Please allow me to speak while seated. From around 6:00 o'clock, 70 mm rain is expected. Thank you very much for this big turnout, and also there are many participants online as well. We have 143 pages, so we are going to skip some pages, the pages of numbers. We can refer to them in details later. The consolidated performance overview, the revenue and each profit line, all of them hit record highs. Especially the pre-tax income, it was up 168.9%, and also profit attributable to owners of the company, up 270.7%. We showed very strong growth. At the same time, in terms of ROE, annualized ROE stands at 22.5%, quite high ROE. This is the comparison with major securities groups. Nomura already announced earnings, and Daiwa is going to make announcement on November the 4th. This is the first half.
On the left-hand side, SMBC Nikko and Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Holdings, their numbers are shown here by segment. Except crypto asset business, numbers all hit record highs. The reasons will be detailed later on. SBI Crypto, the mining company, was taken over, if you like. In other words, there was an unauthorized outflow, JPY 2.5 billion. This did not provide any inconveniences to the other customers. We were going to liquidate the business anyway, and the profit was not so big, and the staff number was very low. That is unauthorized outflow of assets happened. They were operating in old systems, so the monitoring and the supervision was not good enough. The previous management was gone. We were going to liquidate the business. As to the share interim dividend, if the performance is good, then the dividend will be increased or vice versa.
For the end of second quarter, JPY 40. It is an overview of each business segment. Financial services business, both revenue and the pre-tax profit grew by around 13%. The numbers are record highs. The banking business, its weight is dominant. In our case, we as in JPY 73 billion, 596 million. So up 17.1%. Securities business, JPY 34 billion, 92 million. Even with zero the fees. Here it says negative number. Without. We booked JPY 5 billion losses related to composition of fraudulent transactions. That impacted. As insurance business, we do not need to worry about this business anymore because year-on-year, we can expect the steady growth. Banking business. It is not only about SBI Shinsei Bank, we have SBI ARUHI, SBI Savings in South Korea, and Solaris in Germany, Credit Bank included, and also other overseas banks.
As you can see later on, we have invested a lot in banking business. The market, for example, U.S. market, is doing very well. That does not guarantee the steady growth next year. It is a question mark, I think. The banking business, maybe we should focus on banking business. It might be better. In Japan, Weathernews is kind of struggling, but in the process of normalization. The process of normalization is absolutely necessary. Interest rate is going to go up. In the U.S., rates will come down at a very slow pace, I should say. But now it is coming down finally. Globally, the macroeconomies are watched very closely to amend the business portfolio quickly. That is very important.
For the banking business, we have the net profit attributable to owners of the company of JPY 69.3 billion due to increase in operating assets, mortgage and loan-related fees and gains on sales of securities. It is up 56% on IFRS basis, up 33% at JPY 64.4 billion. Retail accounts exceeding 4 million as of the end of September, and the deposit amount, JPY 16.3 trillion, also showing a steady growth. The operating assets are the similar amount, JPY 60.1 trillion, and the breakdown is shown here. In December 2021, they joined the SBI Group. SBI Shinsei Bank joined the SBI Group. Nobody imagined that it will be JPY 16 trillion level, but their assets doubled. Their securities business, not only about SBI Securities, but also zero securities fees with that concept. We have been diversifying the contents of our business.
We have various constituent companies listed here. For the SBI Securities, for each item, numbers are record highs. Number one, number two at the bottom. The record non-operating income of about JPY 2.7 billion related to real estate silent partnership in the first quarter, and recorded about loss of JPY 5 billion as compensation related to unauthorized access, and about JPY 3 billion for provision of reserve for financial instrument transaction liabilities. The ZERO Revolution. We are expanding very steadily our revenue. Even after ZERO Revolution, especially financial revenues are now accounting for a big weight. The number of securities accounts are at 14,752,000 as of the end of September. Compound annual growth rate, 13.3%. Very steady growth from March 2009 to March 2025, and towards September, further growth.
Nomura Holdings with the 5,998,000 accounts. Yahoo! Japan or PayPay are included as shown here, and then the 200,000- 300,000 additional accounts, if I remember correctly. Here, this is the trending share of individual stock trading value. We, SBI, is showing a dominant level with 57.9%. Also for the trend in individual margin trading value, 60.8% for SBI. The insurance, both life and the non-life, and the small amount and the short-term period, and Ly Hour Group Cambodian companies are included in this area. Basically, we do not need to be worried about the insurance business. We have bigger customer basis. This is where the insurance business. With the insurance business, we struggled. That is why we started with the securities and then banking, and then finally insurance business. The sales, the increase, is translated into cost because of policy reserves.
That is why insurance business is hard at the beginning. When you reach a certain extent, unless there is a big natural disaster, it will grow very steadily. There are very detailed rules about earthquakes and so on. If there are more insurable events, there could be negative results. Basically, we believe that the trend will be positive going forward. The number of in-force contracts from March 2016 to September 2025, CAGR 15.6%. Asset management business up 9.2% and up 7.8% both for revenue and pre-tax income. Global asset management consolidated basis, as you can see, numbers are record highs and quite good growth. For the first half period, 14th consecutive period revenue increase, and for ordinary profit, it is for 16 consecutive period, and the profit attributable owners of the company increased to 16th consecutive period. Asakura-san did a very good work.
Also the seventh consecutive period increase for interim dividends. It's very hard to do this continuously. The asset AUM, the JPY 20 trillion, toward 2027, that's our target that we declared. For that, in the group, we have reorganized our group. This is SBI Group's AUM. It's over JPY 12 trillion, and within 2027 fiscal year, we are targeted at JPY 20 trillion. The PE investment business, private equity investment business, the public, the investment, and we should be always on alert for public investment as well. We have public and private.
For Ripple and XRP distribution, we are seeing fluctuation. From JPY 23 trillion, JPY 24 trillion, JPY 25 trillion is the market cap for XRP circulated in the market. For actuals, it's at JPY 4.97 billion XRP and JPY 35 billion in escrow. This is still left. If this becomes open and how this translates into per unit. In the case of Ripple, they started to issue stablecoins from June the 30th. It's been expanding substantially, and also for acquisition to Chris Larsen. I've been communicating to him that we are going to create an ecosystem, and they also have acquired Hidden Road and closed the deal as of October 24th. They agreed to acquire Rail, which I believe is a good stablecoin-based payment platform because they have overwhelming strength, and agreed to acquire GTreasury as well, and we put money into it as well.
They also acquired a management company. Steadily, Ripple has been building out their ecosystem. They will probably go to market when they complete building the ecosystem. Regarding IPOs and M&A results, for the full-year expectations, our prospects are 25. For Circle, they listed as of June the 5th on the NYSE. At the same time, we became a cornerstone investor type of investor into Circle Internet Group. It is basically a strategic investor type investment. Regarding assets under management of the SBI Group, private equity, unless the stocks, we are already exceeding $1 trillion. The other day when the President came to Japan, I was seated at the first table together with Akio Toyoda, as well as Masayoshi Son and the President. In a defense-related ever-growing company, which was called Anduril. Anyway, the president of that company was there, and I was there as well.
Opposite to Mr. Trump was the ambassador and his wife. I was able to speak with him. Ato-san was seated at a different table for some reason. All the other people were from the business circle, but he's not, but I was impressed. Because he was there, I talked about Fukuoka and Osaka, and connecting the two to create an international financial city. I talked about the proposals I was making, and I've been talking about this to Katayama-san from long ago and to Governor Yoshimura. I've been approaching him to do it together, and he also gave me feedback that he was interested. Ato-san is the last key person that needs to take action. Kyushu Electric Power Company, having dinner with the President is important as well because they play a key role.
The Kyushu Exchange, currently it is an association structure, but this needs to become an incorporated structure. That is the plan we have right now. Like Dojima, we would like to have a stake if we are able to realize it and connect it together. What I really felt was the role of Kansai International Airport and its location. I really felt its significance. With the expo underway, there were so many people who came there, and now with the integrated resort being developed, many people will continue to arrive there. Also Music Circus that you saw a video on in Osaka, Fukuoka, they were able to attract 350,000 people in total. You saw many young people in the video, right? Basically, we would like to capture the youth into the SBI Group. That is why we have started off in this initiative of Music Circus.
In the Web3 area, for those people who are interested in this area, in order to capture them, an event called WebX was underway, which is the greatest in its scale in Japan, and we will have a majority stake. I will talk about this later, but that is where we are. We call it new media, but it is not like traditional media. By the way, Mr. Trump said that the media only reports fake news and they are not credible, and I told him, I agree. So we should avoid reporting fake news. For news, you should only report news that you have conviction of. The crypto asset business is next. Like mentioned earlier, SBI Crypto, we recognized a loss worth JPY 2.5 billion. However, revenue grew by 8.9%. Regarding the number of customers, it is close to 1.8 million now.
VC Trade Bitcoin together, deposit balance is now JPY 880 billion. CAGR as of end of September comparing it against 2022, grew by 44.5% from 2022 end of September through 2025 end of September. Because of a big revolution around stablecoins, I do believe we can attract a considerable number of customers. Also, one of the companies that comprise the ecosystem is B2C2. We bought them at an early stage, and we have 90% of a holding or shareholding ratio. It is a very interesting company, I believe. Of course, there is some fluctuation. It is an exchange for global crypto assets. Basically, they fluctuate. That is the characteristic. B2C2 is a market maker. Market makers are able to get a spread, so they should not generate huge losses, as long as you well control the business. We would like to control the business.
It seems that we were approached the other day that people were interested to buy the business out for JPY 100 billion, but I said that is not enough. We have no intention of selling this business. Next-gen business, gumi, and Mynavi are here. gumi used to generate losses, but now it has turned profitable. For Mynavi, fortunately, the equity pickup contribution is JPY 3.7 billion. For example, if the other business, they still are generating using up expenses. Apart from what is going to be listed, that is going to be profitable. When it comes to pharmaceutical manufacturers, the R&D cost is quite high, so it is hard to generate good profitability out of these businesses. We do need to have these businesses. For brain cancer to bladder and for other parts, we are trying to get the approval as a diagnosis compound.
It's growing in the U.S., and we can have its application in Europe. For March 26, and our view on the second half of the year, this is by quarter or by half, first half and second half. Consolidated profit before income tax expense, it was JPY 212.1 billion. You could see the breakdown, and extraordinary factors are listed here as well. Excluding extraordinary factors, this is the number we would get. Therefore, in the first half, JPY 216.1 billion is profit before tax, exclusive of extraordinary factors. We do recognize JPY 212.1 billion as well, and if you add on the second half, you are able to get the full year expectation. Things that are locked in for the second half, first will be the affiliate sales gains of SBI Sumishin Net Bank, which is worth JPY 141.6 billion.
Also, the gain on negative goodwill expected to be recognized from the acquisition of the shares of Kyobo Life Insurance. It depends on net assets, but we expect that it's going to be around JPY 30 billion. This is not officially authorized yet, but this will not go away. Although it may take time because, due to the financial regulators in South Korea that are scrutinizing this. Basically, it's not going to go away. We will have 20% of Kyobo Life. If you add these together, we will derive JPY 383.7 billion. Therefore, roughly speaking, for the financial services business alone, I think JPY 100 billion is sure, which means it's JPY 483.7 billion. In the medium-term vision, we have set a target of JPY 500 billion for March 29. We believe that we will be able to achieve this already.
What's important here is we are going to recognize gain on sales, but that's not the important piece. We want to ensure that we are able to achieve these targets. We'll see. I think we will be able to steadily grow our business as a group. The group's customer base, we would like to increase it to 100 million. Right now, we're at 54,420,000. We would like to increase this to 100 million. What's most difficult in this is the share of overseas businesses in consolidated profit before income tax expenses. This was approximately 17% in fiscal 2024, which we would like to increase to 30% in fiscal 2028, because this part is increasing. This is quite a challenge. In order to make this happen, we will need to conduct M&As, which is a quick way to achieve this.
Regarding ROE, 22.5%, it already exceeds 15%. There aren't that many financial institutions in Japan that have an ROE higher than 20%. For the customer base for overseas financial service businesses customer base, it's around 30 million. On an aggregated basis, we would like to reach 100 million inclusive of our overseas customer base. Right now, it's about 30 million. If you add everything together, both Japan and abroad, we are at 78,362,000 as of end of September. Regarding the target of 100 million, we believe we can reach that target. That's how I feel. Towards these targets, we would like to ensure that we pursue sustainability through these measures.
First, in addition to further evolving the corporate ecosystem built by the SBI Group, we would like to create innovative and highly profitable services by promoting the convergence of ecosystems across each business sector and maximizing synergistic effects. I have one through four, which is the breakdown of this. This is conceptual. We have the financial services ecosystem, asset management, regional revitalization ecosystems exist underneath, and they can generate synergies, converge together, and evolve together to a higher level. Then on a group wide basis, the ecosystem can elevate to a higher level. Accelerating the evolution of the business ecosystem centered on financial services is next. One thing is the bank securities collaboration, which is broken down into three parts. First, the collaboration between SBI Shinsei Bank and SBI Securities. Referrals from 2020 to October through September 2025, which is about three years.
It has been 634,972 customers who have been referred from Securities to Shinsei Bank. This is a fact. Also, what connected the two together was this, the sweep account, which we call SBI Hyper Yokin, or hyper deposit, which can go this way and that way, that way to this way, so that funds can flow freely between the two. We have created this mechanism. It is basically convenient from the customer's point of view, I believe. You do not have to manually do the deposits and withdrawals anymore. For Hyper Yokin, the rates that are applied is twice as much compared to an ordinary deposit. It is at 0.42%. This was a big factor as well. We would like to offer these incentives so that we could create an overwhelming situation. The fees for funds transfers are lower as well.
For SBI Shinsei Bank and Money Plaza, we have joint branches. Shinsei Bank at all of their branches, the 22 retail branches, Money Plaza has become a part of it. SBI Shinsei Wealth Management is now established, which is at JPY 625 billion right now, AUM wise. SBI Securities, Ejiji-san, who unfortunately passed away, proposed this actually. Then he created all this, but then he unfortunately passed away. At regional banks, this is functioning well as well. What we are doing to increase the contribution from overseas businesses, we would like to work on this on a group wide basis to reach overseas operations that account for 30% of consolidated pre-tax profit. This is where we are right now regarding our overseas businesses. Before COVID, I was talking about conquering Southeast Asia thoroughly. Australia and New Zealand used to be owned by Shinsei originally.
The other parts mostly were areas where I personally went to develop the business to create personal ties. In other words, what are we doing now? Because I am not going on business trips as much as before because there was COVID. I was actually complaining the other day, but we need to do more with respect to o ur business overseas. When you think about the growth prospects of APAC or Southeast Asia, we do not want these costs to continue to flow out. We need to attempt to do something new. Here are some strategic investees in the banking sector, Solaris, Sygnum, Germany, Switzerland, and Indonesia.
For these two, our exposure is still low, our stake is low, but they are strategic investees in the area of digital banks. So we are intending on making more investments of this nature. If it goes well, we would like to acquire these entities. Now, this is SBI Savings Bank where we own 90%, and it is growing at 32% of year-on-year growth. And during the first half, JPY 8.9 billion IFRS level of effort has been made.
When you look back, when we acquired this company, the delinquency rate was at 51.6% in 2013, and that was actually dropped significantly, and it is only 4.4%. There is no problem. And total assets is maintained quite well, and the performing loans are maintained quite well. Therefore, the business is performing quite well. When we acquired this company, factoring is one thing, and it was not really desirable, and we were criticized that we have acquired a garbage, but this is the current situation. When you talk about the banking businesses, if you do not challenge on a difficult challenge, then what I did in the past is that real estate and developers and construction companies were. They were assuming investment that was promised to generate profits, but real estate market collapsed tremendously. That was the situation back then.
Ultimately, the bubble bursted, and everyone went under afterwards. This particular bank was struggling in the same way. However, we then prohibited that we should not get involved in the property market. They begged so much, so therefore, we were very strictly selective in regard to real estate development and constructions. We minimized investment in this area as much as possible, and therefore, we have not suffered from much of a risk. Vietnam TPBank, if it has exceeded 1%, then we will infringe with the law, and therefore, we only allowed to own maximum 20%. We actually got the approval from the government to be able to own up to 20% and equity with the company where we converted into. Then we had suffered from large losses they had incurred, but now it is JPY 280 billion.
Until recently, the company has exceeded JPY 300 billion. However, currently JPY 280 billion or so, and 20% of those is our stake. In Ho Chi Minh security market, the company is becoming public, and it is adopted as the main index, the VN30. There are 15.5 million accounts, and there is 100 million population in this company. There was so much energy of the youth, and there were so many vital people. SBI Ly Hour Bank is that currently we have raised our ownership to 100%. It was a middle-level microfinance company in Cambodia that we have acquired, and we upgraded to the commercial bank. In Russia, SBI Bank, we have over 90% of ownership, where business performance is really robust. Interest rates is really high. U.S.-Russia relationship goes well, then the interest rates will goes down, and therefore, our business performance will be pushed down.
What is beneficial is that once the Japanese companies withdraw from Russia, all these companies may go back to the Russian market, which we can expect to happen. We have been doing a banking business in Russia, though most of the other players are already withdrawn from this market. We are surviving in this market at this moment. So JPY 3.5 billion before tax profits. For securities, SBI Royal Securities is where we have 65.29% of ownership, and this is the only Japannex full-fledged security companies in Cambodia. Profits are fairly well. There is a minor typo here, so it looks a bit weird, but apologies for that. SBI Thai Online Securities, we own 100%, and this year we had profits, but in the previous term, there was a mismanagement.
They made it clear that I am going to fire the senior management if they repeat the mistake. It was really stupid, and they promised that they are not going to do that again, so we just kept that senior management. In Indonesia, there is BNI Sekuritas. This is JPY 18.7 million. It is really small. At the end of the last fiscal year, with the inauguration of the new president, the political basis is becoming really unstable, and therefore, profit margin had declined tremendously. Markets where the political uncertainty arises, there is a type of risk that we need to face. FPG Securities, where we have 23.3% of ownership. This company had been generating relatively low profits, yet Mr. Trump tariff would negatively affect this particular company. In fact, there were JPY 940 million of before-tax profits. Now, in this fiscal year, this is the current forecast.
This is the UDC Finance Limited, where Shinsei used to own, and this is a really good company. This is the largest known banking company in New Zealand. It is generating very good profits. During the first half of March 2026, JPY 4.9 billion of before-tax profits, and during the first half, this is the profit level. In Australia, Latitude Group Holdings Limited, and this is already traded in the market, and JPY 116 billion of market cap, and installment payment, credit card business, and auto loan, where they are doing businesses. So, Ly Hour SBI Insurance. For the first time in Cambodia, Ly Hour Group opened up the casualty insurance business, but this is the size that they have achieved, and it is marginal, but it is a part of the group, and it is generating profits.
40% of ownership that we have, and we will carefully monitor the situation, and we may start to increase our ownership. This is the analysis with the South Korean competitors, and there is this full year basis of 70% of the share has decreased to 12.5%, because the total market size has increased, so nothing we could do about it. Even if the total pie have increased yet, we would like to occupy still 30%. Banking business, where the organic growth is pursued and M&A will be used to grow going forward. This is an M&A strategy where we would like to pursue. For example, when we use shares and engage in M&A, for instance, we are going to finance ourselves and use that cash to acquire the businesses is no longer a viable method all the time.
Therefore, we would like to do an equity swap and stock for stock, so that we are able to engage in M&A with a certain liquidity or cash invested as well, and we will take more active stance position in M&A. 30% will be achieved through the operational portfolio and business portfolio revision, and so forth. We have convened the overseas branch manager meeting, inviting from all around the world. From the 16 countries and regions around the world, we invited 23 heads of the sites, and we have convened the managers' meeting. We will facilitate the network and coordination among the overseas offices, and we will further enhance the relationship between domestic and overseas business. Particularly, we would like to enhance the vertical connections. For example, in the banking businesses and security businesses, there are multiple subsidiaries and businesses. Sharing know-how, sharing ideas.
By doing so, we would like to further enhance the vertical connection. We will promote the convergence of digital asset ecosystem and financial ecosystem, anticipating the advent of the token economy era. As I always insist, less than 10 years, all of the asset is going to be tokenized in some way or another. Therefore, my coin word is that we would like to change from online on the web to on-chain on the blockchain. This is the off-chain based on Web3. Record transaction results on the blockchain, and there is a smart contract that will be tapped into. As such, the whole transaction will be automatically processed over the blockchain. That is the change from online on the web to the on-chain on the blockchain. Already, we have formulated the ecosystem for security banks and so forth in financial services.
We have been making a digital space ecosystem. We should not waste what we already have on the left-hand side. We need to match toward the right-hand side, and we try to integrate between the two. That is a key to putting simply SBI Securities' customers for that. Until August 2025, the CFT of crypto assets have launched, and also in the banking business, the deposit token and stablecoins related business is now under consideration. In the asset management businesses, start to launch the crypto asset ADF or crypto asset covered funds and so forth. It is still discussed. We actually have sufficient level of discussion. If we are ready, we can start right away. In each country around the world, the digital assets system as well as the regulation is put in place.
Scott Bessent, with him, Treasury Secretary, that we have discussed a lot. GENIUS Act is now approved, signed into law by President Trump, and therefore, this is quite a great law when we pursue the digital assets in the U.S. There are protection of consumers and also regulatory authorities function need to be enhanced in this area going forward. Also how to prevent the money laundering and how to secure international competitiveness of US dollars and the position as a reference currency. Number five is really critical for United States, and that is why we are trying to support. I said the other day that there is something that we can contribute to.
Of course, manufacturers were signing on many agreements, how much they are going to invest in the United States , and what activities that they're going to do in the United States that will help the United States a lot in increasing the employment. But we, in financial services, is to bring liquidity or finances available in Japan to the United States . So JPY 2,300 trillion of Japanese consumers' assets will be delivered to the United States , and a joint venture structure that we have been exploring has been explored through the major players so far. That is one way of trying to support the United States . Also how much SBI transactions where the U.S. market is making, that is also an important factor as well. It is not just in manufacturing where Japan should contribute.
I said to the United States the other day, Scott, that it should not be just manufacturing, but it should be the financing service as well. Scott fully understand because he's from the financing industry, and that they are highly evaluating the stablecoin. Among others that I talked about Ripple Labs, 9% is owned by us, and he said that that is huge. So we are the large shareholder, and that is a great factor. As for the Circle, we are giving the cornerstone investment for technical development. Gradually, where Ripple is going to establish. So through the Bitcoin Group where we've invested. There's something that we have approved right before this meeting, but I should not disclose that information at this moment.
We are taking a great leadership and taking action as Japan, and 55.95% as considered miscellaneous income, that is a tax structure for the crypto asset, a capital gain. That's outrageous. Also the crypto asset, ETF, is not approved yet in Japan. But as long as U.S. is approving, Japan should approve, and the rest is just a risk management. Of course, the investor protection has to be put in place, yet pursuant to the laws and regulations. Crypto asset transaction is approved of, which means that crypto asset ETF shall be approved in Japan as well. Also leverage restrictions of as much as at two times. Maximum should be five times was allowed until 2019, and there were some incidents, and it was restricted to two times.
When such a regulation is put in place, global competitiveness has to be fully considered, otherwise, Japan will not flourish. We have to put in place a system where we can compete well all around the world. Of course, the tax discrepancy need to be eliminated and subject of separate taxation. Also the crypto asset ETF is essential, and the limits of a JPY 1 million transfer limit and holding restriction apply to overseas issued as stablecoin doesn't make sense. The institutional investor limited to JPY 1 million is nonsense. Of course, if we explore the trust bank scheme, I believe that all of the crypto asset need to be explored by using SBI Shinsei Trust and Banking. because regulation is different. Katayama-san has been getting involved in the policy research chair of LDP in financial services. We've been explaining this to her a lot.
This is our policy. Shinsei Trust and Banking is going to be fully utilized going forward. JPY 1 million of a constraint will have to be avoided in real world, and for that to happen, the trust bank has to be used. Therefore, we are proceeding with the stablecoins and so forth. Dollar-based stablecoin, USDC, is already approved as stablecoin in Japan and Europe. Circle is admitted as the issuer of the stablecoin in Europe, and Ripple, RLUSD, is already registered and green-listed in New York State, and issuance is starting. Therefore, as long as the permit is granted in Japan, and that is what we intend to do as soon as possible, then we will start to deal over the SBI VC Trade.
The yen-denominated stablecoin, on the 22nd of August 22, in regard to the healthy transactions and the utilization of a stablecoin, we entered into an agreement with SMBC Bank. In addition, companies, which is a venture company, this is quite a prominent and great company, there are so many great engineers and technologists there, and we need to do one after another in order to catch up with the general trend or latest trends in the market. Regarding the crypto asset treasury businesses, the listed companies that is going to secure the funds in the form of crypto assets such as BTC, seeking a significant increase in corporate value through strategic holding crypto assets, and current strategy company currently surged by 2,200% at once in market cap and stock price.
We have started to acquire the BTC, and the stock price has surged up to 3,803% at some point. Treasuries who owns Bitcoins is exceeding over 200 companies around the world. Total of $116.2 billion. Even in the Japanese companies from completely outside ecosystem, there are some companies entered to this area, and these are the companies who entered to this business. The treasury as a company that is going to be a large volume transaction partner in the crypto asset, so we are expecting profit and revenue growth. XRP or Ripple. In the U.S., with Ripple, Evernorth are doing XRP the Treasury. There will be another vehicle for us to invest, and Chris Larsen, Co-founder of Ripple, makes the investment as well.
There are many institutional investors along with SBI Group and Ripple, so we raised over $1 billion, and using Spark Nasdaq Listing, that will happen. When the value goes up, of course, our own valuation will also go up. This is very interesting. This will be very interesting. For the asset tokens, we accelerate preparations to provide the trading services for RWA. We are doing lots of things with Startale, a global business. Now they are headquartered in Singapore, but with many Japanese companies, they experienced in developing Layer 2 blockchain. Layer 1, Bitcoin, ordinary one. Layer 2, that is with on-chain, with smart contract.
The SBI Group has established a joint venture with the Startale Group to jointly develop a trading platform that promotes the on-chaining of tokenized stocks and RWAs. The other day, we had dinner together with the other stakeholders. First of all, near real-time international settlement will be available through co-development. SBI Group is going to establish a joint venture with Startale Group and DigiFT. The MAS, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the Hong Kong Securities and the Futures Commission, SFC, have already approved it for this joint venture. It is already a done deal. Actually, there is a track record. They launched the world's first on-chain stock index fund that allows investment and redemption using stablecoins. So they have a very strong technological prowess. SBI Group becomes a partner to develop applications and services on the Arc blockchain of U.S. Circle. Arc's characteristics are shown here.
I find it very interesting. For example, gas fees. The USDC can be adopted to stabilize transaction costs. That is one example that we are going to do in SBI Neo Media ecosystem. We are making preparation for that. At the same time, though, we are doing the financing through funds. There are many participants, so fundraising is becoming very successful. But we cannot wait for that, for funds. So we have already started investment from SBI Holdings. There are four areas: media, talent agency. Already, we acquired 77% of shares of TWIN PLANET, and now they are an equity method affiliate. Ad agency, production companies, event companies, and we acquired 34% in The COO. This The COO, this company is really wonderful. SBI MUSIC CIRCUS. Earlier, we were showing the video of SBI MUSIC CIRCUS. Now we acquired 51%, so they are our subsidiary. Brangista, 8.23%, and CoinPost.
Web3 events, for example, and other technology events are held by CoinPost, 51%. IPA through H companies, all of them are underway. Takamasa-san and his team are working for development and so on. For the price negotiation and everything, just before the final stage, I will come in to make a final decision. About The COO. The other day, this person who came to me to have dinner, and he is from Arab royal family, and he liked The COO. It is wonderful. Unreal Engine, CG production, and game pre-development. They are doing all of these things. Original IP, but the production, creation is their focus. TWIN PLANET, they have both management agency and marketing agencies, and they can maximize IP values. When it comes to IP, intellectual property, it is extremely important.
Creation of IP and enhancement of IP value, and generate and pursue IP revenue and how to do it. IP-related issues alone, we have been in discussion with various companies. The leverage synergies between the SBI Neo Media ecosystem and existing financial and digital space ecosystems. For example, we are now developing a comprehensive financial platform, and also digital space ecosystem can be linked with each other. IPs can be tokenized, so that we can support and invest at the same time. ODX now is functioning as the distribution market. So now we need to diversify our products, not only real estate ST, but ST can be applied to all kinds of things. Various measures being vigorously promoted to achieve all goals of the mid-term vision. There are five items listed here. First, this is something that I have been saying repeatedly. It is about open alliance strategy.
Let me start with it. Further develop open alliance strategy that SBI Securities has pursued to date to realize initiatives that extend beyond finance. From long time ago, we need to go beyond finance. At the same time, we are focused on the finance. SBI Group already in alliance with SMBC, NTT, KDDI, and especially au Financial. All of these entities have tremendous bases of customers, and by collaborating with them, we can deploy our business using their customer bases. We can expand our customer bases through those collaborations. We promote the deepening and expansion of alliances, primarily in the securities sector. We are already doing lots of things with those entities. We will further develop the open alliance strategy promoted by SBI Securities. Extremely effective one was the Olive with SMBC Group.
About Olive, the financial intermediary accounts with the SMBC Group at SBI Securities, 1.566 million or up 123.6%. This is an evidence that the Olive is a merit for both sides. There is a very big merit for us, and it will give more merits to us. Sumitomo Mitsui C, asset accumulation amount, and number of accounts. The asset accumulation amount, number of asset accumulation accounts increased by 13.3%, and JPY 164.8 billion is the amount. For further promotion, there was this, the press conference, Nagashima-san and myself. It is about the establishment of Olive Consulting Company Limited. It is a manned consulting service, a digital service with added value for affluents. Not only that, in various ways, we would like to have this advisory business, and we would like to grow this business in cooperation.
With NTT Group and KDDI Group, we are vigorously advancing new initiatives in fields beyond finance alongside the two major telecom groups, SBI Securities, DOCOMO, SBI Securities, SBI Sumishin Net Bank, and DOCOMO alone, the 91.59 million, SBI Sumishin, 8.46 million accounts, au Jibun Bank, 6.89 million, and au Financial Service, au PAY Card, 10.32 million. The examples of collaboration initiatives. On points, when opening accounts or purchasing products, will use d POINTs to buy stocks and mutual funds, or use d CARD for regular investment fund purchases. On the au side, real-time deposits to SBI Securities accounts can be made from au Jibun Bank accounts. The same format, between SBI, the bank and securities. Opening of the securities account via au Jibun Bank's website, it is intermediary services. Preparing interest rates for ordinary JPY deposits to customers using real-time bank transfers.
With NTT Group, they have real estate, IP, and fund. It is a very cash-rich company. They might not be interested in the small things, but you can have the big size or basis of money, and the investment that needs to be continuously done. All of these things can be tokenized, and SGA will be created and sold at or by SBI Securities. Of course, ODX, Osaka Digital Exchange, will do the secondary market. I guess you can sell your assets whenever you want to. You have IP or fund and real estate. The transactions in various manners. With NTT Group, ultimately, and the decision to sell, the big factor behind it was IOWN.
The PTS or token exchange, we would like to use it in exchange as well, we can speed up the process and the electric efficient will be 100 times better, and the capacity will be 125 times, and the low latency will be reduced to 1/200. This is wonderful technology. We would like to use this technology for our financial business. That will give us this very strong competitive edge. SBI Group and NTT Group have already established IOWN Working Group. These are the members of that group. In addition, SBI Investment playing a central role. SBI Group is actively investing in core technologies and use cases related to IOWN. S, are those companies with the mark S. We are investing in those companies for photonics, electrics, conversion, and so on. N is the NTT has already invested.
Both S and N have already invested in quite a lot of companies. K is those considering to invest. Actually, I met many of them myself. We are going to increase the number of members in the group. We would like to contribute to the further enhancement of IOWN technology, and that should be delivered to global market.
In call center operations, a joint venture between KDDI, Mitsui & Company, called Altius Link. Our non-life insurance business already uses their services. It's a digital BPO service company provider. I think it's a very good service. KDDI, the other day, their headquarters relocated to a new location, and the president guided me through their new office. They have good technology as well. I was quite impressed. When it comes to carriers in Japan, telcos in Japan, including SoftBank, starting off with NTT, they have amazing technology. It's a matter of how you leverage it. Even if there's technology available, it's a matter of how we can increase the number of companies that leverage that technology. We would like to personally use it, as well as spread it around the world. That's our aspiration.
Development of a financial super app, comprehensive financial platform to advance the Open Line strategy into a new phase. The previous speech I made somewhere, I talked about the financial platform. On top of that, new services are what we would like to add, which is financial platform-as-a-service. That's what we would like to create. It's a new financial model. We have been seeing good progress, so I've made a decision. Holding company 95%, SBI Shinsei Bank will be 5% of it, to create a new platform. SBI Securities, which is the greatest broker in Japan, SBI Shinsei Bank, with Internet being the main channel, various types of functions can We already have both a full-service bank offering, both retail and corporate banking services.
Through the use of APIs and other technologies, we would like to provide these functions to partner businesses by consolidating the diverse financial functions of the SBI Group into a single platform. The company will launch a new financial super app, a comprehensive financial platform. That is what we are thinking. Already, Chubu Electric Power Miraiz and ourselves have entered into a basic agreement to develop new services. We would like to accordingly expand out to partners, and also accordingly expand our customer base, because I think our customers will really appreciate this. In asset management business, thoroughly pursuing alliances with powerful companies, et cetera, in an endeavor to provide a variety of investment products incorporating cutting-edge trends for domestic investors.
In Japan, I mentioned this earlier, there is massive household financial assets, JPY 2,239 trillion, but there are many asset types where, for example, deposits, where the rates are really low. The dollar keeps on appreciating whilst the yen is depreciating. This is a ludicrous policy, but all along, it has been ongoing. I think it is a very ludicrous policy. Kuroda-san, I think he is the worst head of the BoJ . For Ueda-san, he is not able to make decisions. He is not decisive. Mr. Bessent has been applying pressure that much, but even so, he is not able to make a decision. I am deploring the situation. The yen is going to weaken even more. Prices of goods will increase even more. For the Ministry of Finance, they do appreciate an inflationary environment, maybe.
We would like to protect investors, and in order to do so, good financial products, we would like to introduce them one after the other to Japan. Back in 2015, we entered a partnership. The head of PIMCO and myself got off to an amicable relationship. In the past, they used to create a JV with a Singaporean entity, but that broke off. They were not engaging in partnerships ever since, but they decided to enter one with us. I think the balance is already over JPY 2 trillion. For Man Group, the head of operations is a female person. From 2023, we ventured a partnership. We established a joint venture, SBI Man Asset Management. Henry from KKR, we really click. We get along very well. He is a very candid person.
He was saying, I am the most candid person who talks about Japan that he has ever met. I said, I do not like Carter Singh Cole. I was talking about Westof Time, and I said, let us have a business discussion. He came again the other day, and we were able to have extensive discussions. Franklin Templeton, also headed by a female head. Very competent person. We entered a partnership ever since 2024. ETF, virtual currency ETFs, they handle it for the first time in the U.S. These players do mainly alternative management. Equities, fixed income, they are not investing in that space. They are investing in other assets. Although it does include corporate bonds, but they are basically more diversified. When you talk about alternative asset management, for example, hedge funds, private debt, private equity as well, infrastructure investments, real estate, et cetera.
So by including all of these assets, they're trying to diversify the risk. This market is expected to continue to grow. For alternative investment products, under the concept of democratizing alternative investments, I would like to expand these offerings in Japan increasingly so that the people of Japan can see their asset management succeed. Although their wages may not be increasing. Even if nominal wages go up, if inflation is prolonged, real wages will not go up. For this SBI Alternative High Income Select Fund settlements 4 times a year. The investments are diversified into great places like KKR, Apollo, Blackstone, and so forth. In this way, when it comes to fees, you're able to start investing from JPY 10,000. It's very unique to our company. Our fees are the lowest. This is under the operations of Asakura-san.
But in this way, we'd like to expand this business. Also for gold. I have been saying, let's go with gold, to Kawashima-san. At an early stage, I sold it. At an early stage, Kawashima-san continues to hold on to gold. I think his balance is increasing. Before anyone started talking about gold, I was one of the first to say, it's all about gold. In June 2023, that was the inception date. Right now, net assets have exceeded JPY 200 billion. At an early stage, there was this Indian American company in the U.S., and we established a JV for gold back then. It was stocked across seven places in the world safely, and inspections are frequent. Of course, if we didn't have the stock of gold, that would be a challenge. The returns are amazing. It's close to 50%.
SBI Next Generation Technology Strategy Fund, it was established in September 17 2025. Quantum computing, Web3, and nuclear fusion, which are innovative technology areas that are going to be necessary going forward. This is a strategic fund that will invest into this space. For NAV trans, it's currently at JPY 12,054 now. SBI Okasan Asset Management. They do a great job as well. Shin Shiba-san . I regard him highly. When you look at this in AUM, they have been able to steadily increase AUM regardless of what kind of environment they're in. Yields are at 3.7646. SBI Group's AUM to reach JPY 20 trillion. We will target not only organic growth, but M&As as well. In the field of M&A, bank-related and asset management-related areas are the two most important areas.
Of course, if there's a good securities company, we would like to invest in them as well. In the new digital arena, we would like to constantly make investments. We can make investments through funds as well. The evolution of SBI Group's regional revitalization strategy through co-creation with regional economic entities. The fourth mega bank concept, I started to talk about this, and that is why I started the process of acquiring Shinsei Bank. Back then people were saying that that's not possible. After we completely acquired the entity, after 2+ years, we are poised to bring the bank to market. That's where we are right now. Originally there was JPY 350 billion worth of public funds, but we have repaid the entire amount. Now flexibility of management will increase, and we now have an environment where we can have flexible management strategies.
With flexibility, whether it be human resource strategies or financial policies or capital policies, that is very important. Having a performance-linked compensation scheme for executives and employees. The compensation was at a reduced level for a while. I think our people really did a good job. But now a stock option system is going to be introduced so that many people can benefit from this program. For SBI Holdings and our employees, when stock prices go up, for the people who have held on to the stocks are really happy. But for the people who have sold the stocks down already, they may have regretted it. But for stock options, we will consistently offer it to our employee base. I hope our people can personally build their asset base through this program. We would like to accelerate becoming the fourth mega bank.
We have been communicating this concept from before, and we would like to accelerate the concept by taking the relisting as an opportunity and thoroughly advancing the expansion of alliances with regional financial institutions we have invested into. We have concluded a strategic capital and business alliance agreement with Tohoku Bank, and we will work to enhance the system they have. We now have an alliance with 10 banks, but we are not going to equally have a relationship with each and every one of them because we have a limit to the resources we have. The shares we have in them, it will differ. In some cases, we might decide to quit the alliance. I would like to ensure that for those entities we can help, we have helped, and for those who follow our instructions, they typically will improve.
Also, for SBI Shinsei Bank, as a platformer provider for regional financial institutions that are steadily yielding tangible results for syndicate loans or sustainable finance. It already constitutes JPY 214.7 billion we have been telling it to regional financial institutions and also for syndicated loans as well. Akita Bank, Juroku Bank and there is many others. And personnel exchange, mainly around the structured finance departments. Since 2022, we received 49 trainees from 28 regional banks. We have been supporting them in various ways. For Showa Leasing, 62 out of 80 clients, number of regional bank affiliated leasing companies is this number.
In regard to the regional redevelopment efforts, where two have to be attained, whatever it takes. The first one is sophistication of the asset management. If they were investing as is at this moment, they are going to incur a massive loss. We need to start to see a sophistication of such methods. And also systems cost. It is outrageous that they are incurring massive amounts of systems development costs for the core banking system. When they need to upgrade, there is a massive cost, and depreciation costs alone will be really heavy and burdensome for regional banks. Therefore, affordable and changing the fixed cost to the variable cost. Such approach needs to be explored, and that is something that we have been exploring. Luckily, Future Architect developed this particular system. Fukushima Bank, Shimane, all these regional banks have implemented such system already.
Kitakyushu, Sendai, Toba decided to implement this in the near future. The system is going to be deployed in all these regional banks, one after another. Then the depreciation cost will be reduced through changing the fixed cost to the variable cost, and the maintenance cost is going to be really lower. Also two factors, authentication compliant with the FIDO is introduced, and the Amazon Web Services cloud is going to be used as well. The Future Architect system is enabling all these. At Fukushima Bank, the admin work was reduced by 50%, and product development period is actually shortened to one-sixth of the time that we needed in the past. There are so many benefits coming out from the system. Group companies of us is actually connecting and coordinating with many regional banks. I will skip the detail.
What about mail media for me, where through the alliances, we are accelerating the regional revitalization strategy. The fireworks that I mentioned earlier. There are so many large rivers across Japan, and we'd like to start to do such an event. All the areas with large rivers and fantastic, beautiful fireworks of Japan need to be communicated all around the world. Prime Minister Takaichi in Washington with President Trump. There was some media reports over the internet that Prime Minister Takaichi recommended Mr. Trump to launch the fireworks in Washington, which comes from the Japanese Akita fireworks. There are so many ideas like this. Regional banks and local media, and the local stations are actually rooted deeply in the regional economies, and they have established deep relations in the loan investment and financing and other types of partnerships.
There are usually local broadcasters invested by the regional banks. All these are examples of such networks. Think about this as a critical factor, where local media need to be organically connected to the regional revitalization strategy. Such an idea, whether should I endeavor into this or not? I had a clear idea of doing this, clearly, at the time of the possible acquisition of the Fuji TV station. At the round, around November, most of the investment will be completed for this year. Therefore, at some point, we'd like to invite the member of the press, and I'd like to share my own ideas in this regard. For overseas offices, we'd like to share my ideas all across fully. Power of AI and translation, for instance. They can do this really quickly.
I've written a paper about the fusion, and it is a translation version by John Ari, and I'm going to prepare to publish in English, and it is already decided to publish in Vietnam and South Korea. Therefore, the publishers around the world want that book to be published in their countries. Therefore, this idea that I started to assert in English version. In many offices and the SBI subsidiaries around, they can use this to communicate to their customers. Our information is going to be communicated well to the world, and such a network of information is going to be established. The regional revitalization plan that I'm going to work on will be achieved through a collaboration between the regional banks and regional media, and all the comprehensive players in this region is going to be integrated and try to formulate a clearer strategic path.
People, money, and goods are fused into the regional information networks so that they are going to be connected in organic way, and they are going to communicate that to the outside regions across Japan and across the world. This is a very high-quality information that I can recognize. What type of customers is doing what, and what type of initiative that they are going to do, you will be able to access to all this information. Regional players are going to be connected organically. Brangista and Tabiiro, many celebrities are highlighted and attracting a lot of readership. Brangista is growing, and we acquired 8.23% of the stake.
Monthly subscription fee is the only one where the company can access to the photo and the video services of celebrities used for the PR of the companies, and this is the idea of Kondo with the mixi, and he is quite excellent in this type of idea. He accompanied me. He is becoming a vice chair of SBI Neo Media Holdings, and I am a chair of SBI Neo Media Holdings business. If you stay in comfortable zone, you will not be able to grow. You need to think outside of the box in order to pursue growth. Maximizing the utilization of the SBI Group management resources to event-driven regional revitalization. Music Circus, for instance, one of the largest Japanese music festival, like Music Circus and the largest Kansai fireworks display, Senshu Yume Hanabi, and it is SBI MUSIC CIRCUS now because we acquired 51% of their stake.
This is really efficient to bring the attention of the youth directed to SBI. I cannot think better opportunity than this one. We are actually capturing the attention from the very young population. There is approaches to younger generation and financial service collaboration, and event-driven regional vitalization initiative leveraging overwhelming appeal to young people. Like World Expo, they attracted people from all around the world, and in the similar way, we could draw many turnout in hosting the event. SBI MUSIC CIRCUS has hosted in Osaka, Fukuoka, and hosting many music festival, and the total turnout was 350,000 for the event total of Osaka and Fukuoka. I was really amazed to hear this particular figure. Fireworks display is going to be renamed as a SBI Mai Hanabi.
We are doing Music Circus in Osaka and Senshu Osaka, where we have already hosted the fireworks, and we would like to do that in Tokyo. Of course, fireworks in Omagari, Akita Prefecture is really famous, but there are more famous ones as well. On top of that, we would like to combine with Music Circus. The host may complain that there will be too much of a turnout that they are not able to control the traffic. We have to be really ingenious in thinking about this. CoinPost , this is really a phenomenal company, where the senior management of this company is actually great. Web3 of Japan, Rasmin, and so forth. I was asked to speak in front of many people, in Osaka and Tokyo, and I was sort of a panda drawing a lot of attention.
I had some dialogue session as well. I actually had a conversation session with Horiemon as well in Tokyo. Combining all, keynote was 40-50 minutes that I always talk. I also was asked to talk at FIN/SUM. I asked for a large sum of money for that because we do not have to incur, we do not have to rely on the other conferences. Rather, we should just host a meeting like this. There are so many people that they need to recognize that. All of the non-Japanese, that is something that I intend to propose to FIN/SUM. Companies that they want to invest, they should organize meeting with SBI Investment. The Web3 conference that we hosted at the occasion of a CoinPost conference.
Many companies are coming in and out. I booked a room. I did an interview. I made a decision of whether to invest or not, and try to find out more information about their businesses. Because these are really efficient. We can identify potential portfolio companies from our point of view. From this point of view, events were something that was outside of my own perspective in the past. Our investment team is going to host and will join in Singapore and South Korea and so forth, where we need to send a group of investment team members and try to join this meeting. It is not that the participation itself is really sufficient. It is like a native player or people who are able to understand fully. We need to grow such talent going forward. Mr. Aoyama, could you stand up?
Looks really young, but in many ways he is working in this area, in this field. We want young talent to acquire this type of skills and others as well. I have been growing many young talents. Hiring people and try to make them acquire new talents. Those that we hire and foreign officers, they are able to speak two or three languages. Languages is just a tool. They would have to have a capability to understand this type of a new area. I am asking them to write an essay for all of the new hires. Because time is limited, just three to five people, excellent people, on the particular sector, try to make them write an essay and try to read through them as a sample basis and try to identify the great talent.
I need to do such an effort in order to find a great effort. WebX 2025, over 10,000 people were joining. A number of companies who joined 2016, 39, and the side events were 170. In Osaka, Expo Osaka, WebX Fintech EXPO Osaka was jointly held and attracting over 1,000 people joined this conference. To expand our overseas business foundation, expand alliance in Europe, United States, and Middle East, in addition to South Asia. We have been talking with Carlyle a while. We have decided to expand the private credit business. Asakura-san has been dealing with Carlyle for a very long period of time. Now we decided to work on the private credit. Asia market, mostly private credit, as in most cases, is something that Europe and U.S. market has been the core, but in Asia, there are some private credit business as well.
So we decided to join the hands with Carlyle to do that business. Plug and Play founder is something that I had a dinner with the other day. Plug and Play is really an interesting company and marking a tremendous success all through. SBI, a U.S. gateway fund. In fact, Nagasawa of Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories group has been working on BioMedia. I asked him to join, and we decided to invest in this way. When I had a dinner with the founder, I was really amazed, and right away, jointly, we have decided to establish an acceleration fund. So what we call accelerator. Accelerator is really a well fit to our company. In the United States, Sequoia and other big venture capital exists already.
How we can access the information is probably a late stage, and Plug and Play is capturing information at the seed stage. We should work on Plug and Play so that we can tap into the opportunity at the earlier stage, and that will potentially generate massive profits in the future. AI2 Incubator, this is new fund where we decided to make an investment. Fund contribution is really small, yet we need to access to information. Therefore, this amount of investment is just a cost for information. We need to pick up information regarding the cutting-edge AI development. So that's why we decided to do. Middle East, Saudi Arabia, in many ways, every time that HRH Prince Fahad comes to Japan, they secure a separate room and be able to talk one-on-one.
His royal family, Prince Fahad, is actually the top of the games and others, and I got really close to the prince. BIM Capital, where we decided to establish joint venture capital. So in this area, we will work together. What we are studying is based upon Sharia law. How to formulate the fund compliant with Sharia is something that we explore. I had an experience on the submission one in Brunei, but what about the bond issuance? That's something that we explore. UAE, I have a long acquaintances of former petroleum minister and also head of our ministry, Ministry of Energy. Al Suwaidi would visit Japan, so we booked a dinner session. However, it was canceled because of the illness. However, he's going to visit once again in November, so we are poised to re-enhance relationship with UAE.
Establish this type of company and keeping the relationship, and we are expanding our business. Now, gaming. 60% of the Saudi Arabia people are skilled gamers, and esports competition was convened and our company's team was considered to be strong, so they joined the game, but results wasn't really good. But they were reselected for the next round. So esports, when we give a challenge, and there were some employee who talked about the esports business potential, so new people who established an esports company. So 31st of October 2025, the leading company, Falcons Group, that we entered into an esports strategic alliance. In the data asset, digital data asset, we are expanding alliances, mostly for the group overseas offices, using global corridor. So we'd like to establish a great connection with the global corridor, and we tried to realize that.
Components by components, we are starting to have components across the globe, like by mentioning a lot bank-related acquisitions are being made, for example, that will be beneficial for SBI Shinsei Bank's business, although we have already disposed, but there are beneficial impact on the internet banks and so forth. In that manner, we would like to have some acquisitions. In the asset management fields, there might be some useful know-how that we want to tap into through M&A. Bonds and equity were provided to fund ourselves and use that fund to acquire the company. Of course, in some cases, we may resort to some methods, however, becoming a part of a business, group's business, meaning that we need to do a fundraise and try to explore it.
Going forward, we will explore more opportunities for share exchanges that will be considered as a very important means for acquiring a company, and we will tap into this opportunity fully. For instance, well, I should not mention about examples anymore, and I would like to close my.