Ikusuke Shimizu
Senior Managing Executive Officer, Head of Business Strategy Department & Representative Director

Yes. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today. So I will begin my presentation.

Page 1 shows the currency assumption. In Q3, the yen was JPY 6 weaker than expected at JPY 154 against the dollar. For Q4, the revised October plan called for JPY 148, but we revised the assumption to JPY 156 in the current forecast. As stated, the sensitivity to FX is an uplift of JPY 500 million in OP for every JPY 1 depreciation against the U.S. dollar.

On Page 2, the left half of the table shows the Q3 results. Net sales increased to JPY 330.1 billion, reaching a new record high. The blue asterisks indicate record highs. Operating profit was JPY 27.5 billion, and ordinary profit was JPY 31.8 billion, both declining year-on-year.

Although we do not disclose the plan by quarter, the results were generally in line with our internal plan. Net profit decreased partly due to the impairment loss of JPY 14.9 billion. This was booked in the Biorefinery Business for the dismantling of the Kuji plant in Iwate after completing the demonstration experiment as scheduled.

We set up an additional share buyback program of 10 million shares for JPY 30 billion for the second half of this fiscal year. As of Q3, we made progress as described on the page, and we'll continue in order to complete the 14 million share buyback for the full year.

Next, Page 3 shows the results by segment. The left table illustrates that