Link and Motivation Inc

TSE:2170

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q4

[Yoshihisa Ozasa, executive]

I am Yoshihisa Ozasa, and I am Chairman and Representative Director of the Board of Link and Motivation. Welcome to our earnings webcast for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022.

So let's get started. Here is today's agenda. First, I will give you our company overview. Second, I'm going to give you the group summary for 2022, which consists of the report on our consolidated financial results and of the report on the organizational status. Third, I will share with you our forecast of 2023 results. Then I will briefly talk about our growth strategies centered on the Organizational Development Division. And lastly, I will talk about our shareholder returns policy.

So let's begin with the company overview. This diagram represents our operating structure. With Motivation Engineering as the core technology, we have 3 business divisions. From upper left, Organizational Development Division: As a B2B business, it supports creating organizations that individuals choose or what we call motivation companies. It includes Consulting & Cloud business and IR Support business. Next, to the right, is Individual Development Division. It supports creating or developing individuals that organizations choose. We call them i-company (sic) [ i-Companies ]. It includes Career School business and a Cram School business.

And the third one, which is just below, is Matching Division, which provides opportunities to link organizations and individuals. It includes ALT Placement business and a Personnel Placement business. In addition, we also have venture incubation business, which provides capital and organizational support for venture companies seeking to go public.

Next, agenda item #2, group summary for 2022, report on consolidated financial results. Revenues were basically unchanged, and gross profit increased year-on-year. Although results fell short of the forecast due to greater-than-expected declines in the Career School business and ALT Placement business, the highly profitable Consulting & Cloud business and the Personnel Placement business grew substantially. In addition, our successful structural reform of business costs led to substantial year-on-year increases in adjusted operating income and the rest of the other income lines. Adjusted operating income jumped 30.8%. Operating income soared 75.6%. And net income more than doubled, up 106.4% from last year.

This table is showing revenues and gross profit by segment and comparing them with the results from last year. The Consulting & Cloud business in Organizational Development Division was driving growth by taking advantage of growing momentum of human capital management. Its revenues were up 11.8%, and the gross profit was up 9.5% from last year. As for Individual Development Division, the Career School business is currently going through structural reforms, as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic still remains. In Matching Division, OpenWork has been the key driver of growth in the highly profitable Personnel Placement business which has grown significantly over the past year.

Let's take a look at the brief summary for each division. For Organizational Development Division, Consulting & Cloud business successfully captured the needs of improving employee engagement among major companies. And the cloud business, in particular, saw a substantial increase over the last year. Consulting & Cloud business' revenues rose 11.8%, and gross profit went up 7.4% from last year. When it comes to IR Support business, our efforts to improve profit margin, coupled with the rising demand for producing integrated reports, led to a substantial increase in gross profit from last year. Its revenues increased 7.6%, and gross profit jumped 16.9% from last year.

The chart you see on the right side is showing monthly fee revenue of Motivation Cloud series. It's been growing strongly and consistently. And the latest figure as of the end of 2022 was JPY 328,505,000, up 36.6% from last year.

Next is the summary for Individual Development Division. Career School business saw both revenues and gross profit decline from last year because the number of enrollees struggled to recover and with the continued impact of COVID-19 in the B2C services. On the other hand, the employee reskilling support business, which is a highly profitable B2B business, continued to generate strong revenue growth. Career School business' revenues dropped 8.6% and gross profit declined 6.5% from last year. For Cram School business, revenues and gross profit rose year-on-year due to an increase in the number of enrollees, up 10.5% and 5.6%, respectively.

The chart you see on the right side is showing sales of B2B employee reskilling support. The sales grew 32.7% from last year. The B2B reskilling support business continues to grow strongly, while B2C services are still struggling.

This is Matching Division. For ALT Placement business, we raised prices due to the eligibility expansion of the social insurance program in October this year. Some local governments and municipalities withdrew their bids because the new prices exceeded their budget. As a result, both revenues and gross profit dropped 8.5% and 9.8%, respectively, from last year. Personnel Placement business, on the other hand, continued to have brilliant results, thanks to a strong growth of OpenWork Recruiting. Revenues increased 32.2% and gross profit rose 31% from last year.

The chart you see on the right side is showing the pace of revenue growth of OpenWork Recruiting. Revenues more than doubled, up 102.5% from last year, extremely strong revenue growth.

These are SG&A expenses. Total SG&A expenses remained almost flat. Savings in expenses due to the office relocations were allocated to investments for growth, notably recruiting, training and welfare expenses as well as sales-related expenses.

These are consolidated statements of our financial position. Assets decreased due to the transfer of the domestic temp staff business and office relocations. Liabilities also shrank, thanks to a decrease in lease liabilities associated with the rationalization of our schools in the Career School business. Equity increased by JPY 2.697 billion due to the posting of net income. Return on equity improved, over an increase in net income, at 23.3% for 2022.

Let's move on to the report on the organizational status. Here is our approach to human capital management. We make appropriate investments to continue to create conditions for capable employees to work with high engagement, which enhances human capital and leads to business growth. In this respect, we link business strategy with organizational strategy and particularly focus on employee engagement.

Link and Motivation discloses its engagement rating, which is an indicator showing employee engagement as well as engagement score every 6 months. As you can see, among the 11 companies in the Link and Motivation Group, 10 have a AAA rating, maintaining a high level of engagement.

Next agenda item is forecast of 2023 results. The rising interest in and momentum of human capital management is giving us the best market environment since our founding, and we see substantial growth in businesses where we can leverage this opportunity. We expect revenues to increase 7.7%, adjusted operating income to go up by 23.3%, IFRS operating income to jump by 28.7% and net income to soar 37.7% year-on-year.

This is a summary forecast. We expect substantial growth in Organizational Development Division driven by cloud business which we think will grow more than 20% (sic) [ more than 120% ]. Individual Development Division is expected to sustain the same level of revenues by expanding B2B services while continuing the school rationalization. Matching Division focuses on growing Personnel Placement business. And we expect OpenWork to grow more than 20% (sic) [ more than 120% ].

Let's move on to the next item of the agenda, our growth strategies centered on the Organizational Development Division. The business environment that surrounds us is this. The rising interest in and momentum of human capital management is giving us the best market environment since our founding. First, the acceleration of human capital disclosure is reflected by the fact that the ministry of economy published a guideline for human capital visualization. And a human capital disclosure in securities reports is now mandatory. These provide a tailwind for business, of course.

The second factor is the increase in reskilling activities. It is estimated that there will be 4.5 million employment mismatches in 2030 as the nature of human resource demand changes because of digitalization. And we are seeing an increasing number of companies wanting to reskill their employees, especially with IT skills.

The third factor is the intensifying competition for talent. The jobs-to-applicants ratio for December 2022 was 2.54x. And therefore, IT talent was 12x, meaning that more and more companies want to hire and retain talented and skilled workers than ever before. We believe that substantial growth will come from businesses where we can leverage this changing business environment. There are 3 areas we are focusing on.

First and foremost, the Organizational Development Division needs to drive more growth. We will target major companies that have already made some progress in human capital management and disclosure and focus on the Motivation Cloud series of the Consulting & Cloud business. Secondly, we will create more synergy between the Organizational Development Division and the Individual Development Division. We will target the customer base of the Organizational Development Division to provide the employee reskilling support of the Career School business.

Thirdly, we will create more synergy between the Organizational Development Division and the Matching Division. We will also target the customer base of the Organizational Development Division to provide the OpenWork Recruiting service of the Personnel Placement business.

Here's a little bit more detail about Motivation Cloud series. We are the dominant player in the rapidly expanding employee engagement market, maintaining the #1 share of sales for 5 consecutive years. While we focus on major companies, a segment that we think can grow even bigger, we are also targeting Japanese subsidiaries of global corporations and the local municipalities in Japan as prospective customers. When it comes to Motivation Cloud series monthly fee revenue, as the demand for organizational diagnosis to improve employee engagement rises, we expect to generate a monthly revenue of JPY 430 million by the end of 2023, up 30.9% year-on-year.

What about creating more synergy between the Organizational Development Division and the Individual Development Division? We will target the customer base of the Organizational Development Division to offer our reskilling courses to those who promote human capital management. And we expect a 19.5% year-on-year revenue growth for next year. Creating more synergy between the Organizational Development Division and the Matching Division focuses on leveraging OpenWork, one of Japan's largest word-of-mouth job posting platforms, to provide direct recruiting service. And we expect a surge in OpenWork revenue, up 57.8% for next year.

Let's move on to agenda item #5, shareholder returns policy. After receiving much feedback and a careful deliberation, we will discontinue our shareholder special benefit plan on the record date in June 2023 to ensure fair treatment of our shareholders. Instead, we have decided to significantly raise quarterly dividend by 40% from JPY 2 a share to JPY 2.8 a share because we believe that the best way to share profits with our shareholders is to pay dividend in line with our performance. And creating shareholder value continues to be our management priority.

Again this is our operating structure. As I mentioned earlier, we are backed by tailwinds in this business climate. Now is the time to step on the gas, especially for the Organizational Development Division, as the need for human capital management and employee reskilling is on the rise, so please stay tuned to what we are up to, especially at the Organizational Development Division but also at the other divisions.

And that's it for our earnings briefing for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. Thank you very much for watching.

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