[Featured Topic: Japanese Stocks] ROBOT PAYMENT Research Memo (7): Capital and business alliance with RAKUS could accelerate its growth story

ROBOT PAYMENT announced that it would enter into a capital and business alliance with RAKUS and dispose of treasury shares through a third-party allotment. The alliance aims to drive business growth and enhance corporate value by leveraging RAKUS’s strong sales capabilities and ROBOT PAYMENT’s technological expertise in billing and receivables management.

Under the alliance, ROBOT PAYMENT will develop Billing Management Robo on an OEM basis for RAKUS, which plans to begin selling it as Rakuraku Receivables Management by the end of 2026. RAKUS determined that leveraging a partner’s technology would be more effective than expanding its internally developed Rakuraku Receivables Management.

The OEM product will be rebuilt by separating collection, cash application and overdue-payment notifications from the functions for linking, creating, issuing and sending billing data. Combined with RAKUS’s electronic invoicing system, Rakuraku Meisai, it is expected to provide equivalent functionality. RAKUS’s customer base is concentrated among manufacturers and wholesalers nationwide, while ROBOT PAYMENT mainly serves urban IT companies, professional firms and cloud service providers. As their customer profiles differ, the impact of cannibalization is expected to be limited.

Under the capital alliance, RAKUS will acquire 120,000 treasury shares of ROBOT PAYMENT, and ¥278 million will be allocated to future development costs for Rakuraku Receivables Management. In its long-term strategy, the company is targeting revenue of ¥21.0 billion and operating profit of ¥3.1 billion for the fiscal year ending December 2035. Its dividend policy calls for gradually increasing the payout ratio in line with growth in net assets. The alliance with RAKUS is expected to accelerate growth and expand opportunities for new financial services.