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Appropriate Information Disclosure
and Communication

Basic Policy "IR Policy"

As a "contributing member of society," ESPEC advocates, as its corporate philosophy, building a meaningful relationship with every stakeholder (improvement of value exchange) and fulfilling its social responsibilities.
Our "IR Policy" is explicitly stated based on such corporate philosophy applied to IR activities that are intended to improve communication with shareholders and investors, and aims at disseminating information regarding our code of activities.

Communication with Shareholders and Investors

Information Disclosure Policy and System

We disclose information in accordance with corporate laws, the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, other related laws and regulations, as well as with the Timely Disclosure Rules and other related rules prescribed by the stock exchange. We also disclose in a proactive and fair manner other useful information that does not fall under these rules in order to further the understanding our shareholders and investors.
We have established an information disclosure committee as an internal corporate structure tasked with deliberating over information disclosure issues. We are also striving to centralize the information by limiting the number of people who can disclose it, and disclose information in a fair and prompt manner through our website and other means.

Towards an Open General Meeting of Shareholders

• General meeting of shareholders schedule and notifications

We believe that the general meeting of shareholders is a valuable opportunity to directly interact with our shareholders. When holding our meetings, we deliberately avoid days on which many companies hold their meetings of shareholders in order to allow more shareholders to participate. Striving for early sending of meeting notifications, we succeeded in sending them one week before the legally required date.
We also posted announcements at the Tokyo Stock Exchange and on our homepage two weeks before the legally required date, we are working to expand our English language contents, and to post English versions (summaries) on the same day. We also changed to a color design for the Notice of the 69th Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders, and worked to improve its readability. As for the meeting material for the 70th General Meeting of Shareholders, although a system for electronic provision of materials for general meetings of shareholders was introduced following the revision of the Companies Act, it was sent to shareholders in written form as before, whether requested or not.

• Exercise of voting rights

A Smart Voting system is also available that allows shareholders to exercise their voting rights by mail or via the Internet, with voting made easy simply by reading a 2D code from a smartphone. We have also introduced a new electronic voting rights exercise platform, and are working to improve the exercise environment for institutional investors as well.

• 70th Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders

Although the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders had been shortened since the 67th meeting for the purpose of infection prevention, the 70th meeting was held in the conventional manner and 67 shareholders attended.

Financial results briefings for institutional investors and securities analysts

For FY 2022, we have posted a video of the business performance briefing by the president and related materials on the ESPEC website. In addition, to ensure fair disclosure, we have also posted a summary of financial results with explanatory text (including an English version). The president and officers also attend individual meetings held mainly in Tokyo and Osaka as necessary. In FY 2022, while using web conferencing as our primary channel, we joined small meetings hosted by securities firms for the first time, and we had meetings with a total of 115 companies during the year.
The main questions and answers from these meetings are posted on our website semiannually.

FY 2022 business performance briefing video Company Briefing
(Osaka Asahi Seimei Hall)

Corporate Briefings for Individual Investors

ESPEC conducts corporate briefings for individual investors so that individual investors can learn more about our company. The president and employees of our company introduce the business and projects of ESPEC by participating in corporate briefings held by securities companies and various other IR events.

Enhancement of IR Tools

• Shareholders' Communications

Kabunushi Tsushin is issued twice a year with the purpose of deepening understanding of ESPEC among its shareholders. It includes information about products that were successfully delivered as well as about ESPEC's management structure and CSR activities.

• IR materials

We previously created materials for explaining business performance every half-year, however from FY 2020 we have been creating them for each quarter and posting them on the website. Reference materials explain an overview of our business and our programs for sustainability. English versions have also been created and posted.

• IR website
(PC version, Smartphone version)

We are working to communicate useful information to investors, including posting of management policies, financial and results data, and various IR event materials. A service is also available that sends notices to investors regarding updates to information and news on the IR site.

IR site(left: PC version,
right: Smartphone version)

External Recognition of Our IR Site

Our website is highly regarded outside of the company and was, among other things, selected for the first time as an excellent company in the Gomez ESG Site Ranking 2022.

  • Internet IR Commendation Awards2023
  • Our website was selected as the best overall ranking company in Nikko Investor Relations FY 2023 Listed Company Website Quality Ranking.
  • Gomez / IR Site Overall Ranking Bronze Award (2023)
  • Gomez / Excellent ESG website ranking (2023)

Incorporation in ESG indexes

The ESPEC business approach to sustainability and information disclosure have been highly evaluated, and since March 2022 we have been a component stock of the FTSE Blossom Japan Sector Relative Index.

Feedback to Management

Shareholder and Investor Surveys

In addition to receiving opinions from investors at corporate briefings and other such occasions, we conduct surveys targeted at shareholders when forwarding shareholders' communications. We report opinions and other ideas received from our shareholders in the interim shareholders' communication.

Market Assessment Feedback

Analysis results of surveys conducted at corporate briefings and IR event, through shareholders' communications, as well of opinions and other ideas received at individual meetings are compiled into reports and reported, as occasion calls, at the Board of Directors.By bringing back this assessment of the market to our company, we can more easily identify issues. Feedback of market assessments is provided within the company in order to highlight issues that need to be addressed as we work to improve our future IR activities.

Returning Profits to Shareholders

Basic Policy on Profit Distributions

Recognizing that passing on profits to our shareholders is a key priority and that raising corporate value on a lasting basis is fundamental to raising shareholder value, dividends are decided taking into account sustainability and the dividend payout ratio.
ESPEC formulated a basic dividends policy in May 2022, and it was decided that in addition to a consolidated payout ratio of 30%, an additional amount would be added, aiming for one-third of the amount exceeding the predicted required funds. For details,please see the "Dividend / Shareholder Returns"

Dividend / Shareholder Returns