In the fiscal year under review, amid continuing wariness of the spread of COVID-19 infections, the Japanese economy continued to recover, led by consumer spending, reflecting the absence of government-mandated activity restrictions such as semi-emergency COVID-19 measures. The government did not impose such restrictions in order to facilitate both infection prevention and economic activity. However, the situation still warranted caution. There were signs of uncertainty emerging due to the Ukraine situation and other factors, as well as the impact of rising prices on household budgets, which reflected soaring energy costs and raw material prices as a result of the yen’s rapid depreciation, and supply constraints.
In North America, consumer spending showed signs of slowing amid the continuation of historically high levels of inflation, exacerbated by the effects of policy interest rate hikes and other factors. Issues such as supply constraints caused by labor shortages and logistics disruptions have had an impact on the real economy.
In this environment, under the new Board of Directors and governance structure, the Seven & i Group has continued to discuss various strategic actions that could increase the Group’s corporate value while taking into account the growth profile and efficiency of each business. On March 9, 2023, the Group announced the results of the Group Strategy Reevaluation based on those discussions. It defined its “Ideal Group Image for 2030” as “a world-class retail group centered around its ‘food’ that leads retail innovation through global strategies centered on the 7-Eleven business and proactive utilization of technology.” In addition, based on the approach to the business portfolio, we have entered into an agreement to transfer all shares outstanding of Sogo & Seibu Co., Ltd. held by the Company to Sugi Godo Kaisha, a special purpose company which is a related entity of Fortress Investment Group LLC, and are holding discussions to execute the agreement. Looking ahead, based on the content of this agreement and the updated Medium-Term Management Plan, the Group will focus on generating corporate value over the medium to long term and achieving the Group’s continuous growth in accordance with the updated Medium-Term Management Plan 2021-2025.
Our consolidated results for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2023 are summarized below.
“Accounting Standard for Revenue Recognition” (ASBJ Statement No.29, March 31, 2020, hereinafter the “Accounting Standard for Revenue Recognition”), etc., are applied from the beginning of the first quarter of the consolidated fiscal year ended February 28, 2023.Our consolidated results for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2023 are summarized below.