TechnoPro Holdings Inc

TSE:6028

Earnings Call Analysis

Positive Q1 with Robust Demand in Key Sectors

In the first quarter, TechnoPro Holdings saw revenues increase by 9.7% to JPY 52.8 billion, despite operating profit being slightly down from the previous year. Earnings growth and margin expansion were remarkable in Construction Management Outsourcing, reflecting efforts to raise prices for younger hires and bolster inexperienced staff. The firm's demand is robust, particularly from the automobile industry, which is investing heavily in EV and autonomous technologies, and aerospace, in anticipation of a rising defense budget. Cost control is a key focus, notably at Boyd & Moore. Internationally, the earnings are back-weighted to the second half of the fiscal year. The average unit sales price rose by 2.1%, indicating effectively managed base charge improvements.

Steady Performance Amid a Challenging Climate

TechnoPro Holdings showcased resilience in this quarter with the CFO underscoring the firm's robustness, even as the HR services sector faces economic fluctuations. Despite concerns about China's economic slowdown affecting business, the company has not observed any significant negative trends and even reported a slight increase in their contract renewal rate.

Revenue and Profit Dynamics

The company's first-quarter revenue grew by 9.7% year-on-year while gross profit (GP) increased by 6.1%, despite facing several cost pressures including provision for paid leave and bench costs. Their commitment to growth is evident through their ongoing hiring efforts and investments, particularly in the Overseas segment, notwithstanding a moderate decline in core operating profit.

Overseas Segment Watchful of Global Economic Headwinds

The Overseas segment, pivotal for TechnoPro's future growth, is weighed down by concerns over high interest rates in the U.S. and instability in the Middle East. These factors could pose challenges in meeting the full-year guidance for this segment, making it a crucial area to monitor.

Financial Flexibility and Strategic Investments

TechnoPro has been strategically managing its finances by making key acquisitions, repurchasing shares and preparing for future funding through a corporate bond shelf registration. While no immediate bond issuances are planned, these moves are geared towards diversifying funding sources and allowing for more agile financial operations.

Engineering Workforce Expansion & Utilization Ratio

The company is expanding its engineer base, having increased numbers by 9.3% year-on-year and forecasting further growth. While their utilization ratio has slightly declined, it's part of a deliberate strategy to enhance contract prices and cope with resource shortages, ultimately leading to a higher than planned utilization.

Recruitment Success Amid a Competitive Market

TechnoPro has broken its mid-career hiring record yet again, with a continued focus on quality hires, including in areas like IT and Construction Management. The company views the growing job mobility trend in Japan, fueled by government-led labor market reforms, as an opportunity to offer its attractive employment propositions to prospective talent.

Modest Uptick in Average Monthly Unit Sales Price

The company reported a 2.1% year-on-year increase in the average monthly unit sales price, which is in line with their growth plans. Despite fewer working days and overtime hours, this rise is deemed a sign of progress, with a notable 4.1% increase in the base charge for existing engineers.

Investing in the Future Despite Current Challenges

With subsidiaries like Robosoft, TechnoPro has made conscious investments in SG&A for long-term growth, despite the current downturn in operating profit due to these expenses. Furthermore, the company is cautiously tackling project profitability issues with its Indian customer base.

Consistent Performance of Overseas Subsidiaries

Subsidiaries like Helius are surpassing expectations, while Orion is focusing on recovery strategies amid rising operation costs. These efforts reflect the company’s intention to maintain stable growth across its international operations.

Guidance and Strategic Priorities

Despite not revising the P&L forecast, the company improved its first-half KPI predictions, including the number of hires and engineers. TechnoPro remains committed to capital efficiency and shareholder returns, as seen in share repurchase actions and treasury stock cancellations, and is enhancing its communication to investors to build confidence in its sustainable growth trajectory.

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Toshihiro Hagiwara, executive]

I am Hagiwara, CFO of TechnoPro Holdings. Thank you for your time today.

The HR services sector is thought to be more susceptible to economic swings. Our stock price has recently been on a downward trend, while the business environment in engineered staffing and solution offerings in Japan continues to be favorable. In our previous full year financial results briefing and subsequent IR activities, we've communicated that operating profit for the first quarter of this fiscal year is expected to be lower than the previous year, and that this year's earnings growth will be weighted heavily in the second half.

On the contrary, we were able to keep the decrease in profit for the first quarter smaller than expected. Considering our manufacturing customers with significant exposure to China, some of the investors may be concerned about the impact of China's economic stagnation and geopolitical risks on our business conditions. However, there are no negative signs in terms of contract renewals in this September, our new order flows at hand. The contract renewal ratio in September, which has the second highest portion of contracts up for renewal after March, ended up with 94.1% this year compared to 93.7% last year, and no large-scale cancellations have occurred.

In particular, the automobile industry has shown strong willingness to invest in autonomous driving and EV-related technologies, and the demand for software engineers focused on embedded control stays very robust. Moreover, in light of Japan's defense budget, which is supposed to escalate over the medium-to-long term, the inquiries for mechanical engineers in the aerospace field have been buoyant.

Now I will explain the summary of the first quarter financial results, key KPIs in Japan and the update of overseas operations. First, let's look at the financial overviews on Page 2. Revenue for the first quarter of this fiscal year was JPY 52.8 billion, up 9.7% year-on-year, while GP was JPY 14 billion, plus JPY 800 million or up only 6.1% year-on-year. The main items that contributed negatively to GP are listed in the comments section.

The increase in provision for paid leave compared to the previous fiscal year, which included special factors and the increase in bench cost due to tenacious efforts toward price hike and active inexperienced mid-career hires are both within the expected range. Also, starting from the first quarter, we've proportionately recorded allowance for financial results-linked bonus determined by the annual profit in line with the current forecast of upsides compared to the plan.

SG&A expenses for the first quarter were JPY 8.3 billion, plus about JPY 1 billion year-on-year, of which hiring related was plus JPY 230 million in Overseas segment related was plus JPY 440 million. Reasons for inflated hiring costs include an increase in the cost per hire because of more reliance on contingent fee-based placement agents. As for the Overseas, in addition to upfront investment in sales and marketing at Robosoft, rising costs at foreign subsidiaries due to local inflation and currency translation under the weaker yen also have some impacts.

From this time, there will be no specific disclosure regarding medium-term plan implementation cost, but the percentage of sales will be less than 1% for this fiscal year and continue to decline steadily going forward. Core operating profit and operating profit for the first quarter are JPY 5.7 billion, respectively, both of which are down year-on-year. However, based on the first quarter results and the second quarter KPIs forecast, we are currently making steady progress against our guidance for the first half.

Pages 3 and 4 show the quarterly performance of each P&L item and key KPIs in Japan. Regarding KPIs, we also show the outlook for the second quarter. The utilization ratio has exceeded the initial plan, but this is not because we prioritize utilization-focused assignments by compromising on base charge or contract price. On the other hand, the trend of less working hours, including overtime, is here to stay, and we will strive to raise contract price continuously by upskilling and reskilling efforts through education and training as well as persistent price negotiations with customers.

Page 5 shows the first quarter results by segment. Both earnings growth and margin expansion in the Construction Management Outsourcing have been remarkable. And under the new management that took over in July this year, we are actively working to strengthen the inexperienced hires and jack up the price of younger people who are assigned at relatively low charge.

The Other Businesses in Japan fell into the red due to a slump at Boyd & Moore, which conducts executive search for foreign tech companies. Boyd & Moore is trying to control costs more tightly in order to turn profitable, assuming that economy will remain uncertain and sluggish for some time. Additionally, PC Assist, which is engaged in education and training for engineers, is strengthening its organizational capability and marketing activity to capture customers' demand for growing human capital investment and is in some ways ahead of spending.

The Overseas earnings budget is even more heavily weighted in the second half of this fiscal year than the domestic business, and the decrease in profit for the first quarter was in line with expectations. However, concerns about a recession in the United States seems to persist as interest rates stay high, while the unstable situation in the Middle East has been added. We face some obstacles to delivery of the full year guidance for the Overseas segment. I will explain the update of each foreign subsidiary later.

Page 6 shows balance sheet and cash flows. In the first quarter of this fiscal year, we not only paid corporate income tax and year-end dividend, but also repurchased maximum shares under the buyback program launched in the previous fiscal year and acquired the remaining shares of Orion in accordance with the contract executed at the underwriting. With Orion becoming a 100% subsidiary, we can hold more flexibility regarding future strategic options for Orion.

Please note that the shelf registration relating to issuance of corporate bonds with a scheduled period of 2 years and a scheduled amount of JPY 20 billion becomes effective today. This is because the previous shelf registration has expired, and we do not anticipate issuing any bonds soon. This is part of our financial strategy to expand the possibility of diverse and flexible funding sources tailored to market environment.

From Page 7 onward, we will look at the key KPIs for our domestic business. Please refer to the Factbook file posted on our website for the detailed KPIs, including solution business data. The number of engineers at the end of September this year was 24,351, plus 2,078, or up 9.3%, compared to a year ago and plus 226 for 3 months of the first quarter. We will add another 300 engineers in the second quarter, expecting 24,650 at the end of this December.

The utilization ratio at the end of the first quarter of this fiscal year was 95.3%, 0.7 points lower than a year ago, while the average one for the first quarter was 95.0%, down 0.9 points year-on-year. As explained before, the slightly lower level of utilization is not due to a deterioration in the business environment, but rather to obtain satisfactory contract price and respond to chronic resource shortages. We've been executing this operation deliberately with a strong awareness of GP margin. Our sales reps seem to get used to these initiatives gradually, leading to higher utilization ratio than the initial plan.

Pages 8 and 9 show the distribution and year-on-year growth rate of assigned engineers by technology and industry sector. I'll spare you the details.

The next topic is the status of recruitment and turnover. The number of recruitment in the first quarter of this fiscal year was 881. We once again broke the quarterly mid-career hiring record since the pandemic, maintaining our hiring hurdles with a focus on quality. Of these, 93 were hired with no experience in the IT field, plus 8 year-on-year, while in the Construction Management, there were 69, plus 23 year-on-year. The inexperienced hires in the construction field are starting to gain momentum. And we expect 1,000 new graduates to join TechnoPro in April next year, almost same as this year.

The number of retirees began to increase from the second half of the previous fiscal year and the LTM based permanent employee turnover ratio has returned to the 8% level given our stock-based business characteristics. If more engineers than budgeted number leave the company, we will try to accelerate hires to offset such retirement excess. However, the harsh hiring environment and soaring fees would impose some limitations on this effort.

Turnover prevention is one of the top priorities for our management team as this business heavily relies on human capital. On the other hand, in Japan as well, employment mobility is surging, especially among young people or professionals such as engineers. The Japanese government is also promoting labor market reforms that make it easier to change jobs, such as by improving ability through reskilling.

TechnoPro, a leading tech-focused professional service provider must be in a superior position to present job seekers with attractive project opportunities, education and training programs and market competitive compensation packages, all of which would help them build their future careers. Therefore, we positively view the increase in the number of workers looking for job change as a new business opportunity for us.

Page 11 shows the change in its waterfall chart in unit sales price. The average monthly unit sales price for the first quarter of this fiscal year was JPY 669,000, in line with the initial plan, plus JPY 14,000, or up 2.1% year-on-year. Given slightly lower number of working days and overtime hours, it can be said that the improvement in base charge is progressing well. Please note that the base charge for our existing dispatch engineers at the end of September this year, which is not affected by working days or overtime hours, increased by 4.1% compared to a year ago, maintaining Charge Up and Shift Up results at the March contract renewals this year. While keeping an eye on following regular pay hike and promotions for our engineers in July next year, we will work to pass on such upward cost pressure to our customers.

Next is the update of our Overseas subsidiaries. Robosoft for this fiscal year, as in its investment phase, aiming for sustainable top line growth. Originally, we should have implemented it at an earlier stage after the acquisition. But due to the temporary restraint of digital spending in North America in 2022, it was delayed a little. The quarterly run rate of SG&A expenses was approximately JPY 400 million in the first quarter of this fiscal year, plus JPY 200 million year-on-year due to sales and marketing-related investments intended not only to develop new customers, but also to deepen existing ones.

As a result, operating profit was down by that amount, although this trend will continue throughout the year. We plan to recoup by winning more new projects in the second half onward. Of course, the global economic recession is a cause for concern, but we believe that it is inevitable investment that we will have to make at some point. Additionally, it was an unexpected result that the GP amount and margin in the first quarter were lower than in the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal year.

The occurrence of multiple unprofitable projects for Indian customers had an accumulated loss of approximately JPY 100 million on GP, thereby reducing GP margin by approximately 6%. This negative impact is supposed to partly remain in the second quarter as well. Typical GP margin for Indian projects that cannot enjoy the benefits of offshore delivery stays lower, and many Indian customers are difficult to handle. So it is best to avoid them as much as possible.

On the other hand, although it is a low profit project, we are able to accumulate industry and technical knowledges through the projects and also demonstrate our track record as a case study when making proposals to American and European customers. Consequently, we believe that it is necessary to work on projects in India to a certain extent. First of all, we would like to point out that the business scale of our Chinese subsidiary is small and its impact on our consolidated results will be extremely limited.

That said, TechnoPro China serves as a role model for our international expansion by taking advantage of our Japanese customer base, including technical services to local subsidiaries of Japanese companies and an offshore delivery function for projects undertaken in Japan. Deterioration in earnings as expected this fiscal year, but operating profit for the first quarter was almost in line with the budget.

Helius has maintained relatively strong performance among overseas subsidiaries and operating profit for the first quarter exceeded the budget by more than 10%. Dependency on Singapore's largest customer, DBS, has already fallen below 30%, and new projects with Singapore's major life insurance company have also started, some of which utilize offshore delivery from India to improve GP margin.

Orion's revenue in the first quarter of this fiscal year increased by 25% year-on-year on a yen basis and 11% on a local currency one, excluding the effect of yen depreciation. With some time lag, we are making progress in passing on engineers pay hike to customers, but under high inflation in U.K. We were unable to control SG&A expenses properly, and operating profit decreased significantly both year-on-year and compared to the budget. Currently, as the number of high-margin placement projects is on the rise, we will aim to recover from the second quarter onwards in order to achieve full year earnings growth.

Page 13 as a guidance for this fiscal year and Page 14 as a breakdown by segment. This time, we have not changed the PL forecast, but have updated only the key domestic KPIs for the first half. We revised upward the number of hires in the first half from 1,600 to 1,700 and also the number of engineers at the end of the second quarter from 24,600 to 24,650. The reason why the engineers number will remain at plus 50% compared to the hires of plus 100 is because 50 more retirees than initially planned as projected. The utilization ratio for the first half has been updated from 95.0% to 95.3%, and it is expected that this ratio will gradually improve until March next year before new graduates join the company.

Please see Page 15. There is no revision to the dividend forecast, but we repurchased the shares of JPY 1.42 billion in the first quarter of this fiscal year and the JPY 3 billion buyback program set in the previous fiscal year has ended. Furthermore, as of October 10 of this year, we canceled treasury stock equivalent to approximately 1% of the total number of issued shares, excluding a certain number of shares that may be vested as stock-based compensation in the future. As always, we continue to manage with an awareness of capital efficiency, paying close attention to investment opportunities, such as M&A and stock price level in the market.

This concludes the explanation of financial results. For your reference, we plan to publish the integrated report 2023 on December 1. This year, there has been a change in the Chairperson of the Board of Directors and the latter half of the medium-term management plan has begun as a high-growth phase, so we are striving to further enhance the contents to successfully convey our sustainable growth story. We are also planning a small meeting with our outside Directors in mid-December. If you would like to participate, please contact our IR department.

In the previous fiscal year, we conducted a total of 588 IR interviews, of which CEO engaged 115 and I, as CFO, did 292 mainly with foreign institutional investors. Investors' interest in not only current business performance, but also the progress of the medium-term management plan has been heightened, and we would like to beef up our IR team.

From now on, Executive Officer, Mr. Okumura, who is in charge of the Corporate Planning Department, will have more chances to interact with you as the main speaker. So please continue to support TechnoPro.

That's all for my presentation. Thank you very much.