In 2010, consolidated net sales increased by 17.0 billion yen to 1.4895 trillion yen. The decline in sales at Asahi Breweries was offset by higher sales in the Food and Soft Drinks Businesses, and we benefited from the full-year contribution of Schweppes Australia in the Overseas Business.

 

Overall operating income increased by 15.2% year-on-year, to 95.3 billion yen, as higher profits in the Soft Drinks, Food and all Overseas Businesses augmented the increase in profits at Asahi Breweries.

 

Net non-operating income declined by 800 million yen, mainly because dividends from Tsingtao Brewery were cancelled out this year due to the application of the equity method.

 

Meanwhile, equity-method income increased 1.3 billion versus the previous fiscal year to 9.8 billion yen. In the previous fiscal year, most of our equity-method income came from China's Tingyi-Asahi Beverages, but this year's results included earnings from Tsingtao Brewery from October 2009 to September 2010.

 

Other non-operating income declined by 2.6 billion yen due to non recurrence of last year's foreign currency translation gains on loans to Schweppes. Overall non-operating net income thus declined by 2.0 billion yen. This cut into the increase in operating income, while ordinary income increased by 10.6 billion yen to 101.1 billion.

 

Net extraordinary income fell by 6.2 billion yen year on year. 32.3 billion yen in extraordinary income from the partial sale of Tingyi-Asahi Beverages shares was offset by extraordinary losses of 19.8 billion yen in conjunction with the decision to close the Nishinomiya Brewery and 13.6 billion yen from impairment of goodwill and other assets. As a result, income before income taxes and minority interests increased by 4.4 billion yen. After subtracting income taxes and minority interests in income, net income totaled 53.1 billion yen, a 5.4 billion yen increase versus the previous fiscal year. This marked our tenth consecutive year of record-high net income.