Earth Corporation positions “the return of benefits to shareholders” as an important management issue, and strives to continue stable dividends while securing internal reserves to maintain continuous growth and a robust management structure.
Internal reserves are mainly to be used for strategic investments and M&A to expand overseas operations, R&D and human resources investments to increase non-financial value, renewal of various systems to improve operational efficiency, and capital investments to improve production efficiency, based on the priority themes set out in the new medium-term business plan starting in FY2024. In addition, the company will use the funds for structural reforms aimed at sustainable growth. The company will also continue to consider flexible acquisition of own shares in line with the cash flow situation and share price trends.
To ensure stable and continuous dividends of surplus, we use dividend on equity (DOE) as an indicator, and aim for returns at a ratio of the region of 4%.
To enable flexible returns of benefits to shareholders, in accordance with the provisions of Article 454, Paragraph 5, of the Companies Act, we have provided in the Articles of Incorporation that we may distribute an interim dividend by a resolution of the board of directors, with June 30 of each business year as the record date. However, given the significant difference in performance between the first and second half resulting from the high component ratio of sales for insecticides, which are seasonal products, Earth Corporation only distributes year-end dividends based on operating results for the full year.