New medium-term management initiative: “Cs for Tomorrow 2018”

Under 'For Tomorrow 2015,' which began in fiscal 2011, the Asahi Kasei Group advanced the expansion of world-leading business and the creation of new value for society as two strategic pillars. While increasing production capacity for highly competitive products, Asahi Kasei reinforced its operating base through acquisitions, including of US-based ZOLL Medical Corporation, which marked our strategic entry into the field of acute critical care, and of US-based Polypore International, LP, to expand our battery separator business.

While performing some ¥1 trillion of strategic investment for growth over the five-year period, Asahi Kasei also worked to raise corporate value by advancing a structural realignment of our petrochemical business in Japan, and implementing a company-wide streamlining project to improve the profit structure. Nevertheless, we came to recognize that since our 2003 transformation to a holding company configuration it has become difficult to fully exert the combined strengths of the Asahi Kasei Group. The decision was thus made to adopt an operating holding company configuration to overcome this difficulty.