Announcement of the Settlement of Accounts for the Second Quarter of the Year Ending March 2010

(Note) Figures shown have been rounded down to the nearest million yen

Our settlement of accounts for second quarter of the year ending March 2010 was announced on the afternoon of Friday, November 6 at the Tokyo Stock Exchange and Osaka Securities Exchange Press Clubs. An outline of the accounts is presented below.

Consolidated Results for the Second Quarter of the Year Ending March 2010
(April 1, 2009 to September 30, 2009)

Overview of the first half quarters for FY ending March 2010

The Japanese economy may have reached its bottom during the second quarter of this year, but environments surrounding employment and income have become increasingly more challenging nevertheless.

The food industry in which our group is placed was consequently faced with stronger pressures for price flexibility.

Amid such environment, we achieved favorable results through steadily carrying out measures from the medium-term business plan "Innovation and Action 2010" and proactively making efforts to resolve key issues that may arise.

As a result, for the two quarters of the year ending March 2010, we achieved net sales of 102,347 million yen (decrease of 11.9% y-o-y), operating income of 7,904 million yen (62.5% y-o-y increase), ordinary income of 7,479 million yen (67.1% y-o-y increase) and net income of 4,789 million yen (59.6% y-o-y increase).

Overviews by division are as follows:

<Oils and Fats Processing Division>
Domestically, decline in retail prices following the drop in raw material prices and struggles seen in the market for industrial-use canned products caused year-on-year decreases for both sales and profit despite the steady results recorded from palm oil and specialty products such as hard butters for chocolate.

Overseas, although the economic recession may have negatively impacted the division in some parts, significant improvements in profitability achieved by the refineries category mainly from Asia contributed to increase in profits despite struggling sales due to decline in raw material prices.

Through these results, this division achieved a sales volume of 39,649 million yen (a decrease of 24.7% y-o-y) and an operating income of 3,432 million yen (1.7% y-o-y increase).

<Confectionery and Baking Ingredients Division>
Domestically, chocolates for industrial use posted steady growth and contributed to gains in sales volume among other favorable results. Functionality-focused products within the creams, margarines, shortenings and fillings category contributed to steady growth for sales targeted to western confectionaries and baking.

Although sales for imported confectionary and baking ingredients declined following the decrease in raw material prices, enhanced sales of frozen dessert products contributed to improvements in profit.

Sales of dessert products from our domestic group company continued to face challenging environments due in part from struggling sales in the retail market and spread of influenza H1N1.

Our overseas subsidiaries posted decrease in sales due to declining raw material prices but nevertheless posted increase in profits, driven by steady sales of processed products manufactured for the Japanese market.

Through these results, this division achieved a sales volume of 43,482 million yen (a decrease of 2.5% y-o-y) and an operating income of 3,614 million yen (119.8% increase y-o-y).

<Soy Protein Division>
Domestically, soy protein products achieved growth in both sales and profits following increases recorded from the health food market in addition to prepared foods and the fermentation and culture medium markets. Our subsidiary in China improved its profitability as a result of enhanced product profitability.

Soy protein products experienced decrease in sales following the harsh environment surrounding the market, but improved its profits as a result of cost reduction efforts exerted in addition to favorable responses received on its product manufacturing philosophy of being selective on the origins of raw materials.

For food function-enhancing ingredients, domestic markets for fermentation and culture medium and acid lactic beverages together with overseas markets steadily expanded both sales and profits.

Although soy milk and mail orders struggled in sales, they achieved increase in profits following cost reduction efforts.

Through these results, this division achieved a sales volume of 19,216 million yen (1.6% increase y-o-y) and an operating income of 857 million yen (an operating loss of 152 million yen was recorded in the previous year).

Predictions for Consolidated Results for the Year Ending March 2010
(April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010)

No revisions have been made for the forecast announced on October 29, 2009 of the year.

*The forecasts above have been made based on information available at the time of this announcement, and the actual results may differ from these forecasts due to various factors.

End of report