Nippon Paper Industries Co (TYO:3863) renewed its efforts to improve capital efficiency and raise its price-to-book ratio after a board review flagged weak returns, according to a Monday filing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The firm aims to lift ROE above its 7%-10% cost of equity and increase FY25 operating income to 40 billion yen from a projected 34 billion yen.

Despite recent restructuring, PBR dropped to 0.24 in FY24 and ROE fell to 1%, hurt by delayed returns and slow overseas growth.

Planned measures include a group-wide ROIC framework, reduced debt, trimmed cross-shareholdings, and a shift toward higher-margin daily-life products. A new long-term strategy will follow in FY26.