Kao Releases the Kao Integrated Report 2025
TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kao Corporation (TOKYO:4452) has published the Kao Integrated Report 2025 on its website, offering shareholders, investors, and all stakeholders with a comprehensive overview of the company's initiatives and strategic direction.
Kao Integrated Report 2025
To achieve its Mid-term Plan 'K27,' Kao aims to become a unique presence indispensable to someone in the world and is advancing its Global Sharp Top strategy. In FY2024, Kao exceeded its targets by strengthening Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) management and strategically investing to build stronger, more robust businesses.
This report offers an in-depth look at Kao's progress under K27, highlighting how Kao's dedicated employees—through the Global Sharp Top strategy and agile scrum team approach—are actively creating new value and driving meaningful impact. It also outlines Kao's ongoing efforts to take on bold challenges by leveraging its unique scientific expertise to address global social issues and help realize a Kirei world where all life lives in harmony.
Kao hopes this report deepens stakeholders' understanding and fosters meaningful dialogue and collaboration. The company is committed to actively incorporating feedback and insights from diverse partners as it continues to enhance its positive contributions to society and corporate value.
Related Information
Kao Sustainability Report 2025
About the Kirei Lifestyle Plan
Over the past 130 years, Kao has worked to improve people's lives and help them realize more sustainable lifestyles—a Kirei Lifestyle. The Japanese word 'kirei' describes something that is clean, well-ordered, and beautiful all at once. For Kao, this concept of 'kirei' not only describes appearance but also attitude—a desire to create beauty for oneself, for other people, and for the natural world around us. Aiming to realize a more sustainable way of living, in April 2019, the Kao Group established its ESG strategy known as the Kirei Lifestyle Plan. By 2030, Kao aims to empower at least 1 billion people, to enjoy more beautiful lives. Kao also strives to have 100% of its products leave a full lifecycle environmental footprint that science says our natural world can safely absorb.
Please visit the Kao sustainability website for more information.
About Kao
Kao, a Japan-based manufacturer of personal care and household products, cosmetics, and specialty chemicals creates high-value-added products and services that provide care and enrichment for the life of all people and the planet. Through its brands such as Attack laundry detergent, Bioré and Jergens skin care products, Laurier sanitary products, Curél, SENSAI, and MOLTON BROWN cosmetics, and Oribe hair care products, Kao is part of the everyday lives of people across Asia, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Combined with its chemical business, which contributes to a wide range of industries, Kao generates about 1,630 billion yen in annual sales. Kao employs about 32,600 people worldwide and has more than 130 years of history in innovation. As an enterprise that provides products people use on a daily basis, the Kao Group takes responsibility to actively reduce the environmental footprint of its products throughout the product lifecycle. This is laid out in Kao's ESG strategy, the Kirei Lifestyle Plan, which launched in 2019.
Please visit the Kao Group website for additional information.
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Freedom Holding Corp. Reports Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Results
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Net income was approximately $84.5 million for fiscal 2025 compared to $375 million for the previous fiscal year, resulting in basic and diluted earnings per share of $1.43 and $1.40, respectively. This compares to $6.37 and $6.33 per share, respectively, last year. Weighted average common shares outstanding used to compute diluted earnings per share for the fiscal years ended March 31, 2025, and 2024 were 60.5 million and 59.4 million, respectively. Total assets were $9.9 billion on March 31, 2025, as compared to $8.3 billion as of the fiscal 2024 year-end. "An offering of increasingly diversified fintech-based services continues to attract new customers…' 'Fiscal 2025 was another year of strong top-line growth for Freedom with revenue from both our brokerage and insurance businesses increasing by double-digits,' said Timur Turlov, the Company's founder and chief executive officer. 'This continued growth reflects the success of the investments we are making in digital infrastructure, AI, and our offering of increasingly diversified fintech-based services which continues to attract new customers.' Turlov continued, 'We are especially proud of the success of our Freedom SuperApp which not only provides customers access to the best products and services available from Freedom in our brokerage, banking and insurance ecosystem, but also allows them to shop, compare, save money, and earn cash back from retailers. Since its launch in April 2024, SuperApp has met with enthusiastic market acceptance, signing up over 1 million monthly active users and 183,000 daily active users in just over a year. Additional Fiscal 2025 highlights: Our fee and commission income for fiscal 2025 was $505 million, an increase of $64.7 million, or 15%, compared to fiscal 2024. The increase was mainly attributable to higher fee and commission income from brokerage services, primarily driven by the growth in retail brokerage customers from 530,000 to 683,000 at the end of fiscal 2025. We had approximately 2,515,000 bank customers at our Freedom Bank KZ subsidiary as of March 31, 2025, as compared to approximately 904,000 as of March 31, 2024. Freedom's insurance underwriting income for fiscal 2025 was $617.6 million, an increase of $353.4 million. This increase was driven by the expansion of the Company's insurance operations such as pension annuity and accident insurance, and an increase in the number of customers from 534,000 to 1,170,000 during the fiscal year. Freedom also had a gain of $12.4 million on derivatives trading, versus a loss of $103.8 million in 2024. 'We are also excited to be entering the telecommunications and media markets this fiscal year… 'Freedom ended the fiscal year with 8,764 employees – 2,567 more than at the same time a year ago, which bears witness to our rapid growth across the financial services sector in Kazakhstan and in other core markets,' said Turlov. 'We are proud of our employees and their efforts, as well as our Company's contributions to worthy causes in sports and education which include the Kazakhstan Chess Federation and the 2024 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship last December in New York. We continued our support for the development of chess in Kazakhstan. During the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, the Fund has made financial contributions to the Kazakhstan Chess Federation to support the preparation and holding of championships, tournaments, and training camps. We supported the International Biology Olympiad (IBO), a prestigious competition among secondary school students from around the world, by financing its opening and closing ceremonies. We acted as the General Partner of the Kazakhstan Collegiate Programming Federation for its participation in the final round of one of the largest international competitions in the IT sphere, the ICPC World Finals 2024, in Astana. In 2024, we provided financial support for construction of a new center for advanced technologies, development, and research began at SDU University in Almaty. The new university building will serve as a hub for conducting research in the fintech field. The modern campus, opened in March 2025, features AI labs, fintech research centers, financial literacy zones, and interactive educational spaces. We continued supporting the 'Teach for Qazaqstan' initiative with funds covering operational costs and holding educational events. As part of the initiative, teachers receive access to master classes, seminars and specialized training modules aimed at creating a supportive and stimulating learning environment. Freedom Holding Corp. continued supporting the development of various sports in Kazakhstan, including football, tennis, and cycling.' Concluded Turlov, 'Looking ahead to fiscal 2026, we will continue to make investments in our digital infrastructure and AI to build out the Freedom portfolio of brokerage, banking and insurance services – an ecosystem that is disrupting regional banking and online retail services. We are also excited to be entering the telecommunications and media markets in Kazakhstan this fiscal year, an effort which is supported by our additional $200 million domestic bond offering last September, which was the largest offering of its kind to date on the Astana International Exchange.' On April 30, 2025, the Company completed the acquisition of 100% of a new subsidiary Astel Group Ltd. by Freedom Telecom from a third party for $22.6 million as part of our expansion into the telecommunications market in Kazakhstan and building a digital fintech ecosystem. Astel Group Ltd. is the largest independent fixed-line operator providing modern telecommunications services, operating in the B2G and B2B segments. On June 27, 2025, following the close of the U.S. equity markets, Freedom Holding Corp. will be added to the Russell 3000® Index as part of the index's annual reconstitution. The Russell 3000® Index measures the performance of the 3,000 largest publicly traded U.S. companies, representing approximately 98% of the investable U.S. equity market. Inclusion in the Russell 3000® Index is expected to enhance the Company's visibility within the investment community and broaden its shareholder base. About Freedom Holding Corp. Freedom Holding Corp., a Nevada corporation, is a diversified financial services holding company conducting retail securities brokerage, investment research, investment counseling, securities trading, investment banking and underwriting services, mortgages, insurance, and consumer banking through its subsidiaries, operating under the name Freedom Finance in Europe and Central Asia, and Freedom Capital Markets in the United States. Through its subsidiaries, Freedom Holding Corp. employs more than 8,764 people and is a professional participant in the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange, the Astana International Exchange, the Republican Stock Exchange of Tashkent, International Trading System Limited, Armenia Stock Exchange, Kyrgyz Stock Exchange, the Uzbek Republican Currency Exchange and is a member of the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Exchange. Freedom Holding Corp.'s common shares are registered under the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and are traded under the symbol FRHC on the Nasdaq Capital Market, operated by Nasdaq, Inc. The Company has its main market of operations in Kazakhstan and has operations through its subsidiaries in 22 countries. To learn more about Freedom Holding Corp., visit Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This release contains "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All forward-looking statements are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "expect," "new," "plan," "seek," and "will," or the negative of such terms or other comparable terminology and include statements relating to our plans, intentions and expectations including our plans to enter the telecommunications market, our expectations with respect to 2026 and other non-historical statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results or performance and involve risks, assumptions, and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from the events or results described in, or anticipated by, the forward-looking statements. Factors that could materially affect such forward-looking statements include economic, business, and regulatory risks and other factors including those identified in the Company's periodic and current reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this release and the Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Readers should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Website Disclosure Freedom Holding Corp. intends to use its website, as a means for disclosing material non-public information and for complying with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Regulation FD and other disclosure obligation. FREEDOM HOLDING CORP. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND STATEMENTS OF OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (All amounts in thousands of United States dollars, unless otherwise stated) Years ended March 31, 2025 2024 2023 Revenue: Fee and commission income (including $4,725, $65,972 and $199,235 from related parties) $ 505,026 $ 440,333 $ 327,215 Net (loss)/gain on trading securities (57,810 ) 133,854 71,084 Interest income (including $1,731 , $24,941 and $23,191 from related parties) 864,453 828,224 294,695 Insurance underwriting income 617,596 264,218 115,371 Net gain on foreign exchange operations 51,684 72,245 52,154 Net gain/(loss) on derivatives 12,404 (103,794 ) (64,826 ) Sales of goods and services 40,102 21,576 — Other income 17,072 9,696 3,448 TOTAL REVENUE, NET 2,050,527 1,666,352 799,141 Expense: Fee and commission expense 346,074 154,351 65,660 Interest expense 535,895 501,111 208,947 Insurance claims incurred, net of reinsurance 298,109 139,561 77,329 Payroll and bonuses 288,163 181,023 81,819 Professional services 28,924 34,238 17,006 Stock compensation expense 59,592 22,719 9,293 Advertising and sponsorship expense (including $18,497 ,$—, and — from related parties) 124,627 38,327 14,059 General and administrative expense (including $1,704, $10,341 and $2,953 from related parties) 162,474 120,888 59,971 Allowance for expected credit losses 62,445 21,225 29,119 Cost of sales 31,278 17,538 — TOTAL EXPENSE 1,937,581 1,230,981 563,203 INCOME BEFORE INCOME TAX 112,946 435,371 235,938 Income tax expense (28,425 ) (60,419 ) (42,776 ) INCOME FROM CONTINUING OPERATIONS 84,521 374,952 193,162 Income before income tax expense of discontinued operations — — 68,160 — — (25,415 ) Loss from divestiture of discontinued operations — — (26,118 ) Income tax benefit of discontinued operations — — (4,203 ) Income from discontinued operations — — 12,424 NET INCOME 84,521 374,952 205,586 Less: Net (loss)/income attributable to non-controlling interest in subsidiary (129 ) (588 ) 446 OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME Change in unrealized (loss)/gain on investments available-for-sale, net of tax effect 4,364 6,196 1,431 Reclassification adjustment for net realized loss/(gain) on available-for-sale investments disposed of in the period, net of tax effect 681 (3,209 ) (2,916 ) — 25,415 Foreign currency translation adjustments (104,102 ) 12,075 5,195 (99,057 ) 15,062 29,125 Expand COMPREHENSIVE (LOSS)/INCOME BEFORE NON-CONTROLLING INTERESTS $ (14,536 ) $ 390,014 $ 234,711 Less: Comprehensive (loss)/income attributable to non-controlling interest in subsidiary (129 ) (588 ) 446 EARNINGS PER COMMON SHARE (In U.S. dollars): Earnings from continuing operations per common share - basic 1.43 6.37 3.29 Earnings from continuing operations per common share - diluted 1.40 6.33 3.24 Earnings/(loss) from discontinued operations per common share - basic — — 0.21 Earnings/(loss) from discontinued operations per common share - diluted — — 0.21 Earnings per common share - basic 1.43 6.37 3.50 Earnings per common share - diluted 1.40 6.33 3.45 Weighted average number of shares (basic) 59,393,629 58,958,363 58,629,580 Weighted average number of shares (diluted) 60,490,564 59,362,982 59,504,811 Expand Contacts Natalia Kharlashina Public Relations Freedom Holding Corp. +7 701 364 1454 prglobal@ Ramina Fakhrutdinova (KZ) Public Relations Freedom Finance JSC +7 777 377 8868 pr@ Media Contact for Freedom US Markets Deborah Kostroun, Zito Partners deborah@ +1 201-403-8158 Industry: Finance Banking Professional Services Other Professional Services Fintech More News From Freedom Holding Corp. Get RSS Feed FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship Announces Full List of Players Competing for World Title NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This holiday season, New York City's financial district will transform into a battleground for the world's greatest chess minds in the 2024 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship. The tournament, sponsored by Freedom Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: FRHC), will be held December 26-31 featuring fast-paced, high-stakes games and not the typical hours-long battles. This six-day event will showcase elite chess players from every continent as they converge on the heart of W... Chess and Finance Conference Makes Wall Street Debut During FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship in New York City NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The 2024 FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championships is taking the fusion of chess and finance to the next level with the introduction of Wall Street Gambit, a one-of-a-kind chess and finance conference that'll be held on Sunday, December 29, at Cipriani 55 Wall Street. Wall Street Gambit features an exceptional lineup of keynote speakers and a unique opportunity to play blitz against legends Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand and Fabiano Caruana, as well as a tournamen... Freedom Holding Corp. NASDAQ:FRHC Release Versions English Contacts Natalia Kharlashina Public Relations Freedom Holding Corp. +7 701 364 1454 prglobal@ Ramina Fakhrutdinova (KZ) Public Relations Freedom Finance JSC +7 777 377 8868 pr@ Media Contact for Freedom US Markets Deborah Kostroun, Zito Partners deborah@ +1 201-403-8158
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