Our first-half sales fell to 651.7 billion yen, down 15.7 billion yen from the previous year result. The addition of Food Business, Soft Drinks Business achieved sales growth on solid sales of core brands and the addition of Rokko no Oishii Mizu mineral water. However, the positive results from these two divisions were not enough to offset a drop in sales at Alcoholic Beverage Business in the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake and lower sales at the Overseas Business following the sale of Haitai Beverage.

Despite the decline in sales, we were able to increase operating income by 11.8 billion yen to 36.4 billion yen. The Alcoholic Beverage Business managed to boost profits by increasing efficiency through less spending on advertising and sales promotions. In addition, the Soft Drinks Business supplemented increased sales volume with cost cuts, and the sale of Haitai Beverage removed its red ink from the accounts of the Overseas Business.

Among non-operating items, equity-method income fell because we reduced our holdings in Tingyi-Asahi Beverages from 40% to 32% last December. This combined with forex-related losses led to a 1.4 billion yen drop in non-operating income. However, we also posted a 3.2 billion yen gain on forex contracts related to M&A funds. As a result, net non-operating income totaled 1.6 billion yen, supporting a 13.4 billion yen increase in first-half ordinary income to 10.6 billion yen.

Extraordinary losses, meanwhile, expanded by 13.6 billion yen owing to a 14.0 billion yen charge for disaster-related expenses. Nonetheless, the gain at the ordinary income level combined with lower corporate taxes boosted our net income to 16.3 billion yen, 0.7 billion yen more than a year earlier.