Management Greeting

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our shareholders for their continued support.

In FY2024, we are investing additional resources towards the strengthening of our customer-related business focused on “Aozora’s Strategic Investments Business,” which has been performing strongly. As for our FY2024 earnings forecast, we aim to achieve net revenue of 84.0 billion yen and profit attributable to owners of parent of 18.0 billion yen. Our full-year dividend forecast for this fiscal year is 76 yen per share, the same as the actual full-year dividend for the previous year, and we’ll continue our dividend payment on a quarterly basis.

Aozora is primarily focused on investments and loans to finance corporate restructuring and M&A, renewable energy projects and venture firms in “Aozora’s Strategic Investments Business,” which we have been strongly focused upon. These investments and loans are essential for the Japanese economy to recover from a long period of deflation and grow again for the first time in 30 years. However, there are only a limited number of financial institutions with the skills and experience capable of providing these types of financings, and we are confident that Aozora is among them.

Given these conditions, we announced a capital and business alliance with Daiwa Securities Group Inc. on May 13, 2024, and the capital increase through third party allotment under this alliance was completed on July 1, 2024. The alliance will provide us with 51.9 billion yen in capital, which will be invested to further expand our investments and loans in “Aozora’s Strategic Investments Business,” as well as enhanced products and services created through collaboration between a bank and a securities firm. A joint steering committee has been established to explore collaboration opportunities across a wide range of areas, including wealth management, M&A, real estate related business, and support for growing companies.

We will strive to fulfill our stakeholders’ mandate by positioning ourselves to grow beyond the limits of our own through this capital and business alliance and achieving further growth while capturing the growth of the broader Japanese economy under our new management team.

We sincerely ask for your continued understanding and support for the Aozora Group.