The 136th General Meeting of Shareholders

On June 20, the 136th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders was held at JP Tower Nagoya (Nakamura-ku, Nagoya), where our global headquarters is located. 
In order to ensure appropriate information disclosure and transparency, this year's meeting was again held as a virtual shareholders' meeting with hybrid participation of on-site and live broadcast.
Fifty-three shareholders attended the meeting at the venue, and 23 shareholders viewed the meeting online.
This was the fourth time for me to chair the meeting, and as usual, I spoke to the shareholders about the "Business Report" and "Issues to be addressed.”
I explained that we are promoting business activities based on the three-year business plan "2025P" in order to transform ourselves into an ideal status of "a leading solutions provider taking on social challenges by collecting the whole resources of Sumitomo Riko and its partners" as defined in the 2029V vision.
Also, I told everyone that we aim to realize a sustainable society by promoting the creation and development of products that provide new value through our polymer material technologies and comprehensive evaluation technologies, while faithfully adhering to the principles of "Banji-nissei," "Shinyo-kakujitsu," and "Fusu-furi.”

Q&A Session

The shareholders offered encouragement for the company's record-high profit in fiscal year 2023, which is the result of the efforts of the entire Sumitomo Riko Group amidst a difficult environment.
In response to a question about our business forecast for FY2024 in light of rising labor and raw material costs, I answered, "We expect to be affected by the return to customers of the improved market conditions in FY2023 and the soaring raw material and fuel costs in FY2024, but by working on cost reduction and reflecting selling prices, we will be able to achieve business profit of 30 billion yen or more in both FY2024 and FY25.”
As for another shareholder's question, "What measures are being taken to make the European business profitable?" I responded, "Currently, the EV market is stalling in Europe, but we believe it will recover around the second half of this fiscal year as we continue to negotiate with our customers for compensation and reduce process losses.”
Fiscal year 2023 was the highest sales and profits in our history.
This is the result of the policies set forth by our predecessors and the efforts of all employees.
I feel that our team, which has always been "flexible and responsive to change without being bound by past concepts," is further evolving toward 2029V.
On the same day, at the first meeting of the new board of directors, I said, "Let us also devote ourselves to leaving a bright asset for future generations of management.
Let us continue to move forward with the combined strength of the 25,692 employees of the Group so that our shareholders will continue to be fans of our company.