Unveiling the new business plan for the four years starting in April, the company also raised its dividend payout ratio goal to 30% from the current 25% while making a commitment to buy its own shares worth 200 billion yen in the next two years.

"We want to go beyond the current framework of a comprehensive logistics company and create the value necessary for the future by deepening our core businesses and growing new businesses," President Hitoshi Nagasawa told a news conference.

Out of the planned 1.2 trillion yen investment budget, 560 billion yen will be allocated to LNG and dry bulk carriers, 140 billion yen on mergers and acquisitions in logistics and 100 billion yen on new businesses, including offshore wind power, hydrogen and ammonia.

To slash greenhouse gas emissions from its vessels, the firm plans to build 31 vessels fuelled by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and others fuelled by liquefied petroleum gas, ammonia and methanol by 2030.

"We plan to increase the number of LNG-fuelled vessels by around 2030, then start adding more ammonia-fuelled vessels from mid-2030s," CFO Takaya Soga said.

"For the vessels that are not easy to switch fuel, we will use bio-fuels and carbon offset," said Soga, who will become the president from April.

The net profit target in the year to March 2027 was set at 240 billion yen, below its forecast profit of 1 trillion yen for the current year.

"Business conditions in the past two years were extremely special due to disruptions of global logistics amid the pandemic," Nagasawa said.

"If you compare the new goal with our profits from pre-pandemic time, our profit is on track for a steady growth," he said.

($1 = 136.7200 yen)

(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)