Health Science and Alcoholic Beverages Segments to Drive Profit Growth for Kirin

Kirin is stepping up investment in pharmaceutical, health food, and skincare businesses due to secular volume decline in the domestic beer market. Management has completed the divestiture process of the low-return peripheral businesses and reembarked on the acquisition journey with Blackmores, the Australian nutritional supplements company, and Fancl as the latest deals. Management has steadily delivered progress on sales growth and margin expansion for both Fancl and Blackmores. We think there is room for Kirin to improve operational efficiencies and create synergies in sales and marketing over the long run, both domestically and in overseas expansion.