Dentsu Posts Record Annual Net Loss of 327.6 B. Yen

Tokyo, Feb. 13 (Jiji Press)–Dentsu Group Inc. said Friday that it logged a record consolidated net loss of 327.6 billion yen for the year through December 2025, due chiefly to an impairment loss of 310.1 billion yen from sluggish overseas operations. The major Japanese advertising agency’s loss widened from the previous year’s 192.1 billion yen. Its operating loss totaled 289.2 billion yen, against 124.9 billion yen in the previous year, despite a rise of 1.7 pct in sales to 1,435.2 billion yen. In response to the poor results, the company will skip its annual dividend payment for the first time since going public in 2001. Dentsu Group President Hiroshi Igarashi, 65, will step down on March 27. Takeshi Sano, 55, president of Dentsu Inc., the group’s core unit, will succeed Igarashi the same day. Chisato Matsumoto, 59, executive vice president of Dentsu, will take over Sano’s current post on April 1. In the fiscal year through December 2026, Dentsu Group projects its sales to increase by 3.9 pct to 1,491.5 billion yen. It expects to post operating and net profits of 152.6 billion yen and 69.7 billion yen, respectively, after streamlining group companies to improve efficiency. Even so, the group expects not to pay an annual dividend for the second straight year. Dentsu Group has been posting net losses since the year ended in December 2023 due to its struggling overseas advertising operations. The ad giant said the possibility of logging a further loss in 2026 and later is limited, explaining that it factored in possible additional losses to the maximum extent in the latest impairment figure. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]