Hello, everyone. I am Group CEO Kusumi of Panasonic Holdings. Thank you very much indeed for joining us, and despite the very short notice. On the 1st of April, we have explained the group strategy. Last fiscal year and this fiscal year, those two years are the years that we focus on the enhancement of the competitiveness. This is the second year, and we talked about the fact that we need to further enhance our management based on the autonomous management. In order to accelerate the enhancement of the competitiveness based on the autonomous management, we have decided to prepare for the stock exchange listing of the supply chain management business to accelerate the enhancement of the competitiveness based on the autonomous management. Toward the ideal society with affluence, both in matter and mind, Panasonic Group is turning the two wheels of optimum strategy and operational capability and trying to make contributions in each sector. We generate cash by enhancing the competitiveness of each business, and we invest those cash into our future growth. We talked on the 1st of April that strategic investment would be made for the growing area as a group. What is important is to try to grasp the gap between the future we aim for and the current status of each business and deal with the changes. Each business, toward the future we aim for, have set their targets based on the backcasting, starting with the social innovation and contribution that each business should create. We would enhance the competitiveness with the two wheels of the strategy and operational capability. By realizing the contribution to the society and customers, we will receive cash, and we use that cash for the growth investment and have this cycle continuously so that we can get closer to the future we aim for. When the rapid market changes occur or the competitive environment changes, sometimes we cannot manage within the autonomous growth. For those situations, we need to promote the inorganic growth, which goes beyond the operating company's investment capabilities. That is when the group strategic investment and use of the external fund becomes important so the holding company will implement this utilization of the fund strategically. Based on the autonomous management and also the strategy of each business, we need to understand the position of each business from the long-term view and try to discern the probability as well as the changing environment and try to increase the probability of the success. Since October, we unofficially started the operating company system and each business has been trying to sharpen their strategy. We have clarified our growth strategy so that we can make quick and major contributions. One of the major ones is the supply chain management business. We are trying to eliminate the wastefulness and stagnation of the supply chain and lower the environmental burden by reducing energy consumption. Now, due to the geopolitical risks and the spread of COVID-19, we see the acceleration of the digital transformation of the companies, and also the consumers' behaviors are changing. We see the rapid change of the environment of the supply chain management business, and supply chain itself is becoming more complex, and the demand for the solution is expanding. We see the expanded mobility of the software, human resources, and also the competitors are actively investing in this area. Another is the shift to cloud technologies. The advantages of the cloud-based solution are the flexibility and the speed and the low cost. However, the ratio of the cloud migration stays still at 10% or so in this industry. In order to take advantage of this business opportunity, we need to make the speedy investment so that we can expand our area of contribution. We have decided to prepare for the stock exchange listing utilizing capital markets so that we can accelerate the global growth. Now, let me talk about the aim of the stock exchange listing. Our way of thinking stays the same. Each operating company will try to grow based upon the changes happening, and the group capital policies would be selected flexibly. One of the aims of this effort is so that the business that requires disruptive growth can quickly gain unrivaled competitiveness and to place this business as a group pillar. For that, we will hold the majority of the voting rights. By having the proper evaluation of the enterprise value for the Panasonic Holdings shareholders, we can generate the appropriate level of the values that are expected. To realize the group-wide growth exceeding the market expectations, we will try to make the larger contribution to the society and to the customer. Later, Mr. Higuchi, CEO of Panasonic Connect, will talk about the growth strategy of the supply chain management. Over to you, Mr. Higuchi. Thank you. I am Higuchi, CEO of Panasonic Connect. Thank you very much for joining us. As Mr. Kusumi said, I will talk about the growth strategy of the supply chain management business. Before I do so, I'd like to talk about the strategy of Panasonic Connect itself. On the briefing of April 4th, I have been touching upon the Panasonic Connect. Panasonic Connect is now going to be working on the growth business and core business. I would like to recap what we meant. On the right-hand side, you see the core businesses, which is based on the hardware businesses. In the last five years, the predecessor CNS company has been in charge of this business, but we have prioritized their businesses to focus on the sustainable, high-profitable companies. Therefore, we are to focus on the four businesses. We decided on that. On the contrary, we're not going to be no longer working on other hardware businesses. We are going to be aiming for organic growth in this area. The left-hand side indicates the growth businesses. This is a software solution-based business, and it is on white space. We have white space, so with great sense of speed, we would like to invest aggressively by expecting high profit and high growth. The growth business, which is centered around Blue Yonder, what I feel working with the Blue Yonder is that this business industry is changing so fast. Therefore, the management must make a very speedy determination. On the contrary, if we are able to make timely and correct decisions on our business, on the cloud-based SaaS business, we will be able to grow our businesses largely, and we will be able to enhance corporate value. Blue Yonder is very strong in technology capability and has a wide customer base IP requiring rate. Therefore, with this good position, centering Blue Yonder, we will be providing and defining the optimal unit of the SCM businesses. By that, we would like to start discussing stock exchange listing by realizing autonomous management to accelerate both management speed and synergy with Panasonic. As stock exchange listing unit, Blue Yonder is going to be the center. For Panasonic Connect, the Gemba Solution Company, which is in close relationship, and also the technology R&D research and development division, will be the scope where we're going to be discussing to maximize the value of the SCM business and the best optimal scope. This slide indicates why there is a great opportunity of growth in the supply chain management businesses. The first, starting from the artificial intelligence and machine learning, utilizing that to optimize the measure to optimize the end-to-end. The measure is becoming ever sophisticated, and at the same time, the need is ever growing. The right-hand side is the Gartner data, and the growth until 2026 is 14% by CAGR. In terms of the right-hand side, the SaaS and recurring, in that sense, compared to other IT solutions, the on-premise ratio is still high. Therefore, there's great room to grow. A large amount of investment is influxing because each company is aiming for business opportunity, meaning that we must run swiftly and agilely. Another important thing is, in order to optimize sophisticated supply chain, we must answer to individual needs of the modern supply chain, such as delivering to independent needs upon customized order, a short lifecycle product with a very limited time of lead time based on real-time information. This is the change that we need to have solution-wise. We have to be answering to the sophisticated needs. Further on, we must expand to the supply chain management market in the mid to long term. Panasonic Connect is going to be aiming for autonomous supply chain and to accelerate our growth strategy. To that, the integrated SCM platform, Luminate Control Tower, the E2E platform that Blue Yonder owns, and our sensing technology, robotics technology, and the AI computing that both companies are working on should be multiplied and combined in order to optimize overall supply chain, not just optimizing in manufacturing, delivering, and selling. By the realization of autonomous supply chain, we will provide one and only solution that other computing company who only works in software will not be able to follow. By this, we will be in an overwhelmingly advantageous position. What we do as an initiative, the strengthening of R&D and aggressively execute the M&A investment in order to strengthen the competitiveness of Blue Yonder further, and we'll expand the SaaS business in Europe and US market. With the technological capability of Panasonic Group, we will be linking on-site data and to have the SaaS have high value-add, specifically the sensing technology and the industrial engineering that we have been cumulating based on the manufacturing and the high accurate on-site data, which is good for solutions at the on-site. We will be integrating the Blue Yonder SaaS platform and to provide real-time execution instruction. We will be structuring the feedback loop. In order to do that, along with Blue Yonder, we will be introducing these to Panasonic Groups and also to Japanese customers. Through various experiences, we will be refining our solutions through Blue Yonder solution to aim for horizontal expansion and to create larger scale. The white space for Blue Yonder in Japan market, we will be utilizing our brand capability and our customer base of the group, and SaaS solution will be further expanded. For R&D and M&A investment, we are going to be strengthening within these areas that we indicate. On top of those two, those two are about software, what we need to do regarding Blue Yonder R&D investment. We will be responding to expand the multiple microservices to respond flexibly to the needs of the customers and to provide microservices, which will be the embedded type. We will be working on the last one mile for the end users' e-commerce services that the needs are heightening. We will be enhancing on the accuracy of the information network, supply chain network. We will also work on Luminate, which is an E2E SCM platform, and maintain our competitive force and will be linking automatic coordination between device and the machines. Also having in feedback and to enhance the development for the execution function and by AI, machine learning, deep learning, we will be remarkably increasing the betterment of the quality and the quantity of the data by developing the software. That was about the explanation about our growth strategy within the supply chain management business. Thank you. From Nikkei, we have Naganawa-san. Thank you. I am Naganawa from Nikkei. I hope you can hear me. Yes. Thank you. You have started to prepare for the stock exchange listing. I have two major questions. First, when do you plan to do this? Do you have any target in terms of the timeline? Naganawa-san, thank you very much for your support. This is something that we would need to take time to consider. Also, we need to get the approval for that. Right now, it is not possible to say when we are going to do this. The speed, I think, is necessary. From our perspective, as soon as possible, we would like to realize this. Thank you. Another question about the size of the new company in terms of sales and profit. Also, how much of the capital or market cap or the size of the fund do you expect to get from the market? Concerning that, what is the range of this company to be listed? This is something that we will consider from now. As Mr. Higuchi said, the optimum way is something that we want to pursue. Depending on which way, it will change. I hope you understand that. Although those are not yet decided, we are making this announcement because in order to promote the coming processes, there are some legal risks or some information coming from your side. It is possible that there could be some articles written about this. We wanted to announce that we have decided to make the preparation for this stock exchange listing today. Thank you for your answers. Next question, Newspeaks, Hirokazu, please. Hirokazu from Newspeak. Am I audible? Yes. My first question, I would like to confirm my question. What you have explained today, in the short term, the free cash flow could be in the negative, but you're going to be making an investment earlier. You're going to be having the free cash flow regained afterwards. That's one. Second is, is it going to be a funding by utilizing debt or utilizing the equity finance? Upon that, the determination, did you learn something from the past to make this decision? With the past learning, you have made some. If you were making such decisions, I would like to know about your thought process, please. Thank you very much for your question, Hirokazu. As you mentioned, the free cash flow will be maximized. This is based on our midterm strategy. We would like to make a bigger, larger growth. That is one of our targets. Including this, it is linked with your second question too. I will answer in conjunction. For the capital policy, we are not going to be limited in one. If so, we are going to be lagging behind our competitors. Therefore, anything that we feel we need to do, we will be accelerating the investment, and we should be flexible about this decision. With that from Connect, Connect has been giving us the request in order to do so. The holdings has been discussing this idea for a long time. Therefore, we came to this answer. I would like you to understand that. My second comment, I would like to ask you, Mr. Higuchi, is it about the funding as I explained? Am I correct? What was your question again, please? As CEO Kusumi mentioned regarding the funding, when you are thinking about how you are going to be acquiring funding, you are probably utilizing not the debt, but the internal finance, but utilizing equity in order to gain the finance. What are the risks and the speed that you are considering? Regarding that, this being the first selection, I would like to know the logics, how you came to this decision. Regarding the finance strategy, this is the matter for the whole group. Therefore, as Group CEO mentioned, it is just as he said, but me being the CEO of this company, the software cloud-based SaaS business really requires timeliness and speed for investment. On the other hand, we have to be thinking about the synergy for Panasonic too. Therefore, this is a policy to realize both. For your information, the software system, Blue Yonder, it does not need the investment, capital investment. What are you going to be investing in? Is it going to be labor, human talent, or development? What are the budget is going to be referred to? All that you have mentioned is going to be the subject of our investment. The software is going to be connecting dot to dot to create a more higher value. Within the supply chain, there are various components. This company has various components already fixed. There could be some missing area. Therefore, the tug-in investment or bolt-in investment will be used in order to complement. As a complete SaaS vendor, in order to be successful, we must improve the software even more. The native SaaS, the SaaS complete, and microservicing making and various small standardized modules will be created. Those are something that we intend to do too. AI, machine learning, human talent is very scarce there. Therefore, we need to secure and create talented engineers. Therefore, we are going to be investing in all of the things that you have mentioned. Thank you. Last of all, the free cash flow could be within the negatives within the short term. What kind of a decision-making could be happening in the future? I have been saying this in the past too. I think your interest is about 468 millimeters diameter for Tesla. I think you have that in high interest. First of all, we're going to be having competitiveness and trying to look into the feasibility and to verify whether we have the competitiveness at the Wakayama plant. Based on that, we have to be thinking about what kind of a policy needed. Even having said that, we need to have speed. Therefore, at this point, we're not going to be having anything decided about having in stock exchange listing in the same way at this point. Maybe we could be heading in that direction too in order to think and secure competitiveness. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next, Hatanaka-san from Yomiuri Shimbun. Yes, this is Hatanaka of Yomiuri Shimbun. Thank you very much. I hope you can hear me. Yes. I have a question to Mr. Kusumi and Mr. Higuchi. First of all, to Mr. Kusumi, acquisition of the Blue Yonder and the completion, I think, was in September last year. It has been six months or more. Making this decision this time, I think it is very fast. The reason and the background behind this, could you explain that once again? Yes. First of all, this industry, the movement is much more active now. When that is the case, should we invest in Blue Yonder? That is not the case. That means that, as Mr. Higuchi explained, Blue Yonder acquisition, that decision, actually, as Higuchi said, sensing technology and other technologies, by combining them, we can get the unique solution. That was a kind of a dream. We need to accelerate that. That is the situation. If that is the case, clearly saying that it's not just the Blue Yonder, but the teams that are working on this, by combining them in optimum way, we want to sharpen and specialize. We want to make sure that we can do that. For that, investments, as Higuchi mentioned, M&A, development investment, and very talented engineers are much needed. We have to provide incentives for them so that we can attract them. We have to do all of them speedily. We wanted to show, announce to the world that is what we are going to do and make a commitment to do so. The speed, whether this is fast enough, I don't know. Maybe we need to accelerate further. That is our understanding. Thank you very much. Related question earlier about you said that you would hold and maintain the majority voting rights. Roughly speaking, could you elaborate on that as much as you can? We are not talking about that. What we have decided is that we would have the majority in terms of the voting rights. Thank you. I understand. Question to Mr. Higuchi. This time, the proceeds, where do you want to invest? You mentioned the missing parts, and you want to fill in the gap. Where are the missing parts? Or what are the missing parts? I talked about the missing parts or modules. Most recently, what we have acquired is the order management metrics. Aside from that, in commerce, or last mile or last one mile, and supply chain network, those are the areas of missing parts. I should not really elaborate. I would be giving out all the secrets. The investments that we will be making, that will be decided at the corporate level so that we can make the appropriate investments where necessary. Thank you very much. We're very sorry, but due to the time constraint, I can only entertain one person, one question. From Kyoto, Watanabe-san, please. Watanabe with Kyoto, can you hear me? Yes. I would like to make a confirmation. I understand that you're not going to be stock exchanging listing of the Connect Company, but Blue Yonder is also going to be included within the value of the stock exchange listing? Blue Yonder is included. However, it is not just a single Blue Yonder. It is going to be Blue Yonder plus Alpha. I would like you to understand like that. Thank you very much. Very well understood. Thank you. With that. That's all the questions that we are taking from the journalists. Next, we take questions from the institutional investors and analysts. We are only taking questions in Japanese. From Citigroup Global Markets, Ezawa-san. Thank you. This is Ezawa speaking. Thank you very much. I have two questions. First, about the listing market. You have not yet decided which market, the Blue Yonder, the origination, and you want to attract engineers, and you want to do the global business. Based on those, outside of Japan, listing in the outside of Japan probably should be the priority. Is that the possibility that you are thinking about? That's my first question. Yes. Of course, we are not saying there is no possibility whether to do the listing in Japan or US. All of them are possible. Thank you. Second question. Now, this is the briefing session, which was called very all of a sudden. I'd like to ask a question to Mr. Kusumi. The information leaks or news leaks and some speculation before those things happening. Mr. Kusumi, you wanted to make the announcement as a company. And as a preparation, you have not yet completed the preparation, but you decided to announce that you are making preparations. That's what you said. Until now, based upon the pattern of Panasonic, I think this is something new, a new way of making an announcement. Now, maybe with the new president, making announcement like this and decision-making and sharing the decisions, kind of a basic way of thinking about those. Do you think that you have made changes? What do you think of these changes? If you can share with us anything about your thoughts. I don't know how to answer that question, but it is true that after thorough preparation, we had the communication. Maybe that's what we did in the past. I think that we have made a commitment or we made the decision, and that would make it easier to communicate. We want you to know this. Also, in order to make the detailed research and discussion, we have to have the knowledge and the wisdom of different people. If you keep this secret, we cannot make progress and get the ideas from others. In order to expedite it, we decided to make this announcement earlier than later. This is not really based on the changes from the past. Thank you very much. Thank you. From Goldman Sachs Securities, Harada-san, please. This is Harada from Goldman Sachs Securities. Can you hear me? Yes. Two questions. My first one, the capital structure is not fully defined yet, as you say, but the aim for becoming stock exchange listed. If you need investment, the proceeds are needed, and maybe you are going to be gaining the funding from the stock exchange market. Are you going to be increasing the capital? Is that so? Else, as Panasonic Holdings, you could be selling some asset, and that will be your gain. That gain will be invested to Connect. Is that your policy? How are you going to be gaining the proceeds from the market, and how are you going to be utilizing these funds? I would like to know the philosophy, please. I would like to explain. O n October 1st, we have been transitioning to the new structure, and a strategy was formed anew. Each of the operating companies has different speed and focuses, and the financial needs are very much varied. That has been very clear. Within such condition, the Connect and Blue Yonder plus Alpha is going to be working for the stock exchange listing. In order to do so, the needs of the world are now focused to the area. Utilizing the capital markets capability, we would like to swiftly work so that the Connect will be able to work in that area. That is why we took on with the policy. Therefore, each of the operational companies, the operation format, and along with the speed, each operating company will be working on its own with the holding and the company. I would like you to understand in that way. When you are thinking about the listing, are you going to be issuing a new stock? Is that something that you have in consideration? With the reason that we have announced, we came to make an announcement today. Within the Securities Act, there are some rules. Therefore, regarding the listing, the format is not decided yet. Therefore, it is not appropriate for me to make any comments. I will not make any comments on that. Thank you very much. Another question. You mentioned about the speed being very important, but on the other hand, you say that you're going to be maintaining the majority. Therefore, this is something that could be offsetting each other. Even if you do not have maintaining of the majority, you can just hold 20%, 30%, and to have a consolidation of the business. However, now you are focused very much on the holding of the majority. Why is that? Please tell me. This is a very simple issue. The supply chain management solution businesses is one of the core of Panasonic Holdings. Therefore, the 20%, 30%, it is going to be a minority, so it is no longer a core. Therefore, we have made such decision. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Next, from Nomura Securities, we have Okazaki-san. This is Okazaki of Nomura Securities. I hope you can hear me. Yes? Thank you. First question about this listing, you expect some benefits. Panasonic Connect started in April. In terms of the management structure, how would it change? Blue Yonder plus Alpha will be excluded from Panasonic Connect. It is kind of in between. How do you position the Connect and Blue Yonder plus Alpha? Do you think that Mr. Higuchi will be managing that? Okazaki-san, thank you very much for your questions. Right now, the environment surrounding software, especially the cloud-based software, how can I say this? Based on the needs of the management, this is something that we started to look into. This comes from the software business and within the Connect, the growing business. That is how it is positioned. The hardware business, Organic Group, and that is within the Panasonic Group, it will be continued. As for the Gemba innovation of the customers, for that vision and purpose, hardware, software, and cyber physical in five to ten years, the dots will be connected, and there will be a lot of synergies. That is what I think. In the past three years or so, or in coming three years, rather, there is a high need that the software has to be utilized. When you consider seven years, ten years, the synergy effect, and that is something that, of course, we will pursue. As a Connect, we will be managing. We will continue to manage it as a Connect. Whether I will be leading that or not, that is not something that I will decide. Thank you. My second question. Now, there are different cases, the parent and the child company listing. I think there are many issues pointed out. From the corporate governance perspective, what are the things that you're trying to keep in mind? The parent-child listing, there could be a risk of the conflict of interest. Based on the listing rules, we make sure that we build the appropriate governance structure. That's what we will do. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We're very sorry, but now, due to the interest of time, I will limit only one person. One question, please. Yasui-san from UBS Securities, please. Yasui from UBS Securities, thank you. My question is, in the final end, are you going to be going on to the non-consolidation? Does that scenario exist? because I think there's going to be a high profitability through M&A. Merger and acquisition is something indispensable. Therefore, when you're going to be working on Connect with a larger merger and acquisition, maybe the funding or the majority will not be maintained by Panasonic Holdings. At the very final end, are there any determination or strategy that you could go non-consolidation? What is the strategy? I would like an answer from both CEO, Mr. Kusumi, and CEO, Mr. Higuchi. As you say, what we aim is service and Workday and Salesforce, Office, and anything that is workable for a cloud. We would like to go into the dominance. In supply, within the supply chain, come to think of it, right now, at this point, we are not assuming a very large, gigantic merger and acquisition. However, the investment money is coming in, influxing in, in a large way. Therefore, right now, we are seeing a hike in everything in a very short timing. Therefore, we need to be fast. To start off from the portfolio that only sold one product, going on to software and recurring in the portfolio, strategic-wise, it was important. Right now, we have not thought about non-consolidated to that point. I, too, do not have any idea of non-consolidation right now. The merger and acquisition listing and the candidates, thinking of that, there is no such idea currently. However, maybe in the long run, like five years ahead, ten years ahead, software industry will be changing ever. Therefore, in the future, there could be some incidents. As such, we have to think of every possibility. Basically, we need to think that the supply chain management of businesses that we own, it has to be the world's best solutions for the customers. In order to maintain that position, what we need to do, or else the employees working in this best company, what we need to do is something that we need to backcast. I think we should start from that level. Are you okay? Thank you very much. It is time. We would like to end today's briefing session. Thank you very much for your participation.