Kao (4452.T): President Hasebe roundtable takeaways: Consumer business remains solid, chemicals through the worst

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Kao (4452.T): President Hasebe roundtable takeaways: Consumer business remains solid, chemicals through the worst

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25 Jun 2026 07:16:18 ET │ 11 pages

Kao (4452.T)

President Hasebe roundtable takeaways: Consumer business remains

solid, chemicals through the worst

CITI’S TAKE Buy

President Yoshihiro Hasebe was the main speaker at a sell-side Price (25 Jun 26 15:30) ¥6,241.0

roundtable Kao held earlier today. The firm appears confidence that Target price ¥7,200.0

thorough and repeated analysis of consumer behavior is driving strong

Expected share price return 15.4% earnings in its domestic consumer business and will ensure its

continuation. The chemical business also appears to have passed its Expected dividend yield 2.5%

worst period following Q1’s YoY profit decline. We forecast Q2 OP at Expected total return 17.9%

¥45.2bn (+17% YoY), which we believe exceeds consensus of ¥42.5bn. Kao Market Cap ¥2,822,920M

shares currently trade at around 19x forward PER, offering strong value US$17,471M

compared to the 5-year average of 22x. We expect solid YoY profit growth

from Q2 to drive a revaluation of Kao’s valuation level.

Hiroki WatanabeAC

+81-3-6776-8296

• Domestic consumer business (50% of consolidated sales) —Kao has hiroki.watanabe@citi.com

continuously expanded its domestic market share for 35 consecutive months

since July 2023. Behind this success lies the company’s detailed sales data by

product category and channel, combined with an AI-powered pricing

simulation system. This system predicts the impact of price changes on sales

volume and creates a virtuous cycle where accuracy improves with data

accumulation. This has enabled Kao to successfully raise both prices and sales

volumes simultaneously. Particularly in fabric care products including laundry