Reorganization and company name changes of Mitsui Chemicals Agro Group

Mitsui Chemicals Agro, Inc. (President & CEO: OZAWA Satoshi), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. (President & CEO: HASHIMOTO Osamu), has announced the realignment of group companies, including the merger with MMAG Co. Ltd. (President: TANIGUCHI Katsuyuki) which was acquired last year, and to change its group company names after the reorganization.

1. Background and Purpose

Mitsui Chemicals Group is working to resolve social issues through its business activities, and positions its agrochemicals business, which mission is to contribute to the sustainable food supply and the improvement of quality of life (QoL), such as solving global food problems and fighting infectious diseases, as one of the core businesses of the Life & Healthcare Solutions Business.

Mitsui Chemicals Agro, the core of agrochemicals business of the Group, aims to become ″the global solutions company, leading innovation through products and services based on R&D activities, and contributing to sustainable food supply and improvement of QoL″, with a growth strategy to expand the crop protection business in Japan and overseas based on regional strategies and the non-crop business by utilizing its original active ingredients created by unique drug discovery technology.

In acquiring MMAG, Mitsui Chemicals Agro will accelerate its growth strategy through improving its presence in the domestic Japanese market; accelerating expansion into overseas markets where future growth is expected; continuously creating new active ingredients; and strengthening market-oriented formulation development, by combining MMAG’s portfolio, customer base, innovative active ingredients and formulation development technology, biological-related technology, and diverse human resources.

Therefore, Mitsui Chemicals Agro will reorganize the group companies, including the completion of post-acquisition integration of Mitsui Chemicals Agro and MMAG, with the aim of accelerating growth by maximizing synergies.

2. Scheme for Reorganization of Group Companies

To realize complete integration of each function of both Mitsui Chemicals Agro and MMAG groups; maximize synergies in sales, production, procurement, and R&D; and strengthen the governance system, Mitsui Chemicals Agro and MMAG groups will reorganize as follows.

1. Merge MMAG into Mitsui Chemicals Agro (as of March 31, 2023)

2. Merge MM Agro Chemical into Utsunomiya Chemical Industry (as of April 1, 2023)

3. Integrate functions of MCAG Korea branch office into MM Agro Korea (as soon as conditions are met)

4. MC Ryokka remains unchanged
   

3. Name Changes of Group Companies after Reorganization

Subject to the completion of necessary official procedures, the names of each company will be changed as follows.

(1) Mitsui Chemicals Agro, Inc. (as of March 31, 2023)
To become: Mitsui Chemicals Crop & Life Solutions, Inc.

(2) Utsunomiya Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. (as of April 1, 2023)
To become: MC Crop & Life Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

(3) MM Agro Korea Co., Ltd. (on and after April 1, 2023)
To become: Mitsui Chemicals Crop & Life Solutions Korea Co., Ltd.

(4) MC Ryokka Co., Ltd. (Unchanged)

4. Organization Structure and Name Changes in Mitsui Chemicals Agro

(1) Newly Organized ″Life Solutions Business Division″

To develop non-crop business into a second earnings pillar, Mitsui Chemicals Agro will newly organize the ″Life Solutions Business Div.″ through the reorganization of the PPM Sales Dept. and PPM Marketing Group of the International Business Div.’s Marketing Dept., and will newly organize the following departments within the Life Solutions Business Division:

• Japan Life Solutions Sales Dept.

• Life Solutions Sales Dept.

• Life Solutions Sales Administration Dept.

After the reorganization, the Domestic Sales Div. will be renamed to ″Japan Crop Solutions Business Div.″ and the International Business Div. will be renamed to ″International Crop Solutions Business Div.″

(2) Newly Organized ″Human Resources Department″

To be an important driver of corporate transformation (CX) through the transformation and fostering of organizational culture, the promotion of talent management, developing global human resources including the hiring of foreigners, and the promotion of human resource strategies such as the penetration of diversity & inclusion (D&I), Mitsui Chemicals Agro recognizes human resources as human capital and will newly organize a ″Human Resources Dept.″

(3) Newly Organized ″New Business Development Department″

To promote business portfolio transformation (PX) through the development of new solution businesses that extend the value chain, Mitsui Chemicals Agro will newly organize a ″New Business Development Dept.″ as a department-level organization under the Marketing Div. In addition, the ″Department of Business Planning, India″ will be abolished.

(4) Newly Organized ″Biological Solutions Research Center″

To promote green transformation (GX) and to improve business continuity through PX by strengthening R&D and production technology for biological crop protection products, Mitsui Chemicals Agro will newly organize the ″Biological Solutions Research Center″ as a department-level organization under the Research and Development Div.

5. Outlook

As the impact of this reorganization on the financial performance of the Mitsui Chemicals Agro group will be minor, there is no change to the earnings forecast.