East Japan Railway Co

TSE:9020

Q1-2026 Earnings Call

[Atsuko Ito, executive]

We will now explain our fiscal year March 2026 first quarter financial results, which were released to the press today at 3:30 p.m. Please turn to Page 2, which outlines the key points of our Q1 financial results.

Our top line operating revenue grew by 4.2% to JPY 715.3 billion. Our operating income, however, decreased compared to last fiscal year, coming in at JPY 114.7 billion. Net income, on the other hand, increased by JPY 5.3 billion from last year, reaching JPY 78.6 billion.

As noted in the middle of the page, the group as a whole achieved increased revenue and income. Our top line operating revenue marked its fifth consecutive period of growth, driven by increased railway usage and higher sales at our EKINAKA stores inside railway stations.

However, regarding operating income, if we look specifically at the first quarter, we had several large real estate sales to external parties in the first quarter of last year due to the impact of these specific transactions or one-off gains from specific property sales, our income decreased by JPY 5.7 billion.

Almost all of this JPY 5.7 billion decrease is attributable to the decline in real estate sales profit. So we ask that you consider this in the context of the full year. Conversely, we recorded gains from the sale of investment securities, which led to an increase in quarterly net income.

Looking at performance by segments, all segments saw increased revenue. Only the Retail and Services segment achieved both increased revenue and income, while the others saw increased revenue but decreased income.

In the transportation business, despite higher revenue, income declined mainly due to increased non-personnel expenses, particularly maintenance costs and also personnel costs. The Retail and Services business benefited significantly from increased sales at EKINAKA stores contributing to higher income.

The Real Estate and Hotels business with the opening of TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY saw strong performance overall in office leasing revenue, shopping centers and hotels. However, as mentioned earlier, if we isolate the first 3 months of the first quarter, the profit from real estate sales decreased, resulting in increased revenue but decreased income for the segment.

Other segments saw an increase in revenue from areas like contract system development. However, the decrease in profit from GATES, our worldwide truck construction company in Singapore, which is also due to the impact of specific projects led to increased revenue but decreased income for this segment as well.

This concludes the overview of our performance. Given it's only a 3-month period, we do not intend to revise our full year financial forecast, which was announced on April 30, Furthermore, we plan a full year dividend of JPY 62, aiming for a dividend payout ratio of 30.9%.

Moving on, this is a waterfall chart illustrating the changes in consolidated operating income. Revenues increased by JPY 28.6 billion. But on the other hand, there was an increase in expenses, resulting in a JPY 5.7 billion decrease in income.

Looking at the orange section, the largest contribution to operating income comes from JR's transportation revenue, totaling approximately JPY 17 billion. This includes JPY 2 billion from commuter passes and JPY 15 billion from non-commuter pass revenue.

Of the non-commuter pass revenue, JPY 7 billion is from Shinkansen and JPY 8 billion from conventional lines. For retail and services and real estate and hotels, there's a positive contribution, mainly from EKINAKA business.

In real estate and hotels, shopping centers, offices and hotels all saw increased revenue. In the middle of the graph, you'll see a decrease in real estate sales revenue, which fell by JPY 8 billion.

Cost of sales also decreased by JPY 3 billion, resulting in a net negative impact of JPY 5 billion on operating income. Furthermore, there was an increase in personnel expenses, primarily at JR and group companies, including basic salary increases amounting to JPY 10 billion.

Regarding the increase in JR maintenance expenses, this does not mean we increased our annual plan. It's crucial for safety to consistently and uniformly carry out maintenance work, and we've been very successful in achieving this level of uniformity this year.

Therefore, compared to the first quarter of last fiscal year, there's an impact of about JPY 6.5 billion. Finally, an increase in other expenses on the far right, amounting to JPY 18 billion is due to commission fees and increases in outsourcing costs driven by rising prices.

Additionally, there are increases from depreciation, taxes and public dues and capital costs. Next, the consolidated statements of income. We'll cover the segment breakdown in the upper section later.

So let's first go through the latter half, starting with nonoperating income or expenses. Regarding nonoperating income or expenses, expenses increased by JPY 2.7 billion, primarily due to higher bond interest.

Moving to extraordinary gains, the JPY 20 billion increase from last year is mainly due to the recognition of gains on the sale of investments in securities. Extraordinary losses increased by JPY 4.5 billion from the previous year, totaling JPY 9.5 billion.

As you can see, if you refer to the Shinkansen financial summary later on Page 5 of the Shinkansen document, we've included the group's income statement. Within extraordinary losses, there's a JPY 3.3 billion entry for regional transportation cooperation funds.

This includes a significant development as part of that Tsugaru Line Had been out of service due to heavy rain, but we reached an agreement with local municipalities in June to convert it to road-based transportation.

This conversion to road-based services will begin in April 2027. We will partially cover the operating costs for the NPO that will run these services for 18 years, amounting to JPY 3.3 billion.

This amount was finalized in the agreement, so we recognized it as an expense. As for net income, it is shown. Next, I'll explain our performance by segment. Let's begin with our Transportation segment.

While top line operating revenues increased by JPY 20.2 billion, operating income saw a slight decrease. Both our Shinkansen and conventional lines experienced increased revenue driven by higher Shinkansen ridership and increased usage of conventional lines, particularly in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Additionally, we introduced Green Cars on the Chuo Line Rapid service for a fee starting mid-March this year. We anticipate an JPY 8 billion increase in annual revenue from this. And while the initial uptake was a bit slow, it has started to gain traction with customers around June. Currently, we're about 1/4 of the JPY 8 billion at just about JPY 2 billion, but we believe we can still reach the JPY 8 billion revenue target for the full year.

We will continue to promote this service to our customers. Performance for buses and railcar manufacturing is as shown. In the lower section, we've presented railway business passenger revenue result and plan in percentages.

Previously, we used a graph, but since we've cycled through the COVID-19 period, we're now presenting this data in a table format using indices. For the Shinkansen, we exceeded our plan by approximately JPY 5 billion.

Conventional lines exceeded their plan by about JPY 2.5 billion and commuter passes were up by roughly JPY 2 billion. In total, we exceeded our plan by approximately JPY 9.5 billion or roughly, JPY 10 billion, resulting in a JPY 17 billion increase in revenue year-on-year.

Next, please see the relevant indicators for the Transportation segment. Let's look at the Shinkansen passenger volume section. The Tohoku Shinkansen overall is performing very strongly.

The Hokuriku Shinkansen, on the other hand, performed exceptionally well, partly boosted by the release of the Detective Conan movie. Regarding weekday versus holiday passenger volume, you can see that the disparity between weekdays and holidays has significantly narrowed.

Weekday volume in June was 103%. This is also partly attributed to our time-limited sales during off-peak seasons, which have helped boost numbers. We also observed more business-related travel, including MICE, meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions events than before.

Lastly, the commuter passes uses on weekdays in Tokyo metropolitan area is also gradually increasing, reflecting the ongoing return to office work and is about 2 points higher year-on-year. Next, let's look at Retail and Services.

This segment, primarily driven by our retail operations saw increased revenue and income across the board. This was largely due to higher usage of our EKINAKA stores, the opening of f Ecute Akihabara and renovations at Ueno. In the middle section, we've included an update on our transportation advertising.

We're slightly below plan here, partly because some existing transportation clients shifted their advertising schedules. We aim to strengthen this area further with a particular focus on digital advertising.

Next is the Real Estate and Hotel segment. You can see that while revenue increased, income decreased. The main reason for this decrease in income is the real estate sales. However, if we exclude these real estate sales, our core businesses of shopping centers and offices saw a revenue increase of approximately JPY 9 billion, indicating very strong performance in these areas.

Please refer to the rest of the details later. Next, on the following page, we have the relevant indicators for the Real Estate and Hotel segment. Please look at the table on the right, specifically the hotel section and in the middle, the room occupancy rate.

In April and May, the occupancy rate was approximately 80%. April was particularly strong due to Easter holidays and the earlier cherry blossom season. But June saw a slight weakening. As I will explain later in the inbound section, a slight negative impact here is attributed to rumors of a major earthquake in Japan on July 5.

In the bottom half, you'll see the office vacancy rate. For properties managed by our group company, JR East Building, the vacancy rate in the first quarter was 2.1%, which indicates a significant improvement compared to the end of the previous fiscal year.

Leasing for TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY, including the THE LINKPILLAR 2 is also progressing smoothly. Finally, let's look at the Others segment. This segment saw an increase in revenue, but a decrease in income.

The revenue growth came from 3 business units: Suica and finance, energy and construction. However, as I mentioned at the beginning, the decrease in sales from GATES, our overseas track construction business impacted income, leading to the increased revenue but decreased income for this segment.

Next page shows inbound revenue results. First, looking at Mobility in the upper section, our inbound revenue was JPY 9.8 billion, representing 93.6% of the target. We fell short by approximately JPY 0.6 billion in actual terms.

More than half of this shortfall was due to the aforementioned rumors of an earthquake, and we are analyzing the remaining half. Inbound tourism, especially for us, has high targets for the latter half of the fiscal year due to our content offering of snow and hot springs.

So we are determined to significantly boost inbound numbers. For Life-style Solutions, despite some impact, the sales from atré and Lumine, among others, contributed positively, and we actually exceeded our targets in this area.

Next, please refer to the consolidated balance sheet later. Next, on the following page, we have the consolidated interest-bearing debt, capital expenditures and key indicators. Regarding consolidated interest-bearing debt, the net interest-bearing debt balance on the very last line increased by JPY 213.7 billion from last year, reaching JPY 4,935.6 billion.

The reason for this is the other interest-bearing debt listed one line above. The end of the first quarter is always a period with high funding demand as payments for employee bonuses, maintenance work completed at the end of the fiscal year, and construction projects are concentrated during this time.

This time, we temporarily issued commercial paper to get through this period, which is why you see an increase in other interest-bearing debt when looking at this snapshot. However, the commercial paper has already been repaid in July. There's no change in the trend for capital expenditures.

For the Transportation segment, it is largely consistent with the previous year. For Life-style, there's an increase mainly driven by projects at TAKANAWA and OIMACHI. Following this, you'll find a nonconsolidated income statement and various reference materials.

Further on, you'll also see key slides from our new midterm vision To the Next Stage 2034, which we released on July 1 and held a briefing recently. One more thing, just after 4:30 p.m., we issued a press release regarding the decision to acquire treasury stock.

We previously announced a new human resources and compensation system, which included plans for treasury stock acquisition. We are currently planning to introduce a stock compensation program for our employees in the future.

Therefore, this acquisition of treasury stock is intended to be allocated for the shares required for this stock compensation program. In addition to this program, we're also implementing a flexible and agile capital policy, including the full consolidation of our group companies.

So these acquired shares will also be used for those purposes. As you can see here, the total number of shares to be acquired is approximately 2.4 million with a maximum acquisition price of JPY 7.7 billion. The acquisition will take place before the market opens tomorrow. Once the acquisition is complete, we plan to issue another press release tomorrow. That concludes my explanation. Thank you very much.