Director, Member of the Board, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO, Marubeni Corporation
[Does Marubeni have a winning strategy?] How serious is it about a 10 trillion yen market capital...
In its mid-term management strategy announced in February 2025, Marubeni set a goal of achieving a market capitalization of over ¥10 trillion by fiscal year 2030. This would put the company on par with the top three general trading companies and more than double its current market capitalization. President Akiyuki Omoto, who took office in April, is pushing ahead with restructuring the sales department and emphasizing the "quality" of business investments. Will the company be able to achieve its newly set ambitious goal? We spoke directly with President Omoto about his future developments and...
About Masayuki Omoto
In a July 2025 interview, Marubeni President and CEO Masayuki Omoto discussed the company's mid-term management strategy, which targets a market capitalization of over ¥10 trillion by fiscal year 2030. Omoto described this as a "10X" goal, noting that the company's market cap was ¥1 trillion at the start of a previous phase in 2019. He stated that the company's strategy involves shifting its portfolio toward "strategic platform-type businesses," aiming to allocate approximately ¥1.2 trillion of its ¥1.7 trillion in investments to that category. Omoto also addressed market perceptions, asserting that Marubeni's performance over the past six years has shown a 13% compound growth in net profit and 8% in operating cash flow. He suggested that if the company continues to build on its track record, its valuation could rise from current levels, calling it his role to demonstrate this potential. Omoto emphasized the importance of investment discipline and a global perspective, stating that Marubeni should aim for world-class benchmarks rather than limiting comparisons to domestic peers.
Transcript (26 segments)
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Masayuki Omoto0:00
I think the Trump tariffs are actually pushing up the value of our businesses. I maintain regular communication with Mr. Buffett, and after six years, I believe we can achieve that kind of growth. We take a thoughtful, original approach — we don't accept or reward mature, sideways businesses.
The situation on the ground is mixed, but we haven't seen the kind of severe economic downturn that some had anticipated. After the tax deal in mid-May, business activity has improved, and we see the economy in a relatively stable state. However, we need to remain vigilant — there are real risks of deterioration in the third and fourth quarters. We have a 300 billion yen buffer and intend to manage through that carefully.
Regarding the Middle East, while it is a concern, our direct exposure in Iran and Israel is limited. Some trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz, but we have sufficient contractual safeguards. We're watching closely, but we don't expect a major impact on our operations.
For direct auto loans, the outlook is clearly positive. When we take used cars as collateral and their values rise, overall recovery rates improve. So for the used car business, Trump tariffs are actually pushing up values. On agriculture, it's largely neutral — our U.S. agricultural operations are driven by domestic conditions rather than the tariffs, so we haven't been significantly impacted.
We take a long-term perspective — five, ten, fifteen, twenty years. Our view is that the U.S., despite being an advanced economy, will continue to grow structurally, and that hasn't fundamentally changed. So while we are cautious, we have no intention of pulling back from U.S. investment.
The universal goal of corporate management, ultimately, is medium-to-long-term enterprise value enhancement. Over the past six years, our total market capitalization has grown from roughly one trillion to five trillion yen. When I took the helm it was around four trillion. We've been steadily climbing, and I'm not satisfied — it's my mission to keep pushing to the next level. That's why I put the ten trillion yen target out there: based on our track record, if we continue on this path for another six years, reaching that level is entirely achievable.
This is something I'm saying publicly for the first time: since my era began in 2019, we started at one trillion. If we reach ten trillion by 2030, that's a 10X company — a tenfold increase in market capitalization over ten years. That was one of the concepts that went into setting this target. The key is twofold: growing earnings consistently, and raising our P/R multiple. With both levers working, reaching ten trillion is realistic. Of course, as a target, many things could happen, but it felt like the right ambition. It also serves as a symbol for our employees — it clarifies where we're heading. In conversations with staff, I've found that having that clarity has been very well received.
Over the past three months or so, the market has valued us at roughly four to five trillion, and I'm grateful for that confidence. But honestly, I don't think that's enough. The market hasn't fully recognized our potential — that's my honest assessment. I make a point of not being influenced by competitors. Instead, we focus on enhancing our own corporate value through a thoughtful, independent approach. When we reach ten trillion, that's just a milestone, not the destination — there's more upside beyond that. So I'm not particularly conscious of market rankings.
The formula is earnings growth and P/R growth — both. We're committed to double-digit growth. By 2030, we'd like to reach about 800 billion yen in net profit. On the P/R front, I mentioned twelve times as a target. Our historical peak was around fifteen times, so twelve or thirteen is a level we've achieved before. Also, if you analyze P/R mathematically — it's the inverse of cost of capital minus expected growth. A P/R of ten implies zero expected growth if cost of capital is ten percent. But over these six years, we've delivered thirteen percent consolidated net profit growth and eight percent core operating cash flow growth. Yet the market still perceives us as flat. If we keep delivering results, there's real potential for P/R expansion. That's my role — to communicate Marubeni's true potential to the market.
Within our portfolio, the area we're most focused on in terms of capital allocation is what we call 'Strategic Platform Businesses.' There are three elements: first, the business itself is in a growing market; second, it has proprietary, high-value-added products or services; and third, there are scalable means of expansion. Among our many businesses, those where all three come together have demonstrated strong revenue growth. A concrete example is Helena, our U.S. agriculture business, which now contributes over 30 billion yen in consolidated profit. U.S. agriculture generally grows five to seven percent annually. Helena has proprietary products developed through soil and leaf analysis, and with about 530 retail locations expanding gradually, those value-added products are penetrating deeper. Over the past several years, Helena has achieved double-digit growth consistently. Beyond agriculture, similar patterns exist in mobility, renewable energy sales, food and distribution, aircraft parts trading, and IT/DX services. Our strategy is to concentrate investment on businesses that fit this three-element model.
In our latest strategy, it's not about domains coming first — the business model comes first. We've classified capital allocation into four buckets: Strategic Platform Businesses, Infrastructure, Finance, and Resources. The strategic platform model is what I've been describing, and our plan is to scale it up. Which domains we enter will depend on circumstances at the time — I'm not fixated on specific sector labels. The principle is to compete on model quality. For FY2027, our target profit is 620 billion yen, and we want to allocate more than half of that to strategic platform businesses.
The strategic platform area encompasses roughly three clusters: U.S. agriculture, U.S. mobility, food including Japanese confectionery, distribution, renewable energy sales — companies like SmartestEnergy in the UK that are also expanding into the U.S. and Australia — aircraft parts and components, and IT/DX services. Regionally, the U.S. is now our largest market, followed by Japan, and then Southeast Asia. We plan to expand presence across all these regions — U.S., Japan, Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Africa. As a trading house, we do have cross-border trade, but we're building local revenue bases in each country through domestically rooted businesses, which also provides a natural hedge against geopolitical risk.
The most important characteristic is high value-added businesses. If you measure by ROIC, we're targeting ten percent or above. Growth rate should also be around ten percent. So ten percent ROIC and ten percent growth rate — that's the benchmark for what we call a strategic platform business. Of course, finding and building such businesses is hard, and we're not rigidly insisting on exactly ten-ten, but the ultimate goal is to have a portfolio of businesses that can deliver on both.
Regarding resources versus non-resources, our current resource businesses are highly cost-competitive and high value-added, and we'd be happy to expand where good opportunities arise. But in terms of overall portfolio balance, we don't intend to change the current mix. Within non-resources, our strategy is to heavily weight toward strategic platform businesses over infrastructure and finance. Out of approximately 1.7 trillion in non-resource assets, we aim to allocate roughly 1.2 trillion to strategic platform businesses.
The most important thing for us is investment discipline — ensuring that what we invest in actually delivers results. We've been very strict about this over the past six years, and continue to be. It's less about deal size and more about whether both the approving side and the proposing side can execute properly. If execution capability is there, we should consider large deals. If it's risky, we'll decline — regardless of size. Our keyword going forward is 'natural expansion of strategic platform businesses.' But identifying and executing on high-value-added business opportunities is genuinely difficult, so we're open to various structures and will evaluate each opportunity carefully.
I'm strict on discipline. I reject many proposals. I believe our investment track record defines Marubeni's future, so I won't compromise on review rigor. In my first three months as CEO, I've already pushed back on multiple deals. I understand that employees put their heart into every proposal, but historically, investment quality has determined our fate. I take that just as seriously in pursuit of our ten trillion yen mission. Deals that get through are truly vetted, and I'll make sure to explain this clearly and build understanding.
What I consider most important as CEO is staying close to both frontline operations and to our shareholders and investors. The CEO sits in the middle — investors say they want certain types of businesses like strategic platforms, and frontline staff have their own expectations. My job is to communicate both sides clearly and continuously, visiting sites and ensuring alignment. In terms of execution after acquisition, it comes down to how well we can plan the integration — who does what, by when, in what structure, under what leadership. That discussion is part of our investment review process. This year, we've also established dedicated 'Growth Investment Management' teams within each business unit to improve PMI design, structuring, and policy development — essentially upgrading our overall investment capability.
I'd like to think I'm approachable and supportive of our employees. The label 'sergeant major' doesn't quite fit. But during this three-year acceleration phase, we need to raise our standards. I'm sending a strong message that there will be no compromise on quality.
We've consolidated from sixteen business units down to ten, with the goal of giving each unit a broader scope to identify strategic platform opportunities. The idea is that if a mature business isn't performing, it should be shifted toward a growth area. That's the strategic mindset behind the restructuring. The biggest changes are at the division head and unit head level. Day-to-day work hasn't changed dramatically yet, but the message is clear.
Our mid-term plan is called GC27. 'GC' carries two meanings: Gear Change — we were in third gear, now we're shifting to fourth or fifth — and Growth or Change. We will not tolerate stagnant, sideways businesses. In every mature domain, there are growth pockets — find them and transition into growth businesses. That's the directive. Our employees are highly talented, and I expect them to rise to this challenge.
When a business has high profitability but limited future growth potential, that's actually when its enterprise value is at its peak. If we hold on, that value erodes. So we will divest such businesses without hesitation. Over three years, we plan to recover six hundred billion yen — roughly two hundred billion per year — which is aggressive by our standards. Also, our power infrastructure unit has been renamed 'Power Infrastructure and Services' to reflect our shift toward service-oriented business models.
Whether we can manage volatility depends on the business model. If you look at our track record with SmartestEnergy and our domestic Marubeni Shinken operations, we've built steady earnings despite high market volatility. The key is having the right model. Ours is based on customer volume — we acquire customers and grow through their volume demand, not by taking price positions. That's a fundamentally different approach from traditional energy trading.
Within infrastructure, there are businesses with high returns worth pursuing, particularly in renewables. We also see opportunities in emerging energy areas like ammonia and SAF. These span both infrastructure and services and are worth developing. On pharmaceuticals, the growth drivers are development and sales. We can't do drug development, but for sales and promotion — new drugs, long-term care products, generics — our network is highly valuable. Our pharmaceutical business has been building quietly for about ten years, starting in China and now in the Middle East and Africa.
The Sumitomo Pharma deal fits our three strategic platform criteria well: pharmaceuticals is roughly a ten percent growth market, especially in China, Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Africa. It's high value-added. Through this partnership, we gain distribution access across all those regions with a single product. We see Southeast Asia, Middle East, and Africa as the primary growth targets. In China, Sumitomo Pharma's products are competitive, and their revenue and profit have been growing well over the past three years. Our approach applies to all platform businesses — not just pharmaceuticals but also mobility, agricultural inputs, renewables, and food — we'll continue adding investments to existing platforms.
I maintain regular communication with Mr. Buffett. We meet when I visit the U.S. and when he comes here. It's an ongoing dialogue — sometimes about earnings, sometimes about strategy. When I was appointed CEO last November, I visited to introduce myself and discuss our management direction. We also discuss potential areas for collaboration. As for specifics, I'd prefer not to share details, but I can say we're in active and constructive discussions.
As I said earlier, I've made a deliberate decision not to frame our thinking by comparing ourselves to domestic peers. Instead, I focus on maximizing Marubeni's corporate value. Our benchmark may well be larger, faster-growing conglomerates overseas. We should look at global best practices and aim to be the fastest-growing, most value-creating company we can be. Our distinctive strength is that we've built substantial businesses worldwide while maintaining a strong base in Japan. As I've said at shareholder meetings, the 'Maru' in Marubeni represents the globe. We operate with a global perspective — North America, Southeast Asia, Japan — and that viewpoint has always been a source of strength. It means our frame of reference is global: we don't fixate on domestic comparisons, but look to wherever the best models exist worldwide. That's how we'll continue to grow.