三井物産社長の安永氏、日本の起業家精神を語る③

またまた続きの記事を。

There is a personal flavour to this enthusiasm. In 2016, a year after taking over as chief executive, Mr Yasunaga became the first Mitsui president since the second world war to announce an annual loss, as his predecessors’ bets on metal and energy soured(1) during a global commodities rout(2). It was humiliating stuff. For all the breadth of its portfolio, he had inherited a company whose profits (it disclosed at the time) fell ¥2.8bn ($23.7m) for every $1 per barrel drop in the price of crude(3) and had been, just three years earlier, 90 per cent derived from resources and energy.

 (1)sour:気まずくする、物事をまずくする　(2)rout:総崩れ　(3)crude:天然の（ここでは原油のこと）

1バレル当たり1ドルの石油価格低下で、28億円の利益が吹き飛ぶような収益構造ってすごいですね。

He vowed to “exhaust(4) all possible means to return to profitability”, and the current strategy, in which 50 per cent of profits will come from the consumer side of the business, is the result. On that note, his current preoccupation is Russian male life expectancy.

(4)exhaust:あらゆる手を使う

exhaustには"使い果たす"がメインの意味。受け身でbe exhaustedにすると、疲れ切ってクタクタ、みたいな意味になります。余談ですが。

Russia has a population of more than 144m. “They need access to quality products,” says Mr Yasunaga, describing Mitsui’s recent investment in R-Pharm, the Russian drugs group. “This is a platform to penetrate the pharmaceuticals(5) business in Russia, and we are bringing in Japanese products and devices.” He points out that the average healthy life expectancy for men was 66.5 in 2016, “so there is big headroom(6)”.

 (5)pharmaceutical:調合薬/薬学の　(6)headroom:上向く余地

ロシアの男性の平均寿命の伸びを見越して、薬のビジネスを展開していくと。なかなか面白そうな戦略ですね。

Mitsui’s core interests in Russia will continue to be its large and expanding resource-related investments, particularly in liquefied natural gas. But the R-Pharm move is about leveraging(7) a history of engagement with the country (and more than 60 others to which Mitsui’s resource-trading background has given it access and expertise) into markets where the margins may be greater.

(7)leverage:てこの作用→借り入れ資本での投資

文脈的には、これまで注力してきたのを活かして、これからより大きなリターンを狙っていく、という意味でleveragingを使っています。