Scheduled time has come, we will now begin Hitachi, Ltd. financial results briefing for Q3 FY2025.

Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to attend today. The presentation materials are available on Hitachi, Ltd.

IR website and news release website, please take a look. Let me now introduce the three speakers: Tomomi Kato, Senior Vice President and Executive Officer, CFO; Hiroaki Ono, Deputy General Manager, Finance Division; Shinichiro Tamai, Executive General Manager, Investor Relations Division.

Mr. Kato will first explain the overview of the financial results.

Please wait for a moment while we switch screens.

Mr. Kato, the floor is yours.

First, let me explain the content of the presentation material. It includes the key points of the earnings announcement this time, which is FY25 Q3 performance, the full-year forecast for FY2025, and performance by sector, Lumada business.

First, on the key points of the earnings this time, starting from the highlights of Hitachi Group's performance. During Q3 FY2025, on top of continued robust performance of our energy business, mobility and DSS, backed by solid domestic IT business, grew firmly, resulting in both Hitachi's consolidated total revenue and profit to increase.

Core free cash flow also rose year on year, with all of our revenue, adjusted EBITA, and core cash flow to post record highs. Allow me to explain about the five KPIs.

First, revenue grew by 10% year on year. Adjusted EBITA was up by ¥60 billion year on year, and adjusted EBITA margin increased as well.

Quarterly net income attributable to Hitachi, Ltd. also increased year on year.

Core cash flow on a consolidated basis, driven mainly by CI, Connective Industries, and Energy, increased by ¥80 billion year on year. Compared to our internal plan on a consolidated basis, revenue, adjusted EBITA, and also CFC overachieved our internal plan.

Next, on the full-year forecast for FY2025. In addition to Energy, whose power grid business is performing very well, we made upward revisions to our forecast for CI and Mobility as well.

For Hitachi Group overall, forecast for revenue, profit, cash flow, and ROIC were all revised upward. For the six KPIs described here, we're projecting to see improvement, growth in all of them compared to the previous fiscal year.

Next, highlights by sector. DSS, following Q2, in Q3 as well saw an increase in both revenue and profit, driven by Japan's front and IT services businesses.

Although storage business revenue declined due to harsh competitive landscape in overseas markets, its profit rose because of our cost reduction efforts. The forecast for the year is such that with upward revisions to the front and IT services businesses, despite a downward revision to Services & Platforms due to drop in revenue in the storage business, we are maintaining our forecast the same as before for DSS.

In Energy, our power grid business continues to be brisk with demand for renewing and replacing transmission facilities. In Q3, both revenue and profit increased in Energy, prompting us to revise its full-year revenue and profit forecast upward.

In Mobility as well, Mobility increased its revenue and profit in Q3, with railway signaling systems and Lumada business performing steadily, and also the positive effect from FX, we made a upward revision to the full-year forecast. In CI in Q3, industrial equipment grew, but because of the high base effect from a large-scale project done last fiscal year in industrial digital, revenue was down year on year.

Profit in CI overall rose, however, driven by our Lumada business, including buildings and semiconductor equipment, on top of industrial equipment. This time, the full-year forecast was revised upward.

Lastly, on corporate items and eliminations, the risk of impact from U.S. tariffs that were included here are now allocated to business segment numbers now.

The profit-increasing opportunities that we have included before were all allocated to each segment's numbers as well. Given the circumstances described above, I have revised Hitachi's consolidated full-year forecast upward.

Allow me to discuss DSS growth strategy and the status of progress. First, as a basic strategy, we are driving Hitachi Group's overall digitization and roll out globally the solutions that we have brushed up through internal use, which we call Customer Zero.

We will also further strengthen our AI technology, assist customers boost their mission-critical capabilities to expand synergies in our effort to achieve Inspire 2027. Looking back on the main initiatives we have undertaken during FY25, for Japan's front and IT services businesses, DX and modernization progressed and grew steadily, more so than we initially planned.

The front business Q3 orders were up by 10% year on year. In Services & Platforms, we reinforced high value-added services business leveraging AI.

GlobalLogic is expanding synergies with other departments internally, developing HMAX solutions, amongst other initiatives, and grew by 21% in Q3 year on year. In storage, on the other hand, business structure reform including cost optimization was implemented.

Although its sales in overseas markets are declining, it's working to improve its profitability, resulting in a 2.4 percentage point improvement in profit margin in Q3 compared to the year before. Next, on our growth strategy going forward.

For the front business, front engineering functions for SIs will be consolidated into DSS and strengthened. As part of the measures to shore up the structure, DX unit for industry that's been under the CI sector will be moved over to DSS starting next fiscal year.

For the services business, we are looking to strengthen our capabilities to offer AI services and expand the development and offering of HMAX solution. To reinforce the business structure, GlobalLogic and Hitachi Digital Solutions will be integrated.

Customer Zero approach will also be advanced. For the storage business and IT products, business structure reforms are ongoing for the time being.

In addition to the improvements we can make on our own, we will promote partnering and other measures to fundamentally strengthen the business's market competitiveness. To give you a breakdown of DSS based on the growth strategy I have just discussed, it will look like the lower right-hand side table.

The profit margin for the front and services business combined will be 16% because domestic SI business sales within the group will be netted on a consolidated basis for DSS. This number, however, is for reference.

I would like to now discuss the main initiatives to enhance our corporate value. We were able to advance business portfolio reform during the quarter following Q2.

Our stake in Hitachi Construction Machinery now stands on the order of 18%, and the company is now outside the scope of the equity method as a result of selling part of the holdings in November last year. In December last year, we agreed with Honda to transfer part of our stake in Astemo, a manufacturer of automotive components, to them.

We expect the transfer to be completed in next fiscal year, but this will decrease our stake to 19%, taking Astemo outside the scope of the equity method. Business portfolio reform will continue going forward.

Regarding capital allocation, shareholder return for this fiscal year of about ¥500 billion was completed as planned in December. On top of that, in view of increases in cash due to additional asset sales we conducted during this fiscal year, we have made a decision to carry out an additional share buyback.

The scope is ¥100 billion. Including this, the total shareholder return this fiscal year will amount to ¥600 billion, up by ¥200 billion from last fiscal year.

From this point onward, I will discuss the Q3 actual performance. The actuals are as I have explained at the beginning.

Next, to explain the breakdown of changes year on year for Q3. For revenue, even excluding the positive FX impact, with increases in DSS front business and Mobility, revenue was up by 7%.

Adjusted EBITA saw a similar trend as the revenue: growth in sales, enhanced productivity, improvements in project management increased the adjusted EBITA margin by 1.4 points year on year. Core free cash flow, even excluding the effect of large advance payments received, increased because of larger adjusted EBITA and reduction in working capital.

Next, on our financial position. Total assets at the end of Q3 FY25 stood at roughly ¥14.6 trillion, up by ¥1.4 trillion compared to the end of last fiscal year because of sales expansion in Energy and positive FX impact.

We were able to bring down CCC, or cash conversion cycle, to a lower level than the end of last fiscal year due to increased advances received. Next, on the status of Q3 sales by region.

With Energy's power grid business and Mobility's railway signaling system leading the performance, we saw growth in Europe, which was up 21%, North America up 12%, ASEAN and India and other areas up 17% year on year respectively. Europe in particular grew substantially year on year, driven by large projects in power grid business.

Next is Q3 orders results by business segment. In DSS, overseas orders in the services and platforms decreased due to storage business, but orders in Japan remained solid in the front business, resulting in overall DSS growth for both Q3 and nine-month year-to-date basis.

In Energy, Q3 orders increased year on year thanks to strong orders in the power grids business and increase in data center related projects. The order backlog is also increased compared to the end of FY24.

Mobility orders declined, reflecting a high base effect from large-scale railway vehicle projects in FY24, but the order backlog increased compared to the end of FY24 due to FX impacts and others. CI segment as a whole showed solid growth in both Q3 and year-to-date.

In particular, measurement and analysis system driven by healthcare and industrial digital driven by robotics SI business increased. Next is the highlights of FY25 outlooks.

The main contents were explained in the topic slide at the beginning. Revenue, income, cash flow, and ROIC are all revised upward from the previous forecast.

We also revised the assumed FX rate to ¥150 to the U.S. dollar and ¥175 to euro.

Next is the breakdown of year-on-year changes. Excluding the FX impact, revenue is expected to grow by 7% year on year, driven by increases in Energy, DSS, and other segments.

Similar trend for adjusted EBITA, which is expected to increase year on year despite the impact of U.S. tariffs and strategic investments.

Net income is expected to increase year on year, primarily driven by higher operating income despite variable factors related to asset rebalance, such as the sale of air conditioning joint venture, share transfer of Hitachi Construction Machinery and Astemo, and associated income taxes. Core free cash flow, excluding the impact of large advance payments, is expected to increase year on year.

This is primarily due to the increase in adjusted EBITA despite higher CapEx for production increase. The upward revision to the full-year outlook is mainly due to the impact of increased advance received effect from large projects.

Next is performance by business segment. I explained Digital Systems & Services earlier.

Regarding the full-year outlook, Services & Platforms was revised downward due to revenue decline in the storage business, while front and IT services were revised upward. Therefore, the overall full-year outlook for DSS remains unchanged.

Next is Energy. Hitachi Energy, our power grid business, saw a significant revenue growth in Q3 due to solid execution of strong order backlog and favorable lifecycle mix of large-scale projects.

Profit also improved thanks to revenue growth, improved revenue profile, and operational excellence. We revised our full-year outlook upward this time and expect annual revenue growth of 26% on a U.S.

dollar basis. Nuclear energy is expected to see a decline in annual revenue due to a high base effect from large-scale project in FY24.

In Mobility, both revenue and profit increased year on year, driven by solid growth in Lumada business, including the railway signaling systems. Reflecting the review of the FX impact, we revised our full-year forecast upward.

Next is Connective Industries. In Q3, revenue declined in industrial AI and others, but overall CI profit increased due to improved profitability in urban systems and industrial products.

Our full-year outlook of CI sector is that revenue will stay flat, but profit will increase year on year, driven by improved profitability in industrial AI and industrial products and services. This time, CI's full-year outlook was revised upward thanks to increased profits in urban systems and industrial AI.

Finally, Lumada business. Revenues for Q3 of FY25 increased by 51% year on year, and revenue ratio on Hitachi consolidated basis reached 41%.

We revised the classification of Lumada business to two simple categories starting from FY25. As a result of examining the target businesses, we identified businesses that should have been included in the Lumada business, such as managed services and software businesses included in digital services, and SI business using products and AI included in digitalized assets.

Therefore, decided to include these in Lumada businesses from FY25. Even by adjusting to last year's standard, Lumada revenue in Q3 grew by approximately 20% year on year, driving Hitachi's consolidated CAGR of 10%.

Furthermore, next let me touch on the deployment status of HMAX as part of our initiatives to expand our Lumada business. We define HMAX as digital services we deliver to customers leveraging data collected from Lumada digitalized assets and AI enhanced by domain knowledge accumulated by Hitachi.

Regarding specific solution development, we have expanded the HMAX solution for Mobility, first announced two years ago, into Energy and CI domains. In Energy, we provided an AI-powered power grid monitoring solutions for an Italian energy operator, contributing to a significant reduction in on-site inspection time.

In CI, we provided a factory equipment failure diagnosis AI agent to Daikin in Japan, contributing to shorter fault diagnosis time. As part of our initiatives to expand our Lumada business, I will share the progress on partner collaboration in Q3 and the development status of new HMAX solutions.

This morning, we announced with Microsoft that Hitachi Energy will reinvent its enterprise asset management solution with Microsoft's AI-enabled technology. This builds on the strategic partnership announced in June 2024 to integrate Microsoft technologies into Hitachi's Lumada solutions.

Regarding our collaboration with Google Cloud, we announced a partnership to accelerate railway DX by combining GlobalLogic's advanced digital engineering capabilities with Google Cloud's cybersecurity and AI technologies. Next, new HMAX development status.

For internal HMAX development and implementation by Customer Zero, we developed a solution that analyzes video footage at construction sites for building systems, including elevators, and generates alerts, and began applying this solution at domestic sites from Q3. Additionally, in HMAX development by customer collaboration, we began developing a solution with Mitsubishi Chemical that verifies troubleshooting assistance using AI agents at chemical plants.

This concludes my explanation of the results for Q3 and the outlook for FY2025. We expect to steadily improve revenue, profitability, cash flow, and capital efficiency in FY25.

We will continue to implement management measures to achieve the long-term and medium-term goals of our management plan Inspire 2027. We appreciate your continued understanding and support.

Kato-san, thank you very much. The live image was disrupted, we're very sorry for that.

Let us move on to questions and answers at this moment. Those of you with questions, please use the raise hand button on the Zoom screen.

Among those who have raised hand, we will call upon your name, please unmute, state your name and affiliation before asking questions. If you no longer wish to ask questions, please make sure to cancel the button.

The image of the questioner will not be shown on the screen. We will move from the Japanese to English channels to take questions.

We would like to take questions from all the different groups: the press, institutional investors, analysts, and so forth. Starting from the Japanese channel, those of you with questions, please raise your hand.

Hirakawa-san, please unmute and state your questions, please.

There was improvement from Q2, it seems that you are performing well, but EBITA ratio is 4.4% compared to Hitachi's standard, the number is rather low. As you pursue business structure reform, what is it that you need to achieve in order for business to survive next year?

Memory and other businesses are expected to grow. Regarding the sales in March '26 or March '27, what would be your outlook?

That's my question regarding the storage business.

Thank you very much for the question. As you pointed out, this fiscal year the competitive landscape was very harsh, and some customers refrain from making investments, and sales in the storage business were down year on year compared to last year.

However, on the other hand, for this fiscal year, we're looking to prioritize profitability improvement. Therefore, we would like to optimize fixed costs, pursuing structural reform.

When we look at orders that we may take, we will prioritize profitability. We're managing projects from that perspective, and that is why we are where we are right now.

With respect to profitability, given the DSS overall profitability, storage business profitability is very low. Next fiscal year, not that we have a specific target or number in mind, but naturally we would like to bring it up to the average of the DSS overall.

Through various business structure reform, and we would also like to consider having partnering with external parties to strengthen sales, and through such efforts, I think we will be able to bring the profitability of storage business up to the average of DSS. It is possible, but rather than doing it all on our own, we would like to leverage partnerships with external parties to try to improve profitability.

The tailwind is that, as demand from data centers is rising, and sales with data centers are increasing, we would like to capture such opportunities to drive profitability up. The second point, cost.

The cost of components is rising, and that is not just for us, it is a problem for the whole of the industry. There is high demand seen in data centers, for example, and passing on the cost increase to prices is understood by customers in such growing areas.

We do not foresee our profitability to suffer in such areas. On the other hand, as I said, competitive landscape is intense, we would like to continue to monitor this business closely going forward.

Just to clarify on your second point regarding data centers, those customers understand cost passed through, but what about profitability in other areas? In principle, and it's not just for us, it's an industry-wide problem.

Cost is going up, and a cost increase passed through should be accepted and understood by customers, and I do hope that they will understand. As I said, competition is very intense, so that could be a risk.

That is our recognition.

Understood. Secondly, as you explained toward the end, you made a press release today.

Physical AI for Growth 3.0 to strengthen business structure for Lumada 3.0. Overhauling the business structure of CI, Connective Industries, that is what is discussed in the press release.

What are the measures, and what is the aim or objective of changing the business structure? In the press release, industrial product, industrial solutions, urban solutions, they're included as part of CI.

What about the other businesses as a result of the organizational change? What's going to happen, if you could also elucidate on that?

Thank you. What we have released, if you could please have a look at the chart that's included in the press release we issued today.

I would like to use this to explain. I hope you're looking at it.

The CI structure is going to be strengthened. To summarize, Lumada business, digital business, HMAX solution to be expanded, and for that to happen, we have optimized the structure.

The three BUs, in line with the focus of the Lumada strategy, we have reorganized the three. There are three things: one, Industrial Products BU.

Under Lumada 3.0 to strengthen digitalized assets, UPS product, industrial equipment business that includes UPS is consolidated into this. Secondly, Industrial Solution BU, capturing progress of physical AI in order to promote HMAX.

Hitachi High-Tech and engineering in water and environment and industrial automation, these are all consolidated into this BU. Thirdly, Urban Solutions Service BU.

This includes data center business and semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In order to go after these opportunities, building systems and air conditioning BU in GlobalLogic and Hitachi Solutions power business, that's all included here.

As head of sector in urban business, HMAX solution, building facility management, Building Mirai development and market launch, CI sector COO Amiya-san will be the head of the sector, leveraging his experience, CI sector Lumada business. Toward Inspire 2027, he's going to be the best person to lead the sector, and that is why he is assigned.

Thank you. That would be all of my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next, Nakanishi-san, please unmute yourself and ask your question.

Thank you. Question: semiconductor-related business and data-center-related business are my questions.

Nvidia, H200 was approved by the China side, for your business and for your supply chain, any impacts you anticipate? Are you thinking of alternatives?

Answer:

Thank you for the question. You mentioned Nvidia.

We have an MOU with Nvidia to offer solution for data centers, Hitachi iQ is the name, and so we are offering this together. Nvidia's AI factory is utilized.

We have three AI factories in the world, and this environment is suited to what we are trying to do: agentic AI and physical AI. This environment will be the accelerator for the agentic and physical AI.

Direct impact, I don't know, but at any rate, Nvidia's GPU, chip GPU is winning high acclaim around the world and is selling more, and will lead to Nvidia's R&D and become stronger. This is exactly Lumada 3.0 and physical and agentic AI.

This will directly lead to what we are trying to grow, we think this is positive to us. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Next, Sasao-san, please unmute and ask your questions.

My name is Sasao. I have a question regarding Energy sector's order management compared to three months ago.

How has it changed? There may be overlap with the earlier question, but Services & Platforms, customers are refraining from making investments, I think that continues to this quarter.

What is your expectation of the timing of recovery?

First, regarding the Energy sector, this time, Energy orders in Q3 were up 15% year on year. Overall, what we refer to as base orders, orders other than the ones from large customers, they are very brisk by region: North America and other areas, Middle East as well as Europe.

These regions led the performance. What's related to data centers, we received orders related to data centers as well.

In terms of data centers within Hitachi Energy's sales, sales from data centers is still limited at less than 10%, but in terms of orders, we're receiving increasing orders in Q3, and order growth was double-digit. That was rather striking.

It left a strong impression. Going forward, basically orders are quite firm, and with orders from data centers added on top of it, I think we will see more solid growth.

Secondly, what you asked about storage, as I said, business pertaining to data centers is growing, and our business there is growing, which we expect to continue. For other areas, the market overall is not bad, but as I said, competition is very harsh.

From our perspective, as I said earlier, we need to increase our fundamental competitiveness, and launching new products and pursuing business structure reform, they will continue, but partnerships with external parties, and through that, including sales capabilities, we would like to raise our competitiveness. Regarding profitability, as I explained, Q2 to Q3, the trend is that we are improving in profitability, and we would also like to see improvement in top line as well.

We're not in a position to say exactly when, but this year into next, and next year into the year after, we would like to continue to make improvements. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Question: can you hear me?

Yes.

I have two questions. First, China rare earth export restriction: are there any direct or indirect impact on your business?

If there is impact, what kind of impact are they, if you could elaborate? Are you taking any countermeasures?

How are you factoring in the financial outlook this year? Answer:

Thank you. I cannot talk about numbers, but to answer your question, in terms of business unit, it's mainly CI and Mobility sector.

We have magnets, motors using rare earth. Some delivery delays are happening, but the supplier partners, we're using the strategic inventory and using alternative suppliers.

For now, the impact is limited. On the other hand, in the medium to long term, we have to take measures.

The heavy magnet-free or recycling, we want to take measures going forward. Question:

The other is about the tariff agreement, the first deal for the investment in the U.S. There is the transmission project that you may participate in.

What is the current status or the size of the project? Thank you.

Answer: Both Japan and U.S. government are doing various discussions, I cannot go into detail, but Hitachi, for the areas we can contribute, we will be involved by controlling the risks.

As we announced in CES in January, HMAX will be provided and be active so that it will connect to our business. We will continue gathering information in Japan and the U.S.

and work to contribute to U.S., our important market, and find the business opportunity. U.S.

market is one of the most important market for Hitachi. We have continuously invested and employed people, we have shown commitment.

Continuing on, we will continue in the U.S. U.S.

continues to be the medium- to long-term pillar for our growth strategy, we want to continue contributing by committing to this market. Thank you.

We would like to start taking questions from the English channel at this moment. Those of you with questions, please press the hand raise button.

Those of you on the English channel, we are taking questions from those of you on the English channel, if you have questions, please raise your hand by pressing the hand raise button. It seems that there are no one who is wishing to ask questions, we would like to get back to the Japanese channel once again.

Suzuki-san, please unmute and ask your questions.

I'm Suzuki from Nikkei Cross Tech. Question: am I being heard?

Yes. I would like to ask two questions.

Question number one: DSS front business of late is performing very well, it seems. In Q3, orders grew by 10%.

Is it because of the financial services customers or social systems customers? Which industry are you doing well in?

Yes.

Answer: In terms of orders received in Q3 in the front business, orders went up by 10%. As far as orders in Q3 are concerned, it was the financial services customers who grew.

Financial services customers, 13% increase in orders. There were large projects and in overseas electronic payment, mobile banking.

We received such orders from overseas as well. In social systems, orders were up 5% in Q3, which was higher than last fiscal year with large projects.

On a cumulative basis, while Q3 on a cumulative basis was 9%, social systems were up 11% on a cumulative basis, they're the leader. Overall, there is tailwind for both, but orders are about timing.

Depending on the timing, it's either the financial services customers or social systems customers who are leading in placing orders with us.

Understood. Another question: I would like to ask about wage increase.

Rengo is talking about placing a request to the management of an increase by ¥18,000 in the spring wage negotiation. If you could please comment on wage increases.

Expectation for wage increase continues strongly, we are very much aware of that. However, that is to be discussed in the upcoming spring wage negotiation.

I cannot give you the details at this moment, but over the medium to long term, wage increase momentum should be continued. Growth and distribution should be combined in a virtuous cycle.

We want to create that, and as a premise for that, we have to have sustainable growth and make earnings. It is necessary to raise wages, including basic salaries, but for employees to have increased engagement, we would like to think about making improvements to overall compensations and benefits.

Thank you.

Thank you. The next person is the only person raising the hand right now, we will have this last questioner.

Toshi-san, please unmute yourself and ask your question. Toshi-san, please unmute yourself.

I can hear you just a bit, but now I can hear you. Thank you.

Question:

First question is on Trump tariff. In compared to last quarter, there are some changes in your numbers.

Comparing the two quarters, what are the differences, if you could briefly explain? Answer:

In the last financial results briefing, the full-year adjusted EBITA impact was -¥20 billion. This time, the impact is about the same, maybe slightly over ¥20 billion this time.

Question: can you elaborate on the background? Answer: Kato will explain.

Direct impact, customers, because of this tariff, the customers are understanding the pricing pass-through. The direct impact is becoming smaller on us.

In storage, customers are now refraining or restraining their investment, the indirect impact is slightly increasing. As Ohno-san just said, large areas in totality have not changed much.

Thank you. Question: Next question is in DSS.

Your customers are utilizing AI and starting the in-house development of the system. If this trend continues in the U.S., Hitachi Group's position as system integrator, I think GlobalLogic is also involved, customers insourcing or in-house capability using AI, how are you looking at this?

How would you impact your business? Answer:

In our SI business, we are using AI, pursuing the AI usage. For the projects we agree on with customers, for all SI projects, we utilize AI, and with that, we are raising productivity.

In this world, customers may think of doing this by themselves, doing this in-house, but compared to overseas markets, Japan still has a long way to go, it has not progressed much. Our task is to support customers use AI, but if customers take this in-house significantly, even then, people need to utilize AI.

AI can't take care of themselves, and so the AI-enabled staffs we have can play a big role. I think our business will grow in this area.

I would not say there's no impact, but the impact is still minimal at this point in time. Thank you.

I hope this answers your question.

Thank you. Question: My last question.

You talked about the top management structure. Lumada 3.0 will be promoted on a sector basis.

Mr. Koch will step down next year, and Amiya-san will become the CEO of CI sector.

Could you elaborate on the background to this change?

From this fiscal year, you started the new structure, I want to know a little more about the background. Answer: Mr.

Koch's stepping down is he mentioned he wanted to step down. I don't know more than that.

On the other hand, Mr. Amiya, who will head the CI, have been COO for the past one year and have been looking at the CI sector as a whole.

In CI, the HMAX solution Building Mirai, he developed and led the market introduction of this solution. As CI sector moves towards Lumada 3.0 using physical AI, he is the best person, most suited person.

Understood. Thank you.

thank you very much. There were those who were raising hand additionally.

There are two remaining people, let's take questions from them before we end. Harada-san, Hirakawa-san, in that order, we will take questions.

Harada-san, please unmute and ask your questions, please.

Harada from Goldman Sachs Securities, thank you very much. I joined in the middle of the conference call.

If it was asked already, I'm sorry, but my first question is orders by segment, Services & Platforms. I think it's the storage business that was a drag causing negative number.

Excluding storage business, how much growth or decrease was there? I think it's mainly about GlobalLogic, what is the status of orders, if you could please elucidate on that?

The second question: ¥100 billion of additional share buyback was announced, this is because of asset sales. I think the amount is around half of the proceeds of asset sales, it seems.

Overall, you have a very strong balance sheet, and there could be acquisitions in the future, but D/E ratio to hit the target with respect to your balance sheet, what is the timeline, what is your thinking on that? You have just made an announcement regarding ¥100 billion share buyback, but what is your thinking regarding these balance-sheet-related ratios and targets?

Answer:

First, orders. Q3 Services & Platforms, unfortunately, was down 5% year on year.

Basically, that's because of Hitachi Vantara's business. Customers refraining from making investments, and because we focus on profitability having project management, it was down year on year.

As far as Q3 is concerned, GlobalLogic as well. Western customers refraining from investment, and we're having stringent management control over projects, and therefore it's down year on year, but basically order reduction at Vantara is the main factor behind.

Secondly, about share buyback, as you pointed out, since before, based on our capital allocation policy, when we sell assets, we will look for growth investment opportunity and shareholder return opportunity. We would decide between the two, and so based on that policy, we made a decision for share buyback.

Investment in growth, that always exists, but in Q3 we have received proceeds from partial sales of Hitachi Construction Machinery, and in Q4 we're not planning to have a major investment for growth, and given the financial position, we decided to make a decision on share buyback opportunistically or agilely. What is going to be the target over the long term, D/E ratio of 0.5, that is the threshold.

Then we'll consider capital allocation status, funding environment, as well as business environment. These factors will be considered, and we would like to take time to optimize the ratio.

That's our thinking at this moment.

Thank you very much. Just to follow up on GlobalLogic, question: so Western customers refraining from investments since three months ago, six months ago, do you think that their investment is deteriorating, or are you seeing signs of improvement?

Suppose investment is not recovering, you may have to consider cutting staffing, perhaps. Where are you with respect to Vantara?

You are having stricter control over projects, and is it correct to understand that profitability is positive, or are you closer to break-even? If you could please elaborate on that.

Answer:

Let me address the Vantara question. Yes, we are controlling projects, and higher-margin projects are pursued, and so that is positive for our profitability.

Regarding GlobalLogic earlier, as far as orders in Q3 are concerned, they're down year on year, but for revenue or sales, sales are trending up and increasing year on year in Q3. It's not that we have surplus of resources.

For growth, it's lower single-digit, but it's still growing and expanding. As I explained on the slides, in terms of synergies, Mobility, Energy within Hitachi, inclusive of the initiative to develop HMAX solutions leveraging AI, and it seems that there's very strong demand for GlobalLogic and so forth, and so inclusive of that, there's 20% growth.

Centering around those areas, we are expecting to see further growth going forward.

That was clear. Thank you very much.

That would be all.

Hirakawa-san, please unmute yourself and ask your question. Question: One question.

At the beginning, Kato-san said you exceeded all internal target in Q3 for EBITA. How much did you exceed the internal target, and how is it like by segment?

Thank you very much. Answer: For Q3, revenue and profit, adjusted EBITA, about ¥40 billion overachievement against our internal target.

About half is FX impact, and the remaining half is organic growth. Organic growth, revenue growth, biggest is Energy, followed by CI.

CI, Hitachi High-Tech, and Building Systems, profit improved more than we thought. Those two were the leaders, accounted for about half of ¥40 billion.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your cooperation.

It's now time to close the consolidated financial results earnings announcement for the third quarter ended December 31st, 2025. Thank you very much for attending.