I’m responding a bit late to this question about the negative result for shareholders.
HKFoods’ result for the current year is burdened by write-downs related to the conditional additional purchase price receivable from its Baltic business. This means the purchase price included uncertain items, the receipt of which now seems unlikely. It is certainly a shame that the additional purchase price will not be received, but it is still just an isolated issue that is not connected to HKFoods’ longer-term earning capacity.
The value of a share is based on its long-term cash flows. In HKFoods’ case, the result is expected to turn positive for shareholders in the coming years (supported, for example, by the upward trend in adjusted operating profit and decreasing financing costs).
Therefore, I do not believe that the negative result for shareholders in the current year would be a significant deterrent for investors as an isolated factor. If we consider negative factors from the perspective of institutions, these could relate, for example, to the capital-intensive and slow-growing industry and the company’s capital allocation (paying dividends before redeeming an expensive hybrid loan).
Our forecasts roughly anticipate an adjusted operating profit for Q4 at the same level as the comparison period. My own expectations in this regard are relatively confident.