Revenue grew in the first half, but profit growth stalled; restoring profitability in the second half is the focus

Revenue for the first half of FY2026 was ¥958.859 million, up ¥170.534 million, or 21.6%, from ¥788.325 million in the year-earlier period. Operating profit, by contrast, was ¥168.549 million, up just ¥1.875 million, or 1.1%, from ¥166.674 million. Operating profit growth lagged far behind revenue growth, and the first-half operating margin was approximately 17.6%, down approximately 3.6 percentage points from approximately 21.1% in the year-earlier period.

First-half progress against the full-year forecast was approximately 44.8% for revenue and 47.3% for operating profit. If the full-year forecast is mechanically allocated at three-quarters, cumulative revenue of ¥1,605.75 million and operating profit of ¥267 million through the third quarter provide one benchmark for assessment. The amounts required in the second half to achieve the full-year forecast are revenue of ¥1,182.141 million and operating profit of ¥187.451 million. However, the company has disclosed seasonality in which the launch of service provision is concentrated from July to December to coincide with major customers’ fiscal year-ends. Therefore, the 75% level should be treated as a mechanical progress benchmark, not as the company’s formal quarterly target.

For margin comparison, the operating margin for FY2025 was 16.4%. The 17.6% margin in the first half of FY2026 exceeded the full-year FY2025 result, but declined clearly year on year. Accordingly, at the next results announcement, the key question will not simply be whether revenue exceeds the year-earlier period, but whether the operating margin improves above 17.6% or shows signs of returning to the 21% range seen in the year-earlier period. We will also check whether the company discloses amounts by factor behind the margin decline, including cost of sales, outsourcing expenses, personnel expenses and recruitment-related costs.

There has been no revision to the full-year forecast at this point, and the annual dividend forecast remains ¥0. Next time, in addition to the cumulative results through the third quarter, we will check whether the outlook for achieving full-year revenue of ¥2,141 million and operating profit of ¥356 million remains unchanged. In particular, rather than judging achievement of the plan solely on revenue progress, the key point will be whether the company provides a quantitative explanation of the projects, gross margins and cost controls that will generate the remaining ¥187 million of operating profit.