TAKARA & CO, the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime-listed company trading under code 7921, told the exchange on July 8 that it is dropping the "stable dividend" policy it had run for years in favor of what it calls "flexible shareholder returns."
Under the new framework, the target consolidated payout ratio widens from roughly 50% to a range of 50% to 100% of profit. The board is also introducing a dividend-on-equity (DOE) floor of 7.5% or more, a metric with no prior formal target. DOE uses shareholders' equity rather than net income as its base, so the payout floor is designed to hold even when annual earnings swing.
The company says the change is meant to stop reserves piling up on the balance sheet and to lift return on equity, giving the board room to distribute rising operating cash flow as conditions allow rather than smoothing it into a fixed ratio. The policy shift accompanies a new mid-term management plan running through 2029 that TAKARA & CO published the same day.
The immediate payoff for shareholders is a forecast annual dividend of ¥180 per share for the year ending May 2027, split evenly between an interim payment of ¥90 and a year-end payment of ¥90. That is a 50% increase on the ¥120 per share paid for the year just ended, which was also split ¥60 and ¥60. The year before that, TAKARA & CO paid ¥120 as well, but structured as a ¥45 interim dividend and a ¥75 year-end payment that included a ¥30 special dividend.
| Period | Interim | Year-end | Annual total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year ended May 2025 (actual) | ¥45 | ¥75 (¥45 ordinary + ¥30 special) | ¥120 |
| Year ended May 2026 (actual) | ¥60 | ¥60 | ¥120 |
| Year ending May 2027 (forecast) | ¥90 | ¥90 | ¥180 |
At the new forecast level, TAKARA & CO projects its payout ratio for the year ending May 2027 will land at 66.4%, inside the new 50-100% band, with DOE at 7.6%, just above the new 7.5% floor.
Separately, the company is reviving the shareholder benefit program it scrapped after the year ending May 2023, aimed at encouraging longer-term holding among individual investors. TAKARA & CO has not yet published eligibility rules, the qualifying record date, or what the perks will actually be. It says the design work is still underway and details will follow in a separate disclosure once finalized. Management expects the restart to have only a minor effect on consolidated results for the year ending May 2027.
The company's own caution notice applies to all of it: the dividend forecast and the new DOE and payout targets rest on information and assumptions the board currently judges reasonable, and actual results may differ.