Thanks to the double-digit growth of sales and profit in such fields as medical, logistics and seawater businesses which are not related to gases, Air Water recorded increases of 4.4% in sales, 1.3% in operating income, 2% in ordinary income and net profit for the year of 47%. Out of the increased income amounting approximately to 20.9 billion, sales growth accounted for about 14.3 billion and the M&A portion for 6.6 billion. The dividend is 11 yen for half-year term and 22 yen for the year.　 The dividend payout ratio is 24.6%.

In the main business related to industrial gases, sales increased by 1.9% and ordinary income decreased by 8.9%. Though there was a decrease in the on-site business for the steel industry, nearly the same sales as last year was maintained owing to the automobile and glass industries which recovered from the influences of the Great Earthquake. Profits decreased due to the rising cost of electricity and the extending distance for transportation. According to the business review by gas category, oxygen and nitrogen were sold better than last year, but argon, carbon dioxide, hydrogen and helium declined to less than the result of the previous year.

In the electronics-related business, sales decreased by 4% and ordinary income increased by 12.8%. The decrease in sales was caused mainly by less sales of

the electronic materials handled by affiliated Inoueki. As for the medical field, the construction of hospital facilities and medical equipment business stayed at a good pace with a double-digit increase by 11.4% in sales and 17.9% in operating income. In other fields, the logistics and seawater business also increased by 9.9% in sales and 16.4% in ordinary income.

The chemical-related business decreased by 0.1% in sales and 1.3% in ordinary income. Throughout the year the business as a whole was affected by the Earthquake. The energy-related business increased by 7.7% in sales and decreased by 2.3% in ordinary income.

For the year of 2012 which is the final period of the medium-term plan, the company has a prospect, as previously planned, to attain the target of sales of 520 billion, operating income of 33.5 billion, ordinary income of 35 billion and the net profit for the year of 18 billion. During the past two fiscal terms, the company implemented facility investment amounting roughly to 56.6 billion, and also has a plan to invest about 28.6 billion in this fiscal term.

The target of industrial gas business for this year has been set at 135 billion of sales and 12.4 billion of ordinary income. President Imai says, “Our plan setting on the industrial gas business has been forced to be modest due to so many downward factors in economic overview such as power cost, price-hike of crude oil and exchange rates, but we would like to go ahead steadily toward the target set for the last year of the medium-term business plan.”