Company Reports

Mitsui's first-quarter fiscal 2026 (ending March 2027) net income was a record JPY 294.1 billion, up 53% year over year, driven by asset recycling, mark-to-market gains in the energy and mobility businesses, and organic growth in the North American automotive business.

We are transferring coverage on the Big Five Japanese trading houses, which are Itochu, Marubeni, Mitsui & Co, Sumitomo, and Mitsubishi.

Mitsui’s strategy emphasizes global resources development, infrastructure, and industrial solutions, supported by deep domain expertise and long-term partnerships. It is the most resource-heavy of the five major Japanese trading houses, with industrial metals and liquefied natural gas accounting for about half of profits on average. These businesses position Mitsui as a key participant in Japan’s energy and resources security strategy, particularly in LNG, where it has a broad portfolio of upstream assets and offtake arrangements.

Mitsui's fiscal 2025 earnings ending March 2026 fell 7% on lack of one-off gains and lower metal prices. It forecasts that fiscal 2026 earnings will rise 10% to JPY 920 billion. Mitsui hikes its proposed dividend in fiscal 2026 by 22% to a record high despite higher capital expenditure plans.

Mitsui's cumulative nine-month net profit for the fiscal year ending March fell 6% year on year to JPY 612 billion. Core operating cash flow declined 6% to JPY 749 billion due to the absence of liquefied natural gas dividends and weaker coal and iron ore prices.

Mitsui’s strategy emphasizes global resources development, infrastructure, and industrial solutions, supported by deep domain expertise and long-term partnerships. It is one of the most resources-heavy of the five major Japanese trading houses, with industrial metals and liquefied natural gas together accounting for the majority of profits in an average year. These businesses position Mitsui as a key participant in Japan’s energy and resources security strategy, particularly in LNG, where it has a broad portfolio of upstream assets and offtake arrangements.

Mitsui's first-half net profit for the fiscal year ending March 2026 rose 3% year on year to JPY 424 billion. Core operating cash flow, or COCF, was JPY 449 billion, down 17%, mainly due to the absence of LNG dividends and weaker coal and iron ore prices.

Mitsui’s strategy emphasizes global resource development, infrastructure, and industrial solutions, supported by deep domain expertise and long-term partnerships. It is one of the most resource-heavy of the five major Japanese trading houses, with industrial metals and LNG together accounting for the majority of profits in an average year. These businesses position Mitsui as a key participant in Japan’s energy and resource security strategy, particularly in LNG, where it has a broad portfolio of upstream assets and offtake arrangements.

Following President Donald Trump’s Sept. 4 order implementing the US–Japan trade agreement, we reassessed the Uncertainty Ratings of the five Japanese trading houses under our coverage: Mitsubishi Corp., Mitsui & Co., Itochu, Sumitomo Corp., and Marubeni.

Mitsui’s strategy emphasizes global resource development, infrastructure, and industrial solutions, supported by deep domain expertise and long-term partnerships. It is one of the most resource-heavy of the five major Japanese trading houses, with industrial metals and LNG together accounting for the majority of profits in an average year. These businesses position Mitsui as a key participant in Japan’s energy and resource security strategy, particularly in LNG, where it has a broad portfolio of upstream assets and offtake arrangements.

Mitsui & Co. reported June-quarter net profit of JPY 192 billion, 25% of its full-year guidance of JPY 770 billion for the year ending March 2026. Core operating cash flow was JPY 216 billion, or 26% of full-year COCF guidance of JPY 820 billion.

We initiate coverage of five major Japanese trading houses, or sogo shosha: Mitsubishi, Mitsui & Co., Itochu, Sumitomo and Marubeni.

Mitsui’s strategy emphasizes global resource development, infrastructure, and industrial solutions, supported by deep domain expertise and long-term partnerships. It is one of the most resource-heavy of the five major Japanese trading houses, with industrial metals and LNG together accounting for the majority of profits in an average year. These businesses position Mitsui as a key participant in Japan’s energy and resource security strategy, particularly in LNG, where it has a broad portfolio of upstream assets and offtake arrangements.

We are no longer providing equity research on Mitsui. We provide broad coverage of more than 1,500 companies across more than 90 industry groups and adjust our coverage as necessary based on client demand and investor interest.

Mitsui, one of Japan's oldest and largest general trading companies, has grown into a global conglomerate with diversified operations in trading, energy, mineral and metal resources, infrastructure, agricultural production, chemicals, and healthcare.

Mitsui, one of Japan's oldest and largest general trading companies, has grown into a global conglomerate with diversified operations in trading, energy, mineral and metal resources, infrastructure, agricultural production, chemicals, and healthcare.

We continue to see no-moat Mitsui as overvalued following the fiscal year ended March's net profit of JPY 414 billion, which was down 1% year over year. Stripping out a one-off loss of JPY 20.6 billion due to the fire at Intercontinental Terminals Company in March, results were largely within our expectations. Earnings from its metal resources segment were down 35%, but this was due to the absence of a valuation gain that had lifted fiscal 2018 earnings. Mitsui otherwise got a boost from the energy business on higher oil prices and the lifestyle division on the reversal of provisions for multigrain and contributions from its new fashion and textile businesses. After adjusting our commodity price assumptions and fine-tuning our earnings forecasts, our fair value estimate is unchanged at JPY 1,530.

No-moat Mitsui’s cumulative nine-month fiscal 2019 (ending March) net profit of JPY 350 billion, down 6% year over year, was within our expectation. After fine-tuning our earnings model to incorporate our latest commodity price deck and lower dividend from Vale, we keep our fair value estimate of JPY 1,530. Our bearish view on the firm is unchanged given its high exposure to energy and mining businesses. We believe Mitsui’s profitability will be constrained by our below-consensus midcycle commodity price assumptions.

Mitsui, one of Japan's oldest and largest general trading companies, has grown into a global conglomerate with diversified operations in trading, energy, mineral and metal resources, infrastructure, agricultural production, chemicals, and healthcare.