All investors, thank you for waiting. Thank you very much for joining the Financial Reporting Conference for the second quarter of FI 2025 of Daiwa Securities Group. It is time, so let us begin. Thank you very much for joining our conference conference call. Today, our CFO, Yoshida, Executive Director and the CFO, is presenting. I am Nakamura of IR Division, serving as a facilitator. Our CFO will start with the presentation today. Following that, we will take questions. Please be also reminded that this call is arranged accessible for general investors via the internet. Let us start. Hello, everyone. I am Yoshida of Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedules to join our conference call today. I would like to explain the financial result for the Q2 of Fiscal 2025 following the presentation materials posted on our corporate website. Let me start from page four. A summary of our consolidated financial results. All percentage changes refer to comparisons with the Q1 results. For the Q2, net operating revenues were JPY 172.6 billion, an increase of 11.2%, and ordinary income was JPY 54.1 billion, up 24%. In addition to an increase in revenues from stock-related assets, growth in floor revenues led to higher overall revenues and income. Base income also expanded significantly. In the Wealth Management Division, enhanced comprehensive asset consulting contributed to stronger sales across a wide range of products. As a result, ordinary income in the Wealth Management reached its highest level since the third quarter of Fiscal 2013. In the Securities Asset Management and the Real Estate Asset Management, AUM continued to grow, while the Alternative Asset Management business generated a loss. The global market and the investment banking business showed a strong recovery. In global markets, equity revenues increased in line with higher customer order flows, while in global investment banking, domestic M&A-related revenues reached a record high, and equity underwriting also performed well. Net income attributable to owners of the parent was JPY 47.7 billion, up 52.8%, and the annualized ROE was 11.6%. Interim dividend is JPY 29, record high, and the payout ratio is 51.4%. Page 8 shows the trend in consolidated ordinary income and base profit. Base profit was JPY 78.1 billion, up 23.7% year on year, outpacing the final year target of JPY 150 billion set in a midterm plan. Please turn to page 11 for the income statement. Commission received in total was JPY 118.3 billion, an increase of 17.8%. The breakdown is shown on page 24. Brokerage commission was JPY 26.9 billion, up 27.5%. Underwriting commission was JPY 10.8 billion, up 21.7%. Distribution commission totaled JPY 6.2 billion, up 31.8%. M&A-related fees were JPY 13.8 billion, up 23.5%. In addition, we recorded a special gain resulting from the partial monetization of Tokiwabashi Tower. Please turn to page 12 for SG&A. SG&A were JPY 122.7 billion, an increase of 3.1%. Trading-related expenses rose due to higher fees paid. Personnel expenses increased as a result of wage hikes and higher performance-linked policies. Please turn to page 14. Here, I will explain the ordinary income and loss from our overseas businesses. Total ordinary income from overseas operations was JPY 7.6 billion, up 99.8% Q on Q. In Europe, profitability improved in the M&A business. In Asia and Oceania, profits decreased due to a decline in equity method investment income. In the Americas, profit increased driven by strong performance in the M&A business. Now, let me walk you through the results by segment. On page 15 is the results of the Wealth Management Division. Net operating revenues were JPY 74.6 billion, up 18.7%, and ordinary income was JPY 29.5 billion, up 49.8%. With the progress in comprehensive asset consulting product sales and the solution offerings tailored to client needs expanded. Supported by favorable equity market conditions, both equity revenues and investment trust distribution commissions increased. Agency fees for investment trust and RAP-related revenues also grew, bringing balance-based revenues to a record high level of JPY 29.9 billion. The ratio of balance-based revenues to fixed costs in the Wealth Management Business stood at 109.8%, and the ratio to total expenses was 72.7%. At Daiwa Next Bank, yen deposit balance increased, leading to higher revenues and profits. Please turn to page 16. This page shows the status of product offerings and the sales at domestic wealth management, along with highlights for the quarter. For RAP account services, the contract amount reached JPY 258.9 billion, and net increase expanded to JPY 146.6 billion. Total RAP asset under contract hit a record high of JPY 5.3026 trillion. For equity investment trust, sales totaled JPY 481.8 billion, with net inflows of JPY 130.8 billion. Through comprehensive asset consulting, we successfully captured the needs of clients seeking diversified investments and sound portfolio management. We offered a wide range of products, including the Invesco World Best Equity Open and Daiwa Blackstone Private Credit Fund. The bottom left chart shows the trends in net inflows for RAP account and equity investment trusts. Please turn to page 17 for the status of Daiwa Next Bank. Net interest income was JPY 11.1 billion, up 15.3%, and ordinary income was JPY 5.7 billion, up 30.9%. Measures such as interest rate hike on one-year time deposit for retail customers proved effective, resulting in a JPY 419.9 billion increase in yen deposit, which exceeded JPY 4 trillion in total. Foreign currency deposits also had net inflows, mainly in US dollars, surpassing JPY 700 billion. Please turn to page 18. I will now explain about the Asset Management Division. Starting with Securities Asset Management. Net operating revenue was JPY 17.1 billion, up 12.9%, and ordinary income was JPY 8.4 billion, up 13%. Daiwa Asset Management secured a net inflow of JPY 158.6 billion in publicly offered equity investment trusts, excluding ETFs. Driven by increase in both net inflows as well as AUM due to rising stock prices, both revenue and income increased. Please see page 19. Next, we will look at Asset Management. Net operating revenue was JPY 8 billion, down 16.8%. Ordinary income was JPY 5.9 billion, down 14.9%. Assets under management reached JPY 1.7 trillion, driven by the expansion of private fund business of Daiwa Real Estate Asset Management. Equity method investment income from some of the holdings increased. On the other hand, revenue declined due to the absence of gains from sales of properties at Daiwa Securities Realty recorded in the previous quarter. Please turn to page 20. I will now explain the Alternative Asset Management. Net operating revenue was down JPY 0.2 billion, and ordinary income was JPY 2.3 billion. While recognizing capital gains from exits from certain private equity investments, we recognize provisions and impairment of some portfolio companies related to renewable energy. Please continue to page 21. Lastly, I would like to explain the Global Markets and Investment Banking Division. In Global Markets, net operating revenue was JPY 39.2 billion, up 20.7%. Ordinary income was JPY 8.4 billion, up 218.8%. Japanese equities saw an increase in flows from overseas investors on the back of a strong stock market trend since July and the recovery in flows from retail investors. With regards to foreign equities, retail investors' activities increased with a strong stock price performance of AI names. Due to the increase in customer flows, proprietary trading positions performed well. In FICC, client activities remained at a high level, both from wealth management clients as well as institutional investors, on the back of the rise in domestic interest rates. Domestic and global credit saw solid client flows. Derivatives maintained high levels. In overseas, client flow increased as interest rates declined. Please turn to page 22. I'd like to explain the Global Investment Banking. Net operating revenue was JPY 21.6 billion, up 24.3%. Ordinary income was JPY 6 billion, up 573.8%. Equity underwriting revenue increased by accumulation over multiple lead underwriter mandates. In M&A, domestic M&A revenues hit record high, and global M&A turned into profitability. This completes an explanation of the financial results for the second quarter of FY 2025. In this quarter, both revenues and income increased, driven by growth both in asset-based and transaction-based revenues, with uncertainty around Trump tariffs cleared away. In wealth management in particular, total asset consulting activities became more known, net increase in RAP account service and equity investment trust accelerated. Furthermore, AUM-based revenue, transaction-based revenue, and asset inflows all increased quarter on quarter. Ordinary income of wealth management grew by 50% quarter on quarter, which I evaluate was the result of our steady efforts in improving both quality and quantity of sales activities, even during the uncertain times in the first quarter. Steady growth in base income contributed to more stability of our income structure by capturing big waves from savings to investment and promoting Japan as a leading asset management center. In global markets, both Japanese and foreign equities saw more active client flows, and FICC is on the recovery trend from the last quarter when FICC struggled. In global investment banking, domestic M&A business stayed strong, and global M&A is on the recovery trend. Third quarter has started, and we continue to see high levels from savings to investment trend and strong needs from customers. Wealth management is seeing a strong level being sustained from Q2. In market divisions, transactions of institutional and retail investors remain active. In investment banking, corporate actions and M&A needs remain high, leading to strong pipeline being built up. We would like to address each client's needs flexibly, capture changes in the market appropriately, and aim at achieving a sustainable growth as a company leading the financial capital market. I ask for your continued support. Thank you very much. This completes my explanation. Now, I would like to move to the Q&A session. For today's meeting, we have the simultaneous transition, so you can ask questions in English as well. For both Japanese questions and English questions, please press asterisk one. If you would like to cancel your question, please press asterisk two. For the Q&A session, we would like to receive questions in Japanese first, followed by questions in English. When your name is called, please start your question. Now, line is open for your questions. The first question is from SMBC Nikko. Muraki-san, please. Muraki-san, over to you. This is Muraki of SMBC. I have two questions. One. On page 21, Global Markets. Looking at the graph, equity performs well, and fixed income is on the recovery, but seems to be relatively slow. What do you see in this quarter and also the outlook for the next quarter? That is the first question. The second question is on page 20. When you are talking about the renewable energy in Europe for the last fiscal year, it generated losses. For the current fiscal term, for energy income, you have about JPY 7 billion of the recognition to the recognition of loss. For the other companies like ORIX or the Fuyo Sogo Lease, I think their income statement is becoming worse, but I want to speak about the environment of making an investment in those capitals and also what is your outlook for the third quarter and beyond. Are there going to be any additional spending that you need to plan? Muraki-san, thank you very much for your questions. Regarding the global markets, first of all, the equity side had a lot of contribution coming from the Japanese equity. Compared to the first quarter, it was going quite well. When it comes to the transaction volume from the overseas investors compared to the first quarter, it was up by 30% or so. For the domestic, sorry, the retail investors for the domestic transactions, it was up by about 30%. For the retail investors' transaction for the foreign. Equities, that made a contribution to the income and the revenues too, but I think the Japanese equity transaction and the Japanese investors' demand for the overseas equity were quite high, so the equity market was quite active. Plus, the Crosshair Holdings side did order by using the proprietary accounts. That demand has been increasing, so by seizing those opportunities, I think we'll be able to accumulate the result, and those were the factors. For FICC, compared to the past, we are making a recovery, but when we look overall, still, it's not a satisfactory level. Investors are diversifying. The retail investors are coming in, and also the other non-Japanese investors are becoming much more active in the transaction in the world where we have the interest rate on the positive side. The position control has been much more settled compared to the volatile market we experienced in the first quarter, but I think the situation is quite favorable. Having said that, there are many products, credits, derivatives, alternatives. The wide range of products are available right now. Continuously, we want to be working upon making a recovery as much as we can. Then the second question about the alternative, the alternative assets. The alternative asset management for the current quarter, the same one for the domestic PE exit and the Daiwa Energy Infra. Europe, the solar power, renewable energy related was reevaluated. In Europe, there are some developments and the financing cost associated with the development, and the energy-related cost has been worsened compared to the original stage. We need to record the provisions and impairment losses due to the reevaluation of the certain investments. The outlook for the future, the impairment loss and asset under the impairment losses, there are some of them, and the book value is going to be about JPY 10 billion after the impairment, but those assets, the reevaluation has been done fairly, so the further provision for the impairment is unlikely, but we will continue monitoring the situation. Did I answer your questions? Yes, thank you so much. In October, I think you just made the comment about the October, but wealth management, I think you were basically in par with the last quarter, but the market revenue, I think it's about the same level as the last quarter too, if I understood correctly. Am I right? The situation hasn't changed. We just spent only one month since the current quarter has started, but for the wealth management, it's still active, I guess. The second quarter was good, and I think that situation is continuing. The month of October for the markets, the equity market. In October, the October 22nd, I guess, when we had the new prime minister. Before the assignment of the new prime minister, nobody knew about how the regime is going to be formed, so there was still an uncertainty. At that time period, for one week or two weeks, the movement by the investors was relatively slow, but after the official announcement of the regime in the total of the month of October, the investor flow was gaining its activity. Because of what we had experienced in the first two weeks of that month of October, it was probably hard for us to generalize the view for the month of October. Okay, understood. Thank you. Muraki, thank you so much. Next questions are from BofA Securities. Tsujino-san, please go ahead. My first question is on the season in October, as you just talked about. For equities, the transaction amount of retail investors in October for three weeks so far. There is always a time lag of about a week, but looking at three weeks so far in October, compared to the average of the second quarter, is the transaction value up by about 15%? I think so. And compared to September, the amount of transaction amount of retail investors seemed quite high. On the other hand, listening to your explanation, on the Q1Q basis, for equities, the amount of flows from retail investors, you said, increased by as much as 30%, which is much higher compared to the market average. Market average was around 16% increase. Because of your outperformance against the market, continuously, you performed very well in Q1. That is why, because of the reactionary change from that and also the new administration, the level of the client flows from retail investors was about the same as second quarter or as September. Am I right? Because the amount of transactions for retail investors of your company seemed a little bit different from the market trend, would you please explain? My second question, sale of properties. How much more is remaining? That is one. And the second, compared to last year, alternative AM exit capital gains are down. But for the securities AM, all in all, your performance is better year on year. In this environment, what is the background reason why you decided to recognize the big capital gain from the sale of the property? Thank you so much. First, with regards to the performance of the wealth management division in Q2, looking at the transaction amount, Q on Q for Japanese equities, it is up by 30%. Foreign equities up around 20%. And sales of investment trusts, please go to page. Sorry. The sales are up by more than 30%, and the amount of fund-rupt sales increased by more than 30%. In comparison to the market transaction level, I did not really look at our performance vis-à-vis the market, but all in all, we have seen the expansion of the client flows and also the transaction-based revenue as well. Also, we were able to capture the capital inflow from investors. So AUM-based and the transaction-based and the capital inflow increased by 70% Q1Q for three important divisions in particular. For three important KPIs in particular. That is why we performed very well in Q2. This strong momentum is still continuing in October. We would like to do our best so that we can keep the pace going forward. However, we do not think it is all attributable to our own efforts in Q2 for the strong performance. I think it is a result of the activities in the previous quarter and the dialogues, communication we had with clients. That is why we performed very well in Q2 on the back of the improvement of the business environment. When there was a confusion in the market because of the Trump tariff, I may have addressed this in the previous call, but even during the uncertain times, we continued communication with clients, and we continued face-to-face communication. The amount of activities increased by as much as 20%. In Q1, we were very busy. Because we were able to have strong total communication with customers in Q1, that is why we are seeing that strong performance in Q2. It is not because of the market transaction volume increase on TSC. For the Tokiwabashi Tower sale, we looked at capital efficiency and asset efficiency. We decided to realize unrealized gains. Also, as a trade-off, we looked at the stability of income. From those perspectives, we decided to sell this time. Why now? Because of the circumstance of the buyer, our counterparty. We cannot just sell immediately. We need time. We made many considerations, and the timing of sale just coincidentally fell into the second quarter. How much more is remaining to that question? We do not disclose. We apologize. Continuously, we would like to look at capital efficiency, asset efficiency. I would like to continue to review. Tsujino-san, thank you for your questions. Next question is from Sasaki-san of Nomura Securities. This is Sasaki of Nomura. I have two questions. One is about page 11, Tokiwabashi Tower. You are partially monetizing that asset. When we look at the result of the first half, the ordinary income was down, and the ordinary profit was up, and then you had a slight increase. That is, the dividend has slightly increased. It looked quite good as a result of the first half. Do you have an X gain by using that in the second half? Do you think you will be able to at least lock in the profit level as you have generated last year? Is that your outlook? That is the first question. The second question is the pipeline for the investment banking. The equity distribution or IPO. I think the share is yet to make the full recovery. How do you see the pipeline and also the market share? Do you think the market share is coming back? If possible, please provide with me. I do have an impression that you are pretty strong at IPO. After that, for the market cap, if the market cap still. Remains small, then I think the TSC guidance is that the IPO is not going to be allowed. The change or the revision in that policy for the IPO is going to make any changes in the policy for the IPO businesses? That's my second question. Thank you for your questions. In the second half, regarding what's our outlook for the second half, for the current fiscal year, this is the second year of the midterm plan. The next year is going to be the last year, the final year. For JPY 40 billion with the ROE percentage and the JPY 150 billion of the profit, that's what we are trying to achieve for the last year of the midterm plan. Of course, the market impact is going to be having on us, but the equity price and the other factors are not going to be swinging. A profit is something that we'd like to aim at. For the base profit, this time we're in the first half. We have generated about JPY 78 billion. Times two is going to be about JPY 150 billion or more of the amount per annualized level. If that is achieved, then we think we'll be able to hit the midterm plan one year ahead. That is going to be the foundation. Then global markets and investment banking and alternative asset, which is generating a slight loss recently, are going to accumulate the profit. That's our strategy. In order to bring that in reality, we want to make an untiring effort. As I mentioned earlier, at present, because of the Trump tariff and the uncertainty, have been starting to dissipate. Also, there's been some issues seem to be just clearing and things, so we think the tailwind is probably going to be much clearer. Also, a variety of initiatives that we have taken are expected to harvest. The initiatives, meaning that some alliance initiatives, strategies, and actions that we have taken so far. Towards the next year, which is the final year of the three-year midterm plan, we're going to be making an effort. Regarding the pipeline, at present, equity pipeline is basically flattish in terms of the number, and for IPO, it's slightly down. Debt, almost the same as last year. M&A for domestic is about 30% up, YoY, and Americas about 15% up. Europe is slightly down. The domestic corporate actions, we have to look at the equity market performance of today and also the PER improvement because of the immediate expectation. There's been some portfolio revision and the business reorganization. The financing for the growth potential for the company's future, I think those companies are going to be increasing. For now, we see about the same level as the last fiscal year. However, there's some expectation that we'll be able to increase the number for M&A. For IPO, I just said that the number of. The case is slightly declining. Thinking about the expectation for the market cap increase post-IPO, and also, we see the multiple recently has been up among the listed companies. I think those are going to be the tailwind for the companies who are thinking about going public. Whichever the case is, for IPO, to some extent, we have been regarded in the market to some extent. Since last year, there were some stories about the IPO. The companies are thinking about some IPOs, and those companies are increasing in terms of the number of companies. We, as an investment banking, in charge of the investment banking, we tend to think about the large-sized deals, and we have the tendency of going for the larger size. As a company's policy and the capital market, of course, we need to grow big, and the companies need to grow big in terms of the market cap. There are some changes in the revision by TSE, the Tokyo Stock Exchange. However, the policy in line with those policies, we think we're going to be working upon it. Also, we've been using the release of it, and also the PE fund activities have been much more increasing. By seizing the needs of a variety of investors and companies, we want to strategically and tactically take some moves. Did I answer your questions? Regarding my question number one, I'm sorry, I probably did not understand well, but for the net income, in order to, you do have a clear perspective of how to lock in or what to lock in as the net income, right? Also, when you talk with the REIT or the privately placed fund, you're going to make some investment, and then after that, in terms of the fund, can we imagine a story of growing a business in that domain? We have to think from the perspective of returning to shareholders so that we have to always think about increasing our income. Regarding the Tokiwabashi property, for some time ago, we have made some discussion and examination of what to do, so it's not an immediate decision. Regarding the IB-related businesses, just regardless of that, we want to think about the capital efficiency, the fund efficiency, and also unrealized gains. Also, that there is a stable income that we can get from the rent income from the Tokiwabashi, but we want to think by striking the balance between the capital gain and the income gain between the two too. Okay. Thank you very much. Understood. Thank you so much for your questions. Next questions are from JP Morgan Securities. Sato-san, please go ahead. Hi, Sato speaking from JP Morgan Securities. I have two questions. First question is on FICC. As the first person asked you, and you answered the question, but would you please give me more breakdown? Specifically, in the last presentation, on the monthly basis. April, May, June, 25, 40, 35, you mentioned those numbers. In July, it was higher than June, you said. If that's the case, then I thought revenue should increase by double digits, but the revenue increased by only a single digit. Probably, I think the results were off your projections or the momentum slowed down. When you look at monthly trend or breakdown between domestic, global, or government credit, product or by products, was there any difference in the performance? My second question. M&A revenue and income for domestic M&As, your revenue was record high. The remuneration, performance-based remuneration of large deals is in the second quarter, or the fee from a large deal transaction. Is the magnitude that we can ignore in Q2? Thank you so much for your questions. About FICC second quarter trend. On the monthly trend, August was a bit slow for domestic. By country, the United States. I do not have the monthly figures with me now, but I think there was some slowness in August for the U.S. By product, JGB, June quarter, volatility was high. Compared to that, JGB product performed better. Interest increased. We cannot say that JGB product performed strongly. On the other hand, for credit products, both for institutional investors and domestic institutional and retail investors, we saw strong release towards credit products. Although there was some negative impact from the less number of primary deals, all in all, it was high or strong. For M&A. Sato, can I just confirm your second question? A large deal which has been already closed, was there an impact from that? Was that your question? Yes. Simply, the timing of the disclosure or announcement and the timing of recognition of income are not really matching. For the deals closed in July, is it included in the second quarter? Are those large deals pushing up your revenue, or are they not counted in the second quarter, or the magnitude was not large enough, impacting on your momentum significantly? There was some portion from large deals to some extent. We do not think we had many of such deals where the timing of recognition of income was different from the timing of announcement. I think to some extent, the contribution from large deals is included. Understood. Sato-san, thank you very much for your questions. Now, let me remind you again. If you have questions, please chime in by pushing star key followed by one. Next question. Morgan Stanley. Nagasaka-san. Nagasaka-san, please. This is Morgan Stanley, MSG. Nagasaka. I have a question about wealth management. Two questions. At Daiwa Next Bank, you are gaining deposits. In the first half, you explained in earning call that you had the interest rate campaign or the package plan. With the sales and marketing activities, you have acquired the deposits. How are you going to sustain it? Also thinking about the cost for the deposit. Anything to think about it? The second is related to expenses. For the wealth management businesses, you have been covering 100%. How are you going to cost that? You are covering like 70% to the total in the presentation. How are you going to improve it? Those are my two questions. Thank you for your questions. As you say, normally, we did the acquisition of the deposit and also some regional limited campaign or the fund-related interest rate special campaign. With making them as a package, we were able to enjoy a good inflow of deposits to acquire. Daiwa Next Bank had the campaign expenses, of course, to burden, but the large portion is borne by Daiwa Securities. Even with that, expenses, the asset liability has been well balanced and then controlled, leading to an expansion of earnings. Daiwa Next Bank is topping JPY 10 billion of the ordinary income the current fiscal term. They have been enjoying the good results of the deposit expansion and also the world with interest rate. Talking about the foreign reserves, together with the marketing and sales of the non-yen asset, we are trying to acquire the non-yen currency. The diversification of the investment portfolio has been explained very well. When they are disposed, then, of course, the customers who are buying the foreign equity, they will be, of course, using the non-yen deposits. That is going to be making a benefit for the industries and for our income too. The second question about the expenses, the expense coverage. As per necessity, we are controlling expenses. The fixed cost is controlled, so it is not going to overrun or to go too high. We do have a separate charge for fixed expense and then variable expense, and we have a good hand over those expense controls. By controlling the fixed cost, this coverage ratio of the cost should be hiked. That is our strategy. To do so, fund-rep and the deposit, the time deposit, the yen deposit, we want to increase our revenue. The coverage ratio to total expense is over 70%. We want to cover 100% on the total balance-based revenues to fixed cost. The inflation is impacting, so we think the cost may be rising. That has to be kept in mind. Even with that, we want to increase the revenue while controlling the fixed asset so that the ratio of the cost is going to be well controlled. Meaning that the stable income to cover the fixed cost, to increase the flow, to increase in deposit, to increase those three, we are able to grow quite steadily, which was pretty good for the term that we are presenting now. Understood. Thank you so much. Thank you. Nagasaka-san, thank you so much for your questions. Let me repeat. If you have questions, please press asterisk and one. Are there any other questions? Although we have some remaining time, since there are no further questions, we'd like to finish the Q&A session. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for your time in spite of busy schedule. We'd like to do our best to continue to see in the third quarter, so that we can deliver good results again. Looking forward to your support continuously. Once again, thank you so much for joining.