[Obayashi] ¥750bn Investment Plan — ¥300bn to Development, ¥190bn to Tech/DX

Note: This article is a factual summary based on Obayashi Corporation’s published IR material (Investors’ Guide, June 2026 edition). It is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Figures are as of the publication of the source material. Investment decisions are your own responsibility.

Obayashi’s Medium-Term Business Plan 2022 is backed by a specific spending program: a ¥750.0 billion total investment envelope, split across three tiers and seven categories. This page of the Investors’ Guide 2026 is effectively the itemized version of that headline number — what the group is putting into people and systems, into the construction business itself, and into new growth areas, and how much of each.

The ¥750.0 billion plan at a glance

The plan groups its seven spending lines into three tiers: intangible asset investment for platform development, continuous tangible assets investment to strengthen the foundation of the construction business, and growth investment to expand the business portfolio. The full breakdown:

Tier	Investment category	Amount	Key focus areas
Intangible asset investment	Human resource-related investment	¥30.0bn	Expanding training systems; a personnel system for diverse work styles; securing and developing talent; improving employee engagement
Intangible asset investment	DX-related investment	¥90.0bn	System development and software purchases; ICT equipment purchases; BPR initiatives; internal data integration and utilization; strengthening information security
Intangible asset investment	Technology-related investment	¥100.0bn	CO2 emissions reduction, automated construction, and large-scale infrastructure renewal; the engineering, nuclear power, and BIM (Building Information Modeling) departments; facilities and research equipment at the Obayashi Technology Research Institute
Tangible assets investment	Construction machinery and business facilities	¥75.0bn	Construction-related machinery; relocation and renovation of offices and employee dormitories
Tangible assets investment	Real estate development business	¥300.0bn	Offices, logistics facilities, and condominiums; net investment of ¥160.0bn after ¥140.0bn of planned property sales
Growth investment	Green energy business	¥60.0bn	Geothermal and hydrogen initiatives, including M&A and capital tie-ups; the 2024 acquisition of Eastland Generation (New Zealand) shares
Growth investment	M&A, capital tie-ups, VC, etc.	¥95.0bn	The 2023 acquisition of MWH (North America) and the 2025 acquisition of GCON (North America)
Total	—	¥750.0bn	—

Tier 1 — platform investment: people, DX, and technology

The first tier funds the intangible groundwork behind everything else in the plan; its three lines add up to roughly ¥220.0 billion. Human resource-related investment (¥30.0bn) goes toward expanding training systems, a personnel system that supports diverse work styles, securing and developing talent, and improving employee engagement. DX-related investment (¥90.0bn) covers system development and software purchases, ICT equipment, business process re-engineering (BPR) initiatives, internal data integration and utilization, and strengthening information security. The largest single line in this tier, technology-related investment (¥100.0bn), funds technology development and management in areas such as CO2 emissions reduction, automated construction, and large-scale infrastructure renewal, together with the engineering, nuclear power, and BIM-related departments and investment in facilities and research equipment at the Obayashi Technology Research Institute.

Tier 2 — strengthening the construction business itself

The second tier, continuous tangible assets investment, is dominated by one line. Construction machinery and business facilities (¥75.0bn) covers construction-related machinery plus the relocation and renovation of offices and employee dormitories. The much larger line is the real estate development business (¥300.0bn) — offices, logistics facilities, and condominiums — of which ¥160.0bn is net investment after ¥140.0bn of planned property sales. At ¥300.0bn, real estate development is the single largest category anywhere in the plan, accounting for roughly four-tenths of the ¥750.0 billion total (see our real estate development article for what this business already earns).

Tier 3 — growth investment to expand the portfolio

The third tier funds expansion beyond the core construction business. Green energy business investment (¥60.0bn) covers geothermal and hydrogen initiatives, including M&A and capital tie-ups, and the guide specifically names the 2024 acquisition of shares in Eastland Generation in New Zealand (see our green energy article). M&A, capital tie-ups, VC, and other investment (¥95.0bn) covers corporate acquisitions more broadly; the guide names two deals here, both in North America — the 2023 acquisition of MWH and the 2025 acquisition of GCON (see our North America article).

Reading the tiers, not just the totals

It is worth noting what each tier represents conceptually, not just numerically. The intangible-asset tier is not capital expenditure in the traditional sense — training, software, and R&D facilities will never show up as new plant on the balance sheet, but the guide treats them as investment on equal footing with construction machinery and property. The tangible-assets tier, dominated by the real estate development line, is framed as strengthening ‘the foundation of the construction business,’ even though real estate development is reported as its own segment elsewhere in the guide, separate from domestic building and domestic civil engineering (see our company overview article for how the five segments break down). And the growth-investment tier — green energy plus M&A — covers the newest and most externally visible parts of the strategy: two overseas acquisitions, a geothermal and hydrogen push, and a stake in a New Zealand power generator, none of which existed as reporting lines a decade ago.

What this means for investors

Two things stand out when the seven lines are read together. First, real estate development alone accounts for ¥300.0 billion, or roughly 40% of the plan — a reminder that Obayashi treats its own property pipeline as core, tangible-asset spending rather than a side bet. Second, the three intangible-asset lines — people, DX, and technology — add up to ¥220.0 billion, a sizeable commitment to systems and capability-building that will never show up as new buildings or machinery on the balance sheet. This ¥750.0 billion gross figure is also not the same number as the plan’s net investment cash outflow: once certain items are excluded and the ¥140.0bn of expected property sales is netted off, the plan converts to roughly ¥420.0 billion of investment cash flow over the five-year period — the figure used to size shareholder returns elsewhere in the plan (see our cash allocation article and capital policy article).

This article is part of our complete breakdown of the Obayashi Investors’ Guide 2026. See the hub article for the full series.

Note: This article is a factual summary based on Obayashi Corporation’s published IR material (Investors’ Guide, June 2026 edition). It is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Figures are as of the publication of the source material. Investment decisions are your own responsibility.