CyberAgent Inc
TSE:4751
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CyberAgent Inc
Earnings Call Analysis
Q4-2024 Analysis
CyberAgent Inc
CyberAgent ended FY 2024 on a strong note, reporting significant growth in both sales and profits. The Media business, particularly the ABEMA platform, has witnessed an increase in sales alongside a reduction in losses, indicating a recovery in profitability. The advertising sector has also shown improvement, outperforming market growth rates.
The gaming business, particularly the critically acclaimed title 'Uma Musume', has experienced a bounce back after a challenging period. Recent releases in the gaming segment have contributed to this recovery, demonstrating the company's ability to innovate and provide engaging content. CyberAgent has now returned to increasing sales and profitability.
CyberAgent has maintained an upward trajectory in consolidated sales, marking the 27th consecutive year of increases. Net operating profits (OP) for FY 2025 are expected to remain flat but show signs of recovery with recent improvements. The company aims to ensure that its return on equity (ROE) and dividend payout ratio exceed industry averages, showing commitment to long-term shareholder value.
Attention has been focused on enhancing technology investments, particularly in AI, which are projected to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness in advertising. These investments are beginning to show positive returns, substantiating management's strategy to prioritize technological advancements.
ABEMA's monthly active users have surged to approximately 30 million, tripling the initial goal set in 2020. The platform's diverse content offerings, including anime, news, and sports, have attracted a wide user base. Additionally, recent pricing revisions for premium plans are expected to bolster profitability further, making it a significant focal point for future growth.
Looking forward, CyberAgent is keen on driving sales and profitability while continuing to develop its intellectual properties (IPs). The success of 'Uma Musume' showcases the potential for replication in new projects. The company is also investing in upcoming titles for consoles and expanding its reach through collaborations and new game releases slated for FY 2025.
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We would like to begin CyberAgent's FY 2024 Full Year Results Briefing. This session is being streamed. With respect to the content we will be sharing today, please refer to the disclaimer in the briefing's material. Our President, Fujita, will explain about our brief -- earnings.
I'm President, Fujita. I will explain about our performance for the full year FY 2024. So overall, this fiscal year, we ended on a great note. Overall, we have done well. First, starting with the Media business, ABEMA sales have grown and the losses have shrunk, therefore we've seen a significant increase in sales and profits. With the ad business, it's been doing well. But this year as well, we have outpaced the market growth. So we've seen increase in sales and profitability here as well.
In terms of games, Uma Musume, there was a period where the response from Uma Musume posed to be a hardest period, but we have released a couple of new titles and the game business has recovered. As well, we have done well in the game business. And in terms of the consolidated sales for the 27th consecutive year since our founding, we've seen an increase in sales. And of course, in FY 2021, we grew our sales significantly due to Uma Musume. And after that, we saw a decline in the game business for a certain period, but it's been great that we have increased sales and profitability since then.
And in terms of the operating profit, FY 2021, Uma Musume became a great hit. And we have been preparing for the response afterwards. And usually, when we have a great hit game and if it's a super hit, of course, we see it peak like Mount Fuji. The graph looks like Mount Fuji, so it rises significantly, and it drops equally. And of course, we try to offset that, but because the peak is so high, it usually is difficult, but we prepared quite far in advance. And we have -- we are increasing profits once again because of our preparations.
With respect to SG&A, as you can see here, this year, we did make upward revisions last quarter. And afterwards, [indiscernible] went public, and we saw revenues from that. So most of that has been paid out as year-end bonuses. This is the number of employees. We're nearly reaching 8,000 employees. This is the PL and the balance sheet, no major changes here. With respect to the dividends, as you can see from ABEMA, we have started big businesses, even though we are a public company. So for our shareholders that have hold our shares for a long time. Of course, we want to make sure that we are giving benefits regardless of the short-term fluctuations in the share prices.
But we wanted to make sure that the DOE, ROE is higher than the TSE average. In terms of the FY 2025 forecast, as you can see here, this is our forecast for the next fiscal year. OP is going to be quite flat for now, but as you can see, we made upward revisions last quarter, and we wanted to have a more of a clean staircase, but we did see a rise in OP in FY '24. So it seems flat, but basically, we will be increasing our profits.
This is quite straightforward. In terms of the net income -- net profits, of course, it's easier to actually book profits than before. And I would like to talk about the different sectors -- business sectors now. So first, starting with the Internet advertising, for a long time, it has grown stably, has painted a very nice upward trajectory. And of course, advertising business is impacted by seasonal factors and external factors as well, but it's our strength that we've seen such a stable growth.
This is the OP. OP margin was declining for a while, and we did receive questions whether it will continue, but we are investing significant in technology. And I did explain that the technology investments will pay off. And so we are seeing that pay off now. We are starting to see our investments pay off. And this is the sales by quarter. As I mentioned before, volatility is -- there's little volatility. That's our strength of our advertising business because we focus on advertising effectiveness. So that's why it doesn't fluctuate as much. With respect to the OP, these are the trends. So we've seen double-digit growth for the fourth consecutive quarter.
So we're focusing our operations on advertising effectiveness, and I've also mentioned investing in technology. But right now, we're investing mainly in AI, and this has enabled us to maximize AI effectiveness. So we are moving ahead with our AI applications. And moving on to the game sector. As I mentioned before, Uma Musume became a super hit. And afterwards, we've seen game doesn't decline rapidly, and this is because we were launching new services. But oftentimes, it's like pouring cold water on hot stones. You don't see a lot of effect, but we have able to escape this period, make a departure from this period in FY 2024. So we've seen increases in sales as well as profits, and this is by quarter, and we have grown year-on-year as well. And this is the OP by quarter as well.
For Uma Musume, we collaborated with Kentucky this fiscal year, and we launched a console game. And we also released a very high-quality movie. So as an IP, it has -- we are making -- implementing necessary initiative to help nurture as an IP. And Chiikawa game is going to be -- we've already announced that we will be releasing this game, and there's a lot of Chiikawa fans -- core fans. So this is something that we have high expectations for as our next release. In FY 2024, we released 5 titles, including 3 consoles. FY '25 onwards, in the future as well, we are going to be investing in different games so that we can stably release new games.
Moving on to the Media business. If you look at the full year, it has grown very strongly -- the sales has grown strongly. And even in terms of OP, over the long period, we have made investments, and we're seeing great improvements in this area. So 2025 onwards, we will be starting to make -- book operating profits. So it's a turning point, and this is by quarter. And this is operating loss. This quarter, we saw onetime losses. But as I mentioned before, Media business overall, FY 2025 onwards, we will be making -- booking operating profits.
These are the ABEMA-related sales. As you can see, this is growing very powerfully as well. ABEMA WAU, we have, in the beginning, aspire to reach 10 million [ FWAU ] in 2020, but now we're -- and we achieved that in 2022, but now it's 3x that. World Cup -- you see a peak during the World Cup, but we're reaching those levels now, close to the same levels, and we're not relying on one content. We have news, anime and sports as well. A wide variety of content is growing. So we're seeing growth in many different areas.
Within ABEMA, this is a significant development, but in October and November, we have the premium plan with ads and the premium plan as well, we made price revisions, but these are on track. So if it all goes well, this should be improving our profitability. We wanted to improve the quality significantly. So we didn't release a lot of dramas in the recent period, but we are going to be releasing INFORMA and MOGURA, different titles. So with respect to dramas as well, we want us to be known for dramas also.
Lastly, the mid- to long-term strategy, this hasn't -- FY 2025 as well, we will continue to focus on sales -- increasing sales and profitability. This has not changed. On the other hand, we want to continue to put a lot of effort into creating IPs. “Uma Musume is our own IP, and it was a great success story in terms of games and as content. So we have the power to replicate the success story. So NITRO PLUS joined us this fiscal year and also MANGA APARTMENT has launched as well to make sure that we have MANGA content. So we are undertaking a wide range of initiatives in this area.
ABEMA, half of our ABEMA users are watching anime actually. So ability to nurture IP and expand the IP, we believe that we have that capability and a wide range of our group companies. So we want to use our collective power and continue to develop games as well. These are the animes and films that are being planned. FY '25, APOCALYPSE HOTEL is an anime that will be released and Project SEKAI, we have the game, but the movie will be released next year. That concludes my explanation. Thank you very much.
This concludes our FY 2024 full year earnings briefing. If you should have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the IR team. Thank you for watching today.
[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]