Asante Incorporated : Notice of Business Forecasts and Dividend Forecasts for the Fiscal Year Ending March 2021

News Release: Asante, Inc.	(6073 TSE1)
	August 21, 2020
To whom it may concern	Company name：Asante, Inc.
	(Code: 6073)
	Representative：Sei Miyauchi,
	Chief Executive Officer
	Contact：Yoshiyuki Nakao,
	Director, General Manager,
	Corporate Planning Department
	(TEL: [phone])

Notice of Business Forecasts and Dividend Forecasts

for the Fiscal Year Ending March 2021

Asante, Inc. announces its consolidated business forecasts and dividend forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 2021 (April 1, 2020-March 31, 2021) as follows.

1. Consolidated business forecasts

1. Consolidated business forecasts for the six months of the fiscal year ending March 2021 (April 1, 2020-September 30, 2020)

					(Million yen)
	Net	Operating	Ordinary	Net income	Net income
	attributable to	per share
	sales	income	income
	owners of parent	(yen)
Previous forecasts (A)	-	-	-	-	-
Current forecasts (B)	7,292	981	1,036	661	53.60
Increase/decrease (B-A)	-	-	-	-	-
Percentage change (%)	-	-	-	-	-
(Ref.) Previous results	8,238	1,772	1,783	1,201	97.32
(FY3/20 2Q)
(Non-consolidated)

1. Consolidated business forecasts for the full-year of the fiscal year ending March 2021 (April 1, 2020-March 31, 2021)

					(Million yen)
	Net	Operating	Ordinary	Net income	Net income
	attributable to	per share
	sales	income	income
	owners of parent	(yen)
Previous forecasts (A)	-	-	-	-	-
Current forecasts (B)	13,762	1,338	1,385	841	68.18
Increase/decrease (B-A)	-	-	-	-	-
Percentage change (%)	-	-	-	-	-
(Ref.) Previous results	14,432	2,239	2,380	1,580	128.06
(FY3/20)
(Non-consolidated)

(3) Reasons for disclosure

The business forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2021 had been undetermined because it is difficult to reasonably estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, economic activity is slowly being resumed as the State of Emergency has now been withdrawn. Accordingly, we announce our business forecasts based on the results of operations for the first quarter and information currently available to management.

In the first quarter, we refrained from making face-to-face sales calls on new customers at all our sales bases for a certain period to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Although we have now steadily resumed customer calls following the withdrawal of the emergency declaration, sales activities are restricted due to weak consumer sentiment and caution against the spread of infections. This is likely to affect our business performance.

The extent of the spread of COVID-19 and the time required to contain it is uncertain. Therefore, the above forecasts are calculated based on the assumption that the impact of COVID-19 will continue to a certain extent during the current term but ease gradually. Moreover, we do not expect a second declaration of the State of Emergency that would significantly restrict social activities and significantly impact the economy.

As stated in "Notice of Acquisition of Shares of Heartful Home Co., Ltd. (Making into Subsidiary)" dated May 19, 2019, Heartful Home became our subsidiary. As a result of making the company a subsidiary, Asante will adopt consolidated accounting from the second quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2021.

2. Dividend forecasts

(1) Details of the dividend forecast

		Dividend per share
	End-2Q	Year-end	Annual
Previous forecasts	-	-	-
Current forecasts	30.00 yen	30.00 yen	60.00 yen
(Ref.) Previous results	30.00 yen	30.00 yen	60.00 yen
(FY3/20)

(2) Reasons for Dividend Forecast

The dividend forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 2021 had been undetermined as with the business forecasts, but we announce the dividend forecasts based on the above business forecasts. Our basic dividend policy is to maintain stable dividends while comprehensively taking into account the need to strengthen its corporate structure and increase internal reserves, in order to return profits to shareholders as our top priority.

The business forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 2021, as mentioned above, are expected to fall below the previous year's results. However, as a result of comprehensive consideration based on the company's liability to the shareholder and the basic policy of the distribution policy, the forecast for the interim and end of the year will be 30 per share, the same amount as the previous year's results. As a result, the annual dividend forecast is 60 yen per share.

*The above business forecasts and dividend forecasts are based on information currently available and certain assumptions deemed reasonable. Actual results may differ from these forecasts due to various factors.