Message from the CVO and CIOO

AMITA HOLDINGS CO., LTD., held its Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders for the 15th Term on March 26, 2025, in which the appointment of five directors, including the two of us, was approved as proposed. KUMANO Eisuke will serve for another term as Chairman and CVO, and SUETSUGU Takahide as President and CIOO. Both of us are ready to lead the AMITA Group's efforts to achieve its financial targets and lay the groundwork for business expansion going forward. This will complete the transformation of the Group's business portfolio.

During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024 (FY 2024), as part of developing the market for sustainable solutions, the Group was focused on enhancing the value propositions of its products and services, as well as the effectiveness of its sales teams and organizational structure. In the process, we recognized the growing need for greater corporate and community sustainability among businesses and municipalities affected by an increasingly unpredictable global supply chain.

As a result, the Group achieved a year-on-year increase in net sales and operating profit for the year, with an increase in SG&A expenses, including investments in relationship-building initiatives, more than offset by the robust revenue from providing support for corporate and community sustainability. With all this taken into consideration, the Company's year-end dividend rate for FY 2024 has been set at 4.00 yen, unchanged from the initial guidance announced early in 2024. Because the Group made considerable progress in its Groundwork Phase in FY 2024, the Company's guidance on its year-end dividend rate for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2025, is at 5.00 yen. The Company strives to achieve a dividend payout ratio of 30% by the time the Business Expansion Phase is completed in FY 2027.

The year 2025 began with a growing sense of uncertainty and turmoil, partly fueled by the start of the second Trump administration in the United States. While the depletion of natural resources and climate risks have become more pervasive and acute globally, we face some adverse developments, such as the U.S. announcement of withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, and the withdrawal of banks and other financial services firms from the Net Zero Banking Alliance, a global initiative to curb GHG emissions. Furthermore, the shift from multilateral to bilateral trade negotiations and agreements is underway in the global arena. A nagging question on everyone's mind is "What's going on in the world and what will happen next?"

Nevertheless, the Group sees an opportunity in this chaotic and worrisome time. All these recent ominous developments are likely to encourage, or even force, businesses to shift their focus from implementing reactive ESG initiatives, which often leads to constraining their business operations, to pursuing holistic corporate sustainability, which is more likely to offer a good chance of success in increasing their enterprise value.

To capture this opportunity arising from a general shift in priorities across industries, we will expand the scope and scale of our Cyano Project services, which assist businesses in developing circular business models that deliver greater social value. We have announced the building of a state-of-the-art plant for manufacturing circular materials on the premises of our Himeji Circular Materials Plant. When the plant becomes fully operational, it will play a critical role in providing value-added services that make the most of supply chain information to meet the diverse need of businesses for recycling industrial waste, as well as for pursuing sustainable procurement practices.

Moreover, the Group will develop and offer the MEGURU STYLE services to assist municipalities in Japan in achieving sustainable communities. In the ASEAN region, our top priority is to aggressively seek partnerships with local businesses to jointly develop a circular market. Internally, the Group has been transforming its inflexible hierarchical organizational structure into a flatter structure to become more flexible and agile in an increasingly complex and changing business environment.

The successful implementation of these strategic initiatives in FY 2025 will enable us to complete the Groundwork Phase in offering corporate sustainability solutions, and to gain momentum toward becoming a leading player of the circular platform by FY 2030. We would much appreciate it if you would continue to support and work with us in this challenging yet exciting endeavor.