Together with Our Shareholders and Investors
Basic Stance
The DENSO Group Sustainability Policy describes the responsibility DENSO has to its shareholders and investors to increase corporate value through stable, long-term growth and to improve the transparency of management through the timely and appropriate disclosure of business and financial information as well as through dialogues. Based on this policy, the DENSO Group is disseminating corporate information, such as management strategy and financial information, with an emphasis on timeliness, fairness, accuracy, and sustainability.
In addition, the Group is undertaking investor relations (IR) activities to realize smooth, interactive communication through general shareholders’ meetings and via its corporate website.
The opinions of shareholders and other investors that the Group obtains through this kind of communication are conveyed regularly at the Board of Directors’ meetings and leveraged in the Group’s management decision-making.
Information Disclosure and IR Activities
In order to ensure fairness and transparency in the disclosure of IR information, DENSO strives not only to observe all legal disclosure standards but also to publish information domestically and overseas without time lags by creating Japanese and English versions of reports at the same time.
DENSO also releases financial information quarterly via its website and holds financial results, technical, and business briefings for institutional investors and financial analysts with the purpose of promoting investment opportunities. DENSO is working to further enhance information disclosure by providing a streaming video of the general meeting of shareholders held each June on its website and inviting shareholders to a plant tour after the meeting, among other activities. In addition, we post our results briefings and the contents of the ordinary general meetings of shareholders (held every June) on our corporate website and disclose an outline of the Q&A sessions held at these briefings to ensure that an even greater number of people can view this information. In these ways, we are striving to enhance our information disclosure.
| Target | IR activities |
|---|---|
| Domestic institutional investors and securities analysts | Quarterly financial results briefings, disclosure of outlines of results briefings’ Q&A sessions, individual interviews, small meetings, publication of integrated reports, technical briefings, business briefings, ESG presentations, facility tours, and distribution of IR newsletters |
| Overseas institutional investors | Individual interviews, small meetings, participation in conferences organized by securities companies, publication of integrated reports, disclosure of the outline of the results briefings’ Q&A sessions, and distribution of IR newsletters |
| Individual investors and shareholders |
Holding of general meetings of shareholders Publication of notices of convocation, publication of electronic notices of convocation that can be viewed via smartphone Disclosure of outlines of Q&A sessions and live streaming of such sessions Reception of questions in advance Offering of facility tours after general meetings of shareholders Company information sessions, distribution of IR newsletters, distribution of audio and video content on financial results briefings and disclosure of outlines of Q&A sessions at these briefings |
Policy on Shareholders’ Returns and Status of Shares
DENSO makes investments for the purpose of constantly expanding its business, while emphasizing the interests of all shareholders, and it regards the achievement of sustainable increases in corporate value and the enhancement of shareholders’ returns as one of its most important management policies.
The Company has adopted dividend on equity (DOE: Dividend amount ÷ Shareholders’ equity), which is based on shareholders’ equity and less susceptible to the influence of single fiscal year performance, as an indicator of shareholder return. DENSO will provide stable dividends over the long term with the policy of continuously increasing DOE from 3.0%, while comprehensively taking consolidated performance, capital efficiency, and dividend amount into consideration. In line with this policy, we improved our DOE to 3.2% in fiscal 2023.
Moreover, our internal reserves will be effectively utilized in capital investments, R&D, M&As, and other areas aimed at the continuous growth of our business, as we ensure returns to all shareholders by flexibly acquiring treasury stock while keeping an eye on developments in our stock price and capital structure. Guided by this policy, in fiscal 2023 DENSO paid annual cash dividends per share of ¥185, an increase of ¥20 from the previous fiscal year.
Going forward, the Company will strive to improve its corporate value and return even greater profits to its shareholders.
Breakdown of shareholders (As of Mar. 31, 2021)
Evaluation by Outside Institutions
DENSO’s IR activities were recognized for their voluntary disclosure of information, including the content of explanations and discussions at quarterly financial results briefings and the briefing on semiconductor strategies. The Company was also named as the runner-up for the 2022 Award for Excellence in Corporate Disclosure in the Automobiles/Parts/Tires division. This award has been held by The Securities Analysts Association of Japan each year since 1995 for the purpose of promoting and improving corporate information disclosure.
In addition, for the second year in a row DENSO Integrated Report 2022 received the Silver Award of the WICI Japan Integrated Report Award 2022, hosted by WICI (World Intellectual Capital/Assets Initiative) Japan. The report was also honored with the “Excellence Award” at the NIKKEI Integrated Report Award 2022 and was included in the “Most-Improved Reports” category by the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF)’s asset managers entrusted with domestic equity investment.
Moreover, DENSO has received high praise for its ESG (environmental, social, and governance) initiatives to date and has been selected as a component stock on socially responsible investment indices and funds both in Japan and overseas. For more details, please refer to the following website.
Future Initiatives
While taking into consideration the needs and expectations of our shareholders and other investors as well as society at large, we will continue to raise the level of our activities geared toward enhancing information disclosure with a focus on the disclosure of business and financial information and the creation of opportunities for dialogue.
