Persol Holdings Co Ltd

TSE:2181

Q2-2026 Earnings Call

[和田 孝雄, executive]

Thank you very much for joining us today. I am Wada, Representative Director, President and CEO. Here are the 3 points I would like to share with you today. First one is about our performance for the first half in FY 2025. The first 6 months performance in the year grew as planned. We also expect to achieve our full year plan. What is notable is that profit at all levels reached new records in the first half of the year. In the second half, we'll incur certain M&A expenses, but taking these into account, we still expect to achieve a 10% increase in adjusted EBITDA to JPY 86.5 billion.

The second point is the acquisition of Gojob shares on October 1, which I will explain more later. And here's the third point. I will briefly touch on plans for the next fiscal year and beyond. We want to achieve solid growth in the next fiscal year onwards, and we also strive to realize well-disciplined growth with a strong focus on capital efficiency while striking a fine balance with shareholders' returns.

Now Mr. Tokunaga, our CFO, will provide an overview of the financial results for the first half of the fiscal year. Mr. Tokunaga, over to you.

[Junji Tokunaga, executive]

I am Tokunaga. I will provide an overview of the consolidated financial results for the first half of the year, followed by an overview of the financial result in the current status by SBU, and the interim dividend at the end.

First is the overview of the first half consolidated financial results. Revenue and gross profit grew by about 5% year-on-year. As Mr. Wada explained earlier, profits at all levels also marked a record high. Specifically, operating profit increased 14% year-on-year to JPY 36.6 billion. Adjusted EBITDA increased 3.7% to JPY 44.3 billion. Profit also increased 12% to JPY 23.9 billion. I will share more details on this later, but we sold an inventory-related business in September, which generates a profit of JPY 2.7 billion. As a result, operating profit and profit increased significantly. Please note that the adjusted EBITDA doesn't include a one-off gain on sale, resulting in the difference.

Next are the factors behind the increase and decrease in adjusted EBITDA from the first half of the previous year. Gross profit increased by JPY 8.9 billion. On the other hand, SG&A went up by JPY 7.3 billion due to increases in personnel and system expenses, resulting in a net increase of adjusted EBITDA by JPY 1.6 billion. As mentioned here, ForEx impact on gross profit was JPY 1.5 billion year-on-year, so as SG&A was an impact of JPY 1.3 billion, resulting in a net decrease of about JPY 200 million.

Next is about the difference between adjusted EBITDA and operating profit. To begin with, depreciation increased by JPY 0.7 billion year-on-year, but the additional provision for accrued paid leave was minus JPY 0.8 billion, which is mainly due to Asia Pacific SBU. Then as I mentioned earlier, the gain on the sale of the inventory-related business of JPY 2.7 billion is added, resulting in operating profit of JPY 36.6 billion.

Next is the achievement status against the plan for the first half. With regards to revenue, as you saw, the achievement rate is around 100% in all SBUs, which is almost in line with the forecast. On the other hand, adjusted EBITDA in the Technology SBU was down JPY 0.8 billion. The reason for that, which I will explain later, is the delays in system development within the group. Also adjustment, which are mainly holding company's expenses have worsened by JPY 1.1 billion due to expenses for M&A such as Gojob higher than the forecast at the beginning of the year. Other SBUs outperformed the first half plan, resulting in a total JPY 1.3 billion increase in adjusted EBITDA.

The Page 8 presents the revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and operating profit achievement rate for the first half, as well as the full year progress rate by SBU. Appreciate if you would take a look at the details later. In the middle of the table, the progress rate of adjusted EBITDA in the Technology SBU is lagging due to the delays in system development within the group explained earlier.

The Page 9 shows our full year forecast, including the one for the second half of the year. Revenue for the first half was almost in line with the plan, and the second half is projected to progress in line with the plan as well. With regards to adjusted EBITDA, as Mr. Wada explained earlier, expenses are expected to increase by about JPY 1 billion from the initial forecast due to PMI expenses associated with the Gojob acquisition. However, as first half profits outperformed by JPY 1.3 billion, which will offset expense increase to achieve full year profit of JPY 86.5 billion.

The next Pages 10, 11 and 12, represent the revenues, adjusted EBITDA and operating profit by SBU compared to the previous year. I'll come back to the point during SBU.

So let me move to the next. Here is a summary of the financial results by SBU. First up is the staffing SBU. Looking at the KPIs, the number of active staff in Q2 increased by 2.2%, the same as in Q1. The charge price also increased by 2.1%, resulting in a total revenue increase of 3.7% year-on-year. We were also able to properly control SG&A, resulting in a profit of JPY 18.2 billion, 7.4% up on a year-on-year basis.

The next page covers quarterly result of charge price and number of active staff. Appreciate if you could take a look at it later.

Next is the BPO SBU. In the BPO SBU, revenue increased by about 27%, contributed by the acquisition of CSL last fiscal year. Adjusted EBITDA also increased by 53%, achieving significant increase in both revenue and profits. We call the revenue and adjusted EBITDA, excluding the CSL acquisition organic, and the organic revenue grew by 11% in the second quarter. As described here, cumulative organic revenue for the first half increased by just over 8%, led by solid performance in public sector and local governments.

The third SBU is the technology. Starting off with revenue, it increased by 10% year-on-year. The breakdown is shown on the right. We saw revenue increase by about 6% in the IT and DX solutions by just over 8% in the mechanical and electrical engineering and by 1.5% in registered temporary staffing and freelancers. We also maintained the turnover rate at 8% range in Q2.

On the other hand, as explained at the outset, the adjusted EBITDA has been affected by delays in system development within the group. Expenses for the entire first half of the year have increased by about JPY 500 million compared to the plan. However, this has been resolved in the first half, so we do not expect its impact dragging on in the second half.

On the next page, we share the operating person months, operating rate and average sales per unit, excluding registered temporary staff and freelancers for your reference.

Next is Career SBU. With regards to the career market, there were no major changes in Q2, so was in Q1. In the major group, both individual and corporate customers remain cautious. Meanwhile, the high-income group continues to experience high growth. As a result, revenue increased by 6.8% year-on-year as shown in the chart. As for profit, marketing investment increased by about JPY 1 billion compared to the first half of last year. Other than marketing, expenses have properly controlled and EBITDA grew by 18.7%.

With regards to productivity and number of personnel in the placement business, productivity improved significantly following the same trend in the first quarter. The number of consultant declined slightly from 2,785 in the first quarter. In view of placement market outlook in the next fiscal year, we would like to look into potential increase of personnel if needed in the second half of the year within the range where we can maintain the level of productivity.

The last SBU is the Asia Pacific SBU. Starting off with the ForEx impact, there was a negative impact of JPY 13.7 billion in the first half of the year, but in local currency, it is an increase in the revenue of about 5%. With regards to trends by business and the market, facility management continues to perform well. Temporary staffing and slightly patchy. Asia is steady, while Australia is somehow sluggish. Placement remains rather weak in both Asia and Australia. As for adjusted EBITDA, as explained at the time of the first quarter financial briefing, we plan to spend about JPY 2 billion on system renewal this fiscal year, primarily in the facility management business. We recorded JPY 800 million in the first half, and the impact of ForEx rates was about JPY 300 million on adjusted EBITDA in the first half.

Regarding others and adjustments, there have been no major changes compared to the first half of the last year. As for the adjustments, expenses have increased by about JPY 3 billion due to an increase in the financial and management accounting system-related expenses for the holding company year-on-year, along with the increase in M&A expenses, including Gojob.

The KPI status of each SBU is listed on Page 23 and 24, so please take a look at them later.

Next, I will briefly explain the interim dividend. At the beginning of this fiscal year, we announced a full year dividend forecast of JPY 11. Today, we resolved to pay an interim dividend of JPY 5.5 for the first half of the fiscal year as planned. We also forecast a year-end dividend of JPY 5.5.

That concludes my presentation on the overview of the consolidated financial results, the current status by SBU, and the interim dividend.

[和田 孝雄, executive]

Thank you, Mr. Tokunaga. Next, I will give a brief explanation on the progress of the current midterm management plan. In the midterm management plan, we set the management direction to become a technology-driven HR service company and have been pushing it forward. As shown in the chart, the Staffing SBU and BPO SBU are described as a workforce business, which means that the increase in the personnel is largely in line with top line growth. Going forward, as the light blue area at the top shows, increase of personnel will not be in sync with business growth. We laid out a policy to enhance the technology-driven platform, which enables us to drive businesses without adding personnel.

Here are the 4 areas defined in our technology policy. The area #3 is about improving value of core businesses, and #4 is about creation of new values, which led to the acquisition of Gojob. As more details are on the next slide, we announced the acquisition of Gojob shares on October 1. 85.2% of the shares were acquired and brought us an AI-driven staffing platform. We believe that the Gojob's technological capabilities, growth potential and scalability are particularly attractive. Almost 2 years of research in the various companies led us to this company. We were fully aware of their strengths before proceeding with this M&A deal. As mentioned at the beginning, we believe that these 3 factors, technology, growth potential and scalability are a perfect match with our digital platform business to grow further.

The strengths are listed here. A good example is the lead time for confirmation. It takes about 2 days to confirm in the traditional staffing business, but it can be done in only 24 minutes with Gojob. Or the cancellation rate of candidate is below 1%. We're able to provide a service highly satisfying both corporate clients and candidates. As shown in the upper left, repeat rate of job seekers reaches 75% and customer satisfaction is quite high at 73%. Both numbers are maintained at the high level in the industry. Therefore, these are the driving force behind the growth. Remarkably, this business has achieved a fivefold revenue growth in 5 years without adding recruiters. This is the proof that you can grow 5x without increasing headcount leveraged by the model. It's a formula in a format applicable to other businesses.

With these efforts, we'll continue to achieve sustainable growth in the next fiscal year onward while improving profitability. We'll make a solid progress in AI use, especially in Japan, while enhancing value of the core business. We set a profitability target in 2027 and 2028 by SBU, 6% for Staffing SBU, 8% for BPO SBU, and 10% for Technology SBU, respectively, to ensure the profit improvement.

We'll also accelerate investment in AI and the Career SBU more to execute both improvement of productivity and business expansion at the same time. In addition, we're actively driving profitability improvements in Asia Pacific SBU and are dedicated to ensuring their success. This will allow us to firmly achieve 10% adjusted EBITDA growth in this fiscal year and the future. The specific details will be available around the time of our financial result announcement in May 2026.

Next section is group topics. The PERSOL Group Integrated Reports 2025 was published. This is positioned as a progress review of our midterm management plan, and it also helps you have better understanding on our business in details. We are grateful that last year, our integrated report received an award and it was also recognized by the GPIF. For this year, we have enhanced the content in a way that lives up to that recognition, so we encourage you to take a look at it.

There are various general topics. The Expo 2025 is over, but we will continue to support those who have experience in the operation of the Expo. Also, in an attempt to integrate AI into our business, we shared various topics here. At the very end, we announced the result of the company-wide Workers Well-being Survey 2025. We engaged in initiatives to accomplish the coexistence of business growth, social value and economic value. We're demonstrating our commitment to becoming a Career Well-being Creation Company. The survey results show how our initiatives meet our commitment. So I hope you will find a time to look at it.

That concludes my report.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]