion and consolidated net income of JPY 700 billion. Looking back to past results, while fluctuations due to resource markets exist, our earnings base from non-resource businesses, which are less dependent on market conditions, has been steadily growing. The level of underlying operating cash flow has consistently improved, and we aim to further strengthen our underlying earnings power under Corporate Strategy 2027.
Regarding shareholders' returns, we have today resolved a dividend of JPY 110 per share, as well as a share buyback totaling JPY 1 trillion, both marking record highs for the company. Even after considering the planned share buyback, our financial soundness remains firm. Under Corporate Strategy 2027, we will leverage this financial soundness to proactively invest using both internally generated cash flow and leverage as needed. If surplus funds arise, we will consider their allocation to further investment or additional shareholder returns based on the state of our investment pipeline and financial health at the time. Although our business environment continues to grow more complex and uncertain, we will unite the efforts of all MC Group employees to realize our vision and meet the expectations of all stakeholders. We sincerely appreciate your continued understanding and support for our business. This concludes my presentation. Thank you very much.