It's time, let us begin. Today's speaker is from Daiwa Securities Group, Sato, Executive Managing Director and the CFO. I am Mishiba of IR Division, serving as a facilitator. Today we'll start with the presentation of the results of Q1 FY 2023, and then we will take your questions after the presentation. Please be reminded that this call is also arranged accessible for industries on the internet. Okay, let us start.
I am Sato of Daiwa Securities Group. Thank you very much for joining our call despite your busy schedules. Now, I'd like to explain our Q1 financial results of FY 2023 that we announced just today by following the material you can find on our website. Let me start from page four for consolidated financial summary. The percentage of change is a comparison to the Q4 FY 2022.
The net operating revenues were JPY 134.1 billion, up 6.7%, and ordinary income was JPY 36 billion, up 17.1%. In the retail division, both revenue and income increased due to the increase in stock trading investment trust sales and wrap account contract amounts. In the wholesale division, global markets had a significant revenue growth in both equity and FICC, while global investment banking decreased M&A-related revenues, resulting in a drop in both revenues and income. Net income attributable to owners of the parent was JPY 23.7 billion, up 38.5%, and annualized ROE was 6.6%. Please move to page 10 for P&L summary. The commission received was JPY 82.3 billion, up 13%. Its breakdown is on page 23.
The brokerage commission was JPY 21.7 billion, up 33.2%. Underwriting commission was for JPY 11.4 billion, up 29%. Distribution commission was JPY 3.8 billion, up 87.8%. M&A-related commission was JPY 7.9 billion, down 19.5%. Net gains on trading grew 47.4%, backed by the equity revenue increase. Now please turn to page 11 for SG&A. SG&A was JPY 103.3 billion, up 1.5%. Trading-related expenses increased as commission paid increased. Next is page 13 for overseas operations. Total ordinary income was JPY 5 billion, down 9.9% from the previous quarter. Last quarter, Europe enjoyed revenue expansion from ESG-related funds as well as BC Europe. This quarter, M&A-related revenues remarkably dropped.
Asia and Oceania reported income growth due to higher primary revenues and a contribution from the wealth management business. In Americas, amid rising interest rates, FICC revenues increased strongly due to the effective monetization of customer order flows. Next is segment information. Let's move to page 14 for retail division to start with. Net operating revenues were JPY 49.8 billion, up 22.9%, and ordinary income was JPY 13.5 billion, up 115.9%. Equity revenues increased with the recovery of both domestic and foreign equity tradings. FICC revenues increased, with a contribution coming from a large scale bond sales. Investment trust distribution commission grew due to the increase in equity investment trust sales. Asset-based revenues were JPY 21.8 billion, accounting for 45.3% of the net operating revenues in retail division.
Please move to page 15 for sales and distribution amounts by products of retail division and our topics of the quarter. In wrap account services, the contract amount and the net inflow were JPY 172 billion and JPY 96 billion, respectively, the highest level in about 8 years, and the contract AUM amounted to JPY 3,408.4 billion. In equity investment trust, Daiwa Blackstone Private Credit Fund, BCRED, which invest in private credit fund, was distributed as much as JPY 44.6 billion. Total distribution amount grew by 1.5 times. That graph on the left down below shows sales and distribution amount of wrap and equity investment trust. Net increase was 20.4%. Let me go to page 16 for the wholesale division. First, the global market.
Net operating revenue was JPY 36.8 billion, up 46.5%. Ordinary income was JPY 9.7 billion, 49 times of the previous quarter. Equity saw a recovery in customer order flows for both Japanese and foreign equities, resulting in an increase in revenues. FICC also reported a significant increase in revenues. In Japan, revenues increased mainly due to improved customer order flows in all credits.
As for overseas, despite rising interest rates, revenues increased due to the active monetization of customer risk. Please turn to page 18. Let us now brief you on global investment banking business. Net operating revenue was JPY 14.7 billion, down 18.7%, and ordinary income was JPY 0.8 billion, down 72.6%. Revenues from equity and debt underwriting increased due to contributions from large scale deals. Revenue from M&A increased substantially in Japan, but declined in Europe and the U.S. due to a strong sense of uncertainty about the external environment. Please turn to page 19. We would now like to brief you on the result of the asset management division. Net operating revenue was JPY 17.3 billion, down 1.5%, and ordinary income was JPY 9 billion, down 24.8%.
The average balance of Daiwa Asset Management for the period increased due to net asset inflow in publicly offered equity investment trust, excluding ETFs, and higher market value, resulting in an increase in both revenue and income. AUM increased at Daiwa Real Estate Asset Management and Samty Residential Investment Corp. The real estate asset management segment reported a decrease in profit due to the absence of gains on the sales of properties recorded in the previous quarter at Daiwa Office Investment Corporation and the recording of one-time expenses at Samty. Please turn to page 21. I would like to explain about the investment division. Net operating revenue was JPY 1.8 billion, down 73.9%, and ordinary income was JPY 2.9 billion, down 54.7%. Revenues and earnings decreased mainly due to lower revenues from investments in monetary claims.
That is all for my brief explanation of the financial results of the first quarter of FY 2023. During the period, the Nikkei Stock Average rose sharply to a post-bubble high on the back of further weakening of yen, continued monetary easing policies, and purchases of Japanese equity by foreign investors, with expectations that for end of deflation and reform for also corporate governance in Japan. Against this backdrop, the company secured consolidated ordinary income, JPY 36 billion, and made a good start in the final year of the medium-term management plan. We believe that our efforts to reform our business structure in terms of both revenue and cost, combined with the favorable market environment, led to the strong performance of our retail and wholesale divisions, which struggled last year due to the severe market environment.
The strong momentum was especially notable in retail division, with ordinary income reaching to JPY 13.5 billion, a high since the third quarter of FY 2017, or after 22 quarters. The balance-based revenue, which we regard important, expanded to JPY 21.8 billion, which translates to 18% growth over the past one year. We are gaining much confidence in retail business for these reasons. Now, as for the month of July, both retail and wholesale businesses are off to a good start. In retail, nearly all products, including equity, fixed income, investment trust, and fund wrap services, are progressing faster than their first quarter averages. In particular, the amount of contracts for fund wrap, which allow for internationally diverse investments, is at a record high level, and retail customers are steadily shifting their money from core assets such as savings accounts.
Growing need for hedging against inflation and currency risks are the backdrop to this trend. We believe this need is due to a structural shift in investor sentiment, which is not easily influenced by short-term market trends, and therefore, we are increasingly confident of sustained growth in our retail business. On the other hand, in the global markets business wholesale division, the TSE Prime trading volume per business day in July was down slightly less than 10% from June, and while equity got off to a slightly slower start, bonds are off to a good start. In the investment banking business of the wholesale division, M&A are showing strong results, while corporate bond issuance is at a high level.
Currently in Japan, the COVID pandemic has settled and the economic resumption is accelerating, and the country is at a major turning point in its escape from deflation, which is providing strong tailwinds for the securities business. By firmly seizing these business opportunities, we will make conscientious effort to shift our business to a wealth management business model and to expand hybrid businesses, aiming to establish a profit structure that is less susceptible to the market environment. Thank you for your interest and attention, we seek for your continued support and cooperation. Thank you. This concludes the transit, the presentation.
Now, we will take questions. Well, today, the Q&A session is available through the translation services. For those of you who have questions in either language, Japanese or English, please press one after star. To remove your questions, star press star, and then two.
First of all, today, we are going to take questions in Japanese line, and then after that, we will move to the English channel. We will call your name, and we will, we are now taking in your questions. The first question is by SMBC Nikko, Muraki -san. Mr. Muraki, please go ahead.
This is Muraki of Nikko. Thank you. I have two questions. First one is about the retail business. At the very last part, you said that JPY 13.5 billion of ordinary income was the landing point. In the one quarter, I thought that you have just driven the business towards the end of the quarter, although you had a slow start. When it comes to the contribution or composition, can you give me the briefing of how you have driven your business in terms of the profit from April to June? Can you break that down? The transaction had gone slow a little bit as recently in July, but it seems that the drive that was driven by the retail business. How do you see the sustainability of the retail business?
If that starts to slow down, what is going to be the plan B, that you're going to be bridging the gap once the retail business starts to slow down? Second quest- second part of my question is about the overseas operations. This first quarter, I think the FICC business in Americas was good, but Americas and Europe's, among the advisors were quite slow. I think you've been getting losses. What's your perspective for the Americas and Europe's FICC business?
Yes, thank you. To answer your first part of the question, in the last quarter, well, the composition of each month's sales, the monthly sales, is not disclosed, so I will just give you some color. For the month of April, it was better compared to March. In May, it got better. July, in June, the pick, it picked up the speed. I, I think the contribution was made in that order. I, I think you're safe to assume like that. When we look at the average transaction size per industry on the Tokyo Prime stock market, it's also starting to grow. Equity sales is growing at the backdrop of the rising stock price in that market. Therefore, the first quarter figure is probably getting the contribution half and half.
The half is coming from the, the current momentum and the first quarter, when we look at the, the first quarter, well the transaction volume itself has declined from the month of June to July. However, the momentum is expected to, to some extent continue, and the sustainability of the equity business with retail business is, as I mentioned in May, in the investors' meetings, that's coming from, for example, the asset-based business, is going to, with that we are going to accumulate JPY 100 billion, so that with the brokerage business and the, the brokerage commissions, it's not going to be something that we are going to be strongly with, place our emphasis.
We think we are not going to change our policy of where to accumulate, and when the stock market goes down, then equity income are, of course, going to go down. Instead of thinking about how to bridge that gap, we will be just thinking about the accumulation of the asset base. In that sense, for the month of July, we have hit the record high for the fund wrap business. The other products are also strong, but the equity transaction volume, and I think the flow is basically flat for the foreign equities that's been going beyond what we have achieved the previous quarter. The second part of your question, overseas operations. FICC was strong, as you said.
First of all, the business model is quite different, domestic and overseas, but, when we compare ourselves with the foreign, capital, the core business for us is more like a treasury repo that's, rate related, I think. It's not only currency or commodities, because we don't have larger exposure. That's the difference. The overseas FICC, the reason for the good performance was, because of the bankruptcy of the regional banks, the interest rate goes down and volatility was up. Against such on backdrop, the flow had expanded, and in May, because of the up limit of the debt, the liquidity was down in the United States.
The overdebt spread has expanded to some extent, and the flow also expanded, and we were able to seize that opportunity to monetize, especially in the Treasury trading has been expanding. Since 1986, we have been the Treasury primary dealer. In that market, we've been positioned as one of the top players. That's the reason why we think we are also getting the benefit out of that to get a good business. Now, the back, the poor performance of the M&A-related business, especially that was quite poor in the European side.
The reason is because the Europe, t he market has gone down by about 40%, and also even by the coefficient, it was down by about 20%. It's not that compared to the other global peers, our M&A business was really down. It was, I think, as an entire industry, it was down. The second quarter of the overseas business is the first quarter of the domestic business for us, because of the calendar difference. This quarter, I think the cases of the M&A does not really happen a lot, and also it's not that the M&A deals did not exist, but it takes time to close. As a pipeline, it's as rich as last year. With the passage of time, we think we'll be able to see the increase in this business.
There are some concerns about the recessions and also the rising interest rates, but those concerns have been started to disappear, so we're expecting to have the recovery going forward until the end of the year, towards the end of the year.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you very much for your question. The next person from Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley. Tsujino-san is going to be asking the question. Over to you, Mr. Tsujino.
Thank you very much for this opportunity. Earlier, so July, retail, more than the first quarter, the momentum was, I forgot the expression, was better, I think was something that you had kind of briefed us. I don't know what would happen in August, but if you were to continue this momentum, the retail profit is going to be higher than that of the first quarter? Well, that is the assumption, or are you assuming that? Also, the share price has been moving up, and especially in the structured bond, those that had made a bit, so where has the money gone to, the direction, in other words? After July, from the structured bond, is there any kind of direction that they are pursuing, the money that is shifting from structure, structured bond? If there's any kind of idea, please share with us. Thank you.
First of all, as to the first question, as to the momentum of the retail business, as to the trend. April, May, June, we continued the upward trend, and but then from July, the trading volume has started to slow down. As compared to the average, it is still remaining to be higher. Well, what would happen from here down the road? In the month of August, of course, there is going to be a summer vacation, but ordinarily, seasonally, August is not a strong month, as you know. What we can say at this point in time, it is very much dependent on the equity market, of course, the retail business performance. Of course, you know, as we have been repeatedly saying, we are aiming at, of course, increasing our asset balance.
The asset balance base revenue, such as investment trust as well as fund wrap, and that is trending still strongly. It is not, of course, that easy to see a significant growth just in a quarter, but still. As to the structured fund from last year, I think you know the impact has almost gone away. Where has the money gone to? Well, to various different direction, I would, I would say, to different financial products.
There are still, of course, investors who are standing by, you know, wait and see, applying a wait and see attitude. My question is, where has the money gone? There may perhaps be still remaining a kind of at a standstill, or have they been, Yes, they are still standstill, or they may go into, like, investment trust, or bond, or a fund wrap.
In accordance with the needs of the investors, we have been introducing because we are pursuing the way of wealth management business model, and we are trying to, of course, align ourselves with the investors' needs, that is. I'm sorry for being very technical. Other operating revenue, one first quarter, it has declined to JPY 10.4 billion from JPY 19.2 billion. ETF, I suppose from the, the, of course, selling was inclusive and solar power and also other real estate asset, and the fourth quarter was quite pretty significant. This time, the first quarter is almost back to normal, I suppose. That is my understanding. This is why there was a bit of a fluctuation in the numbers for the season.
If that is the case, so the gain on sales was how much or were there none, almost? You know, if JPY 21 billion-JPY 29 billion, JPY 2.1 billion-JPY 2.9 billion, so what kind of gains on sales were you able to enjoy?
Well, first of all, so other, others that you're referring to, the revenue and income, of course, it is a mix of gain on sales. Mostly, real estate assets that was disposed. That was included in others. This time there were not as much as it was back in the last quarter. I, if I may repeat myself, in the fourth quarter, you know, because, you know, we do have a company that has a real estate asset management, and especially in the investment, division, we have the solar power-related businesses.
There was this transfer or gains on sales, we of course, had to subtract other expenses from that, but we did manage to generate pretty much gain on these sales of different assets in the fourth quarter. As the ESG gain on sales or other, it is not quite the divestment, but in the fourth quarter, there were some dividend received on our part as well, and that has contributed to these others as well in the fourth quarter.
Thank you very much.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Ms. Tsujino, for questioning. Next question is from SBI, Otsuka-san. Otsuka-san, please go ahead.
This is SBI, Otsuka. Can you hear me?
Yes.
I have two questions. The first one, my first question is about the BOJ monetary policy. They had the meeting last week. Based upon that result, domestic JGB FICC business, profitability might be influenced, if you could give any feedback or color. Well, volume, volatility, I think, I do understand where that is going to go. Still, that rate has been gone up to 0.6 today, the trading is probably going to get the tolling with that. I just wanted to know the tone about that. That's my first question.
Okay, thank you very much. As you say, the BOJ's monetary policy was revised slightly, the rate hike, volatility hike, liquidity hike are going to be the like referred, so that the for the recovery of the market function is going to be happening so that the customer flow is probably going to be improving. However, if the JGB goes up, then that is going to have a ripple effect for the other bonds or other debts. In the past, we just had the zero interest rate, but that is going to be with interest rate. That is going to be a big change, so that the customer flow is going to increase, the customer order flow is going to increase, that is going to push up the income for us. That's going to be a favorable win for us.
It's a simple, simple answer with that, like that? For JGB FICC, the policy change of this time is not going to be a negative factor. Any points to consider?
No, this is really positive, as we think. Well, July, July is quite good, and we are only expecting that it's going to further drive into the positive side.
Okay, thank you. My second question is on slide 33. That's the Next Bank. When we look at the first quarter, that almost looks like an annual income level. With this level of the income, the interest rate is up, so I'm just wondering whether this is sustainable or do you also have some one-off, kind of, extraordinary factor kicking in? I just wanted to know the environment surrounding this Next Bank.
Yeah. Thank you very much. As for the business model of Next Bank, well, basically we want to have it as an operation in market, where the deposits are collected and that will be managed in the market. The gap that we're into is the yield. Looking at the first quarter, the interest rate was up in the world, so that the interest all over the world has gone up for us as well. Now, with that increase, the interest margin for the Next Bank, people said that it is conservative. However, in order to have the portfolio financial soundness.
In order to secure that, we wanted to have the rebalancing for the debt portfolio that we have invested. At the time of the interest rate hike, we wanted to, of course, lock in the profit, but with an aggressive initiative to make sure that we do have a positive lens to have, and we did not have any negative side of the impact. With the fluctuation of the currency, depending upon the currency, there was some big movement that has resulted in a bit change. However, we wanted to, of course, seize the opportunity for the expansion on the positive side as well. Now, looking at the second quarter, well, the first quarter was too good, actually, to finish. It's not likely to continue as is.
Continuously, the interest rate is probably going to continue hiking or staying at the high plateau. The interest margin, we hope to be able to come in quite steadily. For the target 2023, JPY 6 billion is what we are expected to grow, and the portfolio is JPY 5.5 trillion today. Assuming that 10 basis improvement in the net interest margin, that's gonna be JPY 5.5 billion difference to enjoy. Probably that there is going to be some ups and downs fluctuation. However, we think the potential is quite high for this business. It's so, just building onto that, the net interest margin is going to expand continuously. Is that the trend that you are thinking about, net interest margin?
Well, that probably depends on the currency you are talking about, but for domestic, it's going to be uptrend. The majority is, of course, the majority of the exposure is for the domestic, so you're safe to assume that is going to be on the uptrend.
Okay, thank you very much.
Mr. Otsuka, thank you very much for the question. The next person from Citigroup Securities, Niwa-san, over to you.
Thank you for the opportunity. I hope you can hear my voice okay.
Yes, we can.
There are two questions. First of all, is with regard to the retail businesses, and the next is the overall financial results. First of all, the retail businesses, the stock business, in other words, recurring businesses, what you're considering right now is almost the progress that could be comparable to the market. The retail business as stock business, growth, how can you break it, break it down, to your efforts, that is unique to your efforts or the, the market according to the market conditions? On what basis do you perceive the result giving the color? As to the ROE, so currently it is 6.6%, whereas your plan is 10%. What is still missing in achieving the goal? Increase your confidence in arriving at wherever that may be from 6.6%. That is the first part of my question.
First of all, the stock revenue. That is the asset and balance base revenue during the period. If the market, if NISA, of course, has gone up by 18%, it doesn't mean to say that our numbers would go up by 18%. There are certain time lag after the market performance. Whether it is almost comparable to the market average, just as I had explained earlier, net increase in fund wrap. On a net increase basis, it is increasing at a much faster pace. This is giving us some confidence. It is kind of difficult to segregate between our own efforts versus the market conditions.
If you were to refer to the asset and balance of Rakuten, this time JPY 3.4 trillion, the last year was JPY 2.9 trillion. The net increase portion was about 60%. Therefore, we are really persistent on this net increase. This is why we have high regards what we have achieved. As to the ROE 6.6%, we do regard it to be our challenge, as we had shared back in May of this year. We would like to achieve a steady increase in revenue as well as income. 7%-8% of ROE is to be achieved on, based on our capital. And top it up to reach the 10%.
From that perspective, so the brokerage business or trading business, are we going to dedicate much of the resources in order to top up for that kind of short shortcomings? It may fluctuate ups and ups or downs over time. Well, then it may be experiencing some shortcomings at the moment. We would like to continue to prudently and honestly continue to build up our asset base. Whether we'll be able to achieve the ROE target within this midterm business plan, we don't know, but we will continue to work harder to achieve this goal in any case. That's what we intend to do.
Thank you very much. There is one follow-up question. At the time of May presentation, the wholesale, capital, I think you have said that you're going to have a good control over it. What was the progress that was made? If there was to be any kind of progress that was made in line with your strategy, if you could be so kind to share us, we'd be grateful.
Well, as you have pointed out, just by taking up the second quarter, the capital, of course, declining in a significant manner is not the case for sure. But if we were to talk about this base, capital in the, in the last quarter, unfortunately, it has declined somewhat.
Talking about the control that we had shared back then, by business line, by business line, the profitability and also the capital efficiency and also the profitability, is what we are referring to in allocating our capital in the optimal way. Going forward, we hope to bring about a positive result based on our strategy. Go on.
Thank you so much.
This is Sato speaking, sorry. Within the wholesale, you were talking about the required capital in the wholesale business. Regard to the guidance, just to give you information, for the first quarter 2023 compared to the FY, the average of 2022, the degradation of the required capital is less than 10% compared to the year before.
Okay, thank you very much.
Thank you.
Mr. Niwa, thank you for your questions. Next question is from Morgan Stanley MUFG, Nagasaka-s an. Nagasaka-s an, over to you.
This is Nagasaka of Morgan Stanley, MUFG. Thank you very much for your presentation. I have two questions. First of all, about the NISA revision. Well, again, we just want to know how you are building up the NISA business. How is it progressing? Also the Daiwa Connect. By utilizing Daiwa Connect, are you enjoying the synergy to get the NISA business? That's my first question. The second one is about the slide 13, overseas business. The ordinary income for Oceania, Asia, Oceania revenue, had increased dramatically. You said that the primary global offering impact was kicking in. Now, when we look at the wealth management, there was a big upside as well. When we think about the potential upside, that could probably help us to forecast the business. Please let us the color.
Okay, regarding the NISA business, this is going to be kind of a overhauling starting from next year. Not only for the wealth management or the asset formation, this is going to be a product to make an approach to the general customer base, because there is a growing attention by the customers. There are a lot of seminars held by our company for NISA or iDeCo, and the number of participants and audience have been expanding quite steadily. The promotional activities, the campaigns, conference, we've been trying to do a lot actively. Now, the positioning of the Connect, Daiwa Connect, I think the customer base is also different because Daiwa Connect is more lean towards the asset formation or the wealth management kind of business.
When we look at the decade ahead or the two decades ahead, we have to think about the strategy. That's what we are trying to use as a catch. That is for us to expand the customer base in the lead. That's the positioning of the Connect. It's been three years since the foundation of the Connect. We've been expanding the products and trying to get aligned with the third-party companies, and it's steadily getting the results, and we feel that. Also, we have that new NISA system to come in, so that is going to be another driving force to make the progress of this business.
Daiwa Con, it's been changing its name, renamed Daiwa Connect Securities, that is going to give us the opportunity to further enhance and reinforce our business, like the referral of the customers, getting the synergy effect, building up the business more as a result coming from the NISA. We hope that we are going to have the uptrend for this business, too. Moving on to the second part, for the Asia, the ov- overseas operation in the Asia, Oceania. On the Y-o-Y comparison, the global offering primary increase and brokerage business, the equity is also growing. The debt sales is, as you know, the JGP, overseas the trans, overseas transaction is also increasing, so that's, also the Singapore wealth management is making contribution to the profit. On QoQ, equity increased.
Singapore wealth management business for the high net worth is also increasing. In addition to that, SSI, we have an equity method company. The income coming from that equity method company also increased. With the potential growth in the wealth management business, well, the wealth management business itself is an area that we are focusing and emphasizing, so the support structure from overseas have been enhanced. The retail, domestic retail business is going to be stronger, and we see a growth potential, much more headroom is left. However, this is for the high net worth business, so we need to have assortment of the product to offer for the potential customers.
This business, in the short- term perspective, there'll be some ups and downs, but in the longer term period, we only expect to grow this business.
Okay, well understood. Thank you very much.
Nagasaka-san, thank you for your question. Over to the next person. From Nomura Securities, Takamaki-san. Oh, no, Sasaki-san. Over to you, Sasaki-san.
I am Sasaki from Nomura Securities. I hope you can hear my voice okay? Thank you very much. I have two questions, if I may. The retail business in the first quarter, equity income had grown significantly, was your explanation. The Japanese equity improvement and U.S. equity improvement, which one, in fact, were more significant, if you could give me the color? Also, U.S. equity for the retail investors, if you had increased the trading, I suppose it had brought about some positive impact to the trading side of the business as well. Was there any impact, and at what magnitude? The second, the product sales, in fact, has been trending pretty well in ABC. How can I perceive that? These are the questions.
For the first question, Japanese equity versus U.S. equity. If I were to split the two, in the fourth quarter, Japanese core equity contributed more. Percentage-wise, Japanese equity was much larger. I'm sorry, I would like to refrain from giving you any numbers in terms of the breakdown, because after all, the Japanese equity trading volume had grown significantly, and so was the share price. Nasdaq was only up by 12%-13%, whereas Japanese equity was up by 18%. From that perspective, there were bigger contribution from the Japanese equity. In the case of U.S. equity, for sure, it would give an impact to the trading side of our business. What the kind of impact were there, was the question?
It was not that significant. Yes, in, there was some impact, but not to a significant extent. As to the asset inflow, well, it's hard to kind of explain this, because, you know, equity price had gone up so much. Of course, there is some unrealized gain.
Of course, there are some people who may decide to lock in their profit by selling the proportion. There are some people, so from that perspective, the retail investors, there were both inflow as well as outflow, and that has brought about the result that we have shared. What I want to kind of point out here with regard to the retail investors. The unrealized gain, in fact is growing pretty much, and that in fact, is improving the investor sentiment for sure.
If I were to just explain that, the fund wrap, almost 100% of the investors are enjoying unrealized gain. As end of June, it was about JPY 500 billion. Just for your reference, that is. On page 28 of your deck, the foreign equity transaction, and from fourth quarter, it has doubled almost in the first quarter, despite of the fact that it had grown so much, but it did not bring about that much of an impact. Well, it has given some kind of impact, but I'm just saying that the Japanese equity impact was much larger.
Okay, understood. Thank you so much.
Mr. Sasaki, thank you. Now, I repeat, should you have question to ask, please start in one. Now we are taking in questions. We still have left time, but it seems that we have answered all the questions, so now we'd like to wrap up the Q&A session. With that, we'd like to close today's conference call. Thank you very much for joining us.
Hello, this is Sato speaking again. For all the investors on call, thank you very much to join today. We have so much of the following wind to now, and we feel that today. Without changing the strategy that we have followed, we want to make a strong profit structure to make, which is resilient to the market conditions and the market macro change. We'd like to see your continued support for us. Thank you very much for joining today again, and have a good day.