WSJ: In your energy and natural resources business, are you prioritizing some resources over others?
Mr. Kobayashi: Itochu's plan is to focus on iron ore and coal, and increasingly uranium. Itochu is the second-largest uranium trader on a global basis, so it's quite natural to try and get some equity in a uranium mine. Recently, we announced our investment in Australia's
Extract Resources Ltd., which has a uranium deposit in Namibia. We took 15% of equity in that company.
WSJ: Why choose a company which has a uranium deposit in Namibia as an investment target?
Mr. Kobayashi: We view Namibia as a stable and open country for an investment. It also ranks as the fourth-largest uranium producer, with a long operational history.
WSJ: Do you have any concerns that valuations of resources assets are too high?
Mr. Kobayashi: It's very difficult to say. When we try to forecast pricing in the coming years, our view is based on supply of resources increasing only gradually, but demand growing drastically. So, the bottom line is that we think resources prices will be at the high end, maybe for the coming decade. Although I don't think equity prices of resource assets are cheap, I think they are reasonable right now.