CyberAgent, Inc. (4751) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

We would like to begin CyberAgent's FY 2026 Third Quarter Earnings Briefing. This earnings briefing is being streamed. With respect to the content we will share with you today, please refer to the disclaimer contained in the earnings briefing material. The President and CEO, Yamauchi, will take us through the results.

This is the President, Yamauchi. I would like to take you through the FY 2026 3rd quarter results. This quarter, we performed better than we anticipated. Thus, we are announcing an upward revision to our fiscal year forecast today. We have achieved multilayer growth in the Media and IP business, mainly driven by ABEMA, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in April this year. The Advertising business has continued to book high revenue growth rate following the second quarter. Regarding the Game business, casual games have become a global hit and thus the sales has increased year-on-year. In terms of sales, we booked record high consolidated sales for the third quarter. This is the operating profit. The total OP over the last 3 quarters have increased year-on-year. No major changes to the SG&A expenses. We added 402 brand news in April, bringing our total number of employees to 8,878 on. This is our PL and this is our balance sheet. Next, we would like to take you through the forecast. We have forecasted that our OP, operating profit will decline year-on-year. But as of the end of the third quarter, we have, for the first time seen a growth in profit. This is the achievement rate against the new forecast. We plan to increase the dividend payout forecast as a result of the upward revision to our forecast. Next, moving on to the Media and IP business. Sales grew steadily. ABEMA celebrated its 10th anniversary this April, and we proactively invested in content, including anniversary special programs. We are not able to steadily generate profits in the Media and IP segment. Here are some examples of our 10th anniversary programming. We plan to sustain customer interest by planning various content in the fourth quarter as well. We are currently putting a lot of effort into producing our own original programs and our efforts have borne fruit. We have won numerous awards in Japan as well as in other markets. From June to July, we saw contribution from our new original programs such as Kyo-Suki and Shuffle Island. Hence, our WAU surpassed 31.37 million. At the moment, we have 3 animation studios in our fall, CyPic, CA Soa and Kurm. In addition to Kagurabachi, which we introduced in the second quarter and the hit movie, Chiikawa The Movie, The Secret of the Mermaid Island produced by Cypic, we are seeing an increase in the pipeline. Moreover, we took part in one of the largest anime events in the world organized in the U.S. in July. We felt firsthand the high expectations that global market has in our content such as Kagurabachi. We hope to continue to gain knowledge and know-how through our global marketing efforts in North America, Europe, Asia and other regions. We will continue to create original global hit content and build an end-to-end structure spanning content production through monetization. Next, Internet Advertising business. For the Advertising business, we saw a high growth rate in the third quarter, growing by 8.9% Y-o-Y. We saw record high third quarter sales. The operating profit grew double digits Y-o-Y. We also began selling ChatGPT ads in June, but our Kiwami Forecast TD that we developed has also become compatible, further strengthening our sales activities. Moreover, we developed ad operation AI and other AI agents dedicated to advertising distribution and operation to further improve our performance. As AI search becomes more widespread, we have endeavored to achieve higher performance in advertising. Thus, we newly established the AI search marketing division in June. We will continue to adapt with agility so that we can deliver new value to our customers. Now moving on to the Game business. Key titles continue to perform strong and casual games have become a global hit. Thus, we saw 20% Y-o-Y growth this quarter. With respect to the OP, although there is volatility quarter-on-quarter, we significantly increased profits from the first to third quarter, booking JPY 50.9 billion. On July 23, we began providing the title hololive Dreams, we jointly developed with COVER. It surpassed 1 million downloads on the first day and have come in at #1 in the sales rankings in all of the stores released, including Apple, Google Play and Steam. Released simultaneously worldwide on July 9, Granblue Fantasy: Relink-Endless Ragnarok has been highly acclaimed both in Japan and overseas with both the new title and its predecessor ranking among the top-selling titles on Steam. Going forward, we will continue to maximize the longevity of our existing titles while pursuing global hit titles. Lastly, our medium- to long-term strategy. Our key strength include ABEMA powerful user acquisition engine, one of Japan's leading Internet advertising businesses and the country's #1 smartphone game business. By leveraging the strength in combination, we will create globally competitive IP and maximize synergies across the group. This concludes my explanation. Thank you very much for listening.

This concludes CyberAgent's FY 2026 Third Quarter Earnings Briefing. Should you have any questions, please reach out to the IR team. Thank you for watching today. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]