SBI Holdings, Inc. (8473) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Thank you very much for gathering despite your busy schedules. And thank you for many of you to participate online as well. It is the first quarter results explanation. So on behalf of all, I will be providing the explanation. So without further ado, I would like to start. This is the consolidated performance. Revenue, JPY 330 billion. Profit Before income tax expenses, JPY 51 billion. Profit for the period, JPY 38 billion. Out of that, profit attributable to owners of the company is JPY 21 billion. Therefore, revenue, profit before income tax expense and profit for the period, each one of them for the first quarter has resulted in a record high. Profit attributable for owners of the company year-on-year basis, it's showing a negative number. However, regarding this, this was a temporary factor or due to temporary market situation changes impacted this number. Therefore, on a full year basis, we believe that this is not a problem. Regarding the details, I would like to explain you in the following page. Our company -- the calculation of the total shareholders' return is using the profit for income tax expenses of the financial businesses. Therefore, we consider this profit before income taxes expenses index should be one of the important indicators for making management decisions. And compared on a year-on-year basis, profit before income tax expenses was 20.3% year-on-year, an increase up to JPY 51.7 billion. Main factors is a financial service business led by the SBI Shinsei Bank Group's Corporate business expanded, and an extraordinary profit from the liquidation of a subsidiary, the numbers were strong. And as you know, from the second half of last fiscal year, we have been executing the ZERO Revolution. And there was a unusual income regarding that, but the securities business is performing strongly. And therefore, in the first quarter, the profit before income tax expenses was a record high. And the negative number year-on-year basis, profit attributable to owners of the company, there are several factors behind this. And as for the temporary factors, last fiscal year, Sumishin SBI Net Bank, IPO-ed and sold part of their shares, and the gain from that was JPY 1.5 billion, which fell off this fiscal year. In addition to that, the fiscal year, Gumi, which was the equity-method affiliate has recorded an extraordinary loss, and we had to take that in, therefore, it was JPY 1 billion at Gumi and at the other equity-method affiliates, similar situations occurred. That is why we have experienced a negative this time. In addition to that, our company applies IFRS. And due to that, it is impacted by the market price. And last fiscal year was JPY 5.2 billion. The fair value of direct investment in listed stocks, but there was a Jimoto holdings of JPY 2 billion as a fair value loss, and this is the direct investment. So that negative figure is down to the profit attributed owners of the company. And as for the foreign currency denominated exposure, right now, we have the hedging. However, having said that the first quarter, there was the rapid and weakening and the hedge position regarding this, the parent company is leading that. Therefore, that loss has been reflected in the profit attributed owners of the company. And as for the foreign currency-denominated investment securities and as for the loss and gains of the foreign exchange, there is a part that is held by the external front, and that is recorded as a non-controlling interest. Therefore, the profit before Income tax expenses is impacted. But when it comes to the profit attributed owners of the company, it shows the impact. However, once the end strengthens, we believe that this is going to be showing a different number. And this is repeating myself we are applying IFRS on a short-term basis, the market situations impact, especially we have the market cap value. And due to the temporary factors, it shows a large change. But if we look at the short term, it is starting to calm down. So for us, we are putting importance on the full year growth, and this is the point that we would like you to understand. This is by a segmental performance. Our Financial Service business, Asset Management business, Crypto-asset business. At each segment, the revenue and profit before income expenses both for the first quarter has recorded a record high. And as for the investment business, as I've explained, the listed companies a negative figure. This term, it is minus JPY 4.6 billion. And as for the Next Generation business, I have explained Gumi just before and the investment that we're making for Next Generation business due to temporary factors, it is showing a negative JPY 5.4 billion. And from now onwards, in the last result announcement nation, Kitao mentioned that we are reorganizing the business portfolio and we are showing you several progresses, and I'm hoping that I can share with you each one of them. First of all is the bank business is promoting thoroughly reinforcing its profitability through allocating business resources. And this week, 0.25%, the rate has increased. And ahead of this, we have been implementing our initiatives, and we are seeing the effect of that now. SBI Securities is under our group. So there's a strong image that we conduct the securities of business. However, in fact, within the Financial Service businesses. If we look at the ratio of this business, if you look at the far right, you will know the banking business, it is 62%. That is the situation that we are reaching now. And the policy interest rate was increased. And what is the situation going to be? It's a question of that I assume that you'll be asked so we have created this slide. First of all, regarding Shinsei Bank, there's a positive and negative factors. But in the full year, the JPY 2.1 billion increase in profit is what we're assuming. On the other hand, for the net banking business, within the housing loan, the majority is the variable rates. And for asset management, the majority is variable rate. So if you look at the picture, it's about the JPY 13 billion increase in profit that we expect. Shinsei bank's first quarter J-GAAP results are shown here. Net profit was JPY 31.9 billion, which is 143% year-on-year. Starting with APLUS, the corporate business has grown and derivative related revenue has increased as well and extraordinary profit due to the liquidation of a subsidiary. Due to result of this, the net profit was JPY 31.9 billion. Furthermore, IFRS -- making the bank into IFRS applied business, there are various impacts. Currently, J-GAAP was JPY 36.4 billion, IFRS was JPY 34.8 billion. So there's not much a situation where there's not much of a difference. And this is the Shinsei banks' retail accounts and total deposits. It's been about 2 years since it became a subsidiary company. And as for the deposit amount, it's about slightly under twice of the amount, which is slightly under JPY 11.7 trillion. And this is showing the Shinsei Bank's operating assets, and we have implemented various initiatives and 2 years, have increased about 50%, and it has reached JPY 12.3 trillion. And furthermore, as a different initiative, we have partially acquired NEC Capital Solution. Limited, and we have entered the basic agreement on business alliance. We have the voting rights of 33.32%, and therefore, it has become the equity-method affiliate. And as a result of this, NEC Capital Solutions revenue, we will be able to take it, and we will have the synergy with Showa leasing, and it will be a comprehensive complement to each other's business. And SBI Shinsei Bank and SBI MONEYPLAZA, co-managed stores, we have been increasing the co-managed stores from August of 2022, and we expanded to 22 of them with the AUM has exceeded JPY 300 billion and the majority of the customers are in the wealth segment -- a wealthy segment. And next is SBI Sumishin Net Bank performance. Regarding J-GAAP ordinary business profit on a year-on-year basis, plus 13.3, which is JPY 9 billion and it is steadily performing. And IFRS, we have 31.9% interest, and we had the intake of the part and IFRS we have a change to -- converted to IFRS. For example, the upfront fee was deferred in this fiscal year. The par [indiscernible] and others due to the rise in interest rate that was the market value and that was impacted by the decline in valuation, and that is why it has resulted in JPY 1.1 billion. SBI Net Bank's, showing deposits and the number of accounts since the start of this business, we have gradually increased it. And recently, it is at the level same as the top players and the regional banks. And in 16 years, we were able to achieve this result. And this is South Korea's SBI Savings Bank. If you look at the IFRS number, so IFRS year-on-year, the change is plus 144%, it's JPY 4.297 billion. If you look at the South Korean economy, the business condition sentiment continues to remain weak and other saving banks have real estate project finance, which they are struggling with. But with our SBI Savings Bank, we have been containing real estate project financing. Therefore, as a result, we are seeing an upside on our earnings. And also, if you look at our delinquency rate of our receivables at the end of March was 5.6%, but now it has improved to 5.4%. So we were when we actually made it a subsidiary, it was only -- it was 51.6% in delinquency rate, but we have been lowering that level gradually like this. And we continue to keep the delinquency rates low. And even if our peers are struggling, we continue to remain at the very low level. So if we see the economy of South Korea turn around, then we can expect greater profitability here. This is the situation on the next generation account system. So from July 16, 2024, we have begun to see operation at the Fukushima Bank. It has been designed and built on AWS to achieve high scalability. What's noticeable here is that in all accounting programs where there's great burden especially when there is a migration switch over, there's a large upside -- upfront cost and there's depreciation cost following that. But because we're using a silent partnership scheme, we are using an annual fee model, which changed the cost from fixed cost to a variable cost structure. And at this point in time, leveraging our know-how from the operation, we will be implementing this at Shimane Bank, so we will be able to support the smooth implementation of the system. Next is on our securities business. Through this initiative called ZERO Revolution in Securities business which we have actually carried out, of course, there was a substantial amount of lost revenue, but we have overcome this and have actually achieved increase in revenue and profit in Q1. In all items, you can see we have record high. Since 4 years ago, we have tried to diversify our revenue sources, and this is an outcome a result of that. If you compare with ourselves with the peers, this is what it looks like. If you look at the operating profit, you can see that we are maintaining a very high level. Meanwhile, online securities, if we compare ourselves with them, there's many of the online brokers are negative. However, we have been positive, and you can see that we have actually gained profit. So according to our calculation this time because the stock market is quite active, if you go the conventional calculation, in just 1 quarter, there will be JPY 1.1 billion in lost profit, JPY 9.1 billion, excuse me. Now this is a comparison of the revenue structure, but I -- this is the fees where we have basically lost and it's nearly zero, where it's light blue. But if you look at the financial revenues and trading revenues, we have substantial increase in which we have offset these losses on the online brokerage from the domestic stocks. And therefore, we have seen 11.2% increase year-on-year and this JPY 56.7 billion. In particular, the financial revenues, we've been able to generate JPY 20 billion. I think this is a major point. This is the quarterly trend. The left 2, this is before ZERO revolution and the three on the right-hand side is after ZERO Revolution. So we have been preparing from ZERO Revolution, and you can see that bear fruit. And year-on-year, we have now booked plus 11.2% increase. Earlier, I mentioned briefly about margin trading of an interest credit balance and financial revenue. This is JPY 2 trillion, exceeded that JPY 2 trillion. This is 42.5% year-on-year. This is expected to continue to increase. This is Trading Revenue. Sales of foreign bonds continue to make a significant contribution. And the FX market has quite a bit of a volatility. But even then FX revenue is increasing. And in fact, we have actually recorded a record high in foreign bonds. This is the Investment Trust. You can see stable stock revenue from Investment Trust business. Again, we are recording a record high since NISA started within just 6 months, we have been able to increase the balance to 1.5x. As a result, Investment Trust fee, you can see we continue to record a very high level of fees. In Investment Trust in particular, there's an impact from accumulation type of investment trust, as of July 22, on a monthly basis, we have exceeded JPY 230 billion on an annual basis, this is JPY 7 trillion -- excuse me, it's JPY 2.7 trillion. So we can expect to see increase in Investment Trust fees even going forward. With regards to SBI Wrap, this is robot adviser. Since the start of the service, AUM has now -- is approximately JPY 115 billion. What's interesting is that SBI's Shinsei Bank's branches, face-to-face batches, they started handling this. And this has actually exceeded JPY 50 billion in AUM just within a year and 9-months. With regards to SBI Securities, they are strengthening wholesale business as well. You can see IPO underwriting, we are continuing to maintain #1 position in terms of share. Also, PO underwriting business is strong. Just in -- just 1 quarter, we have underwritten 2 POs, one of which was lead manager. And with regards to corporate bond underwriting, you can see we're growing very steadily. We wrote 11 corporate bonds in this Q1. Now with regards to the M&A business, targeting SMEs, we have been strengthening this. We have established a joint venture with Tsuji Hongo M&A Solutions and you can see that we're also increasing this business as well. With regards to the revenue from foreign stocks. U.S. trading volume continues to be strong. We're continuing to see growth. With regards to margin trading, we can see its record high, it's JPY 700 billion. We're very close to JPY 700 billion. In terms of revenue from foreign stocks, if you're trying to quantify this, in 2023 Q1, compared to that, we have actually grown by 1.7x. Again, ZERO Revolution Part three, this is elimination of real-time foreign exchange fees, and this has really boosted the number of customers. With regards to the Futures, Options and individual stock option. With regards to futures, options trading, since ZERO Revolution, we continue to see nice increase. With regards to individual stock options trading we continue to see if you quantify this compared to 2023, you can see we have grown by 3.5x in Q1 2024. Going forward, through ZERO Revolution, the customers that we have acquired as a result of that, we will offer diverse products. And therefore, as a result of that, we can see the individual stock options trading to become very interesting, and we're trying to strengthen this business. This is the situation of SBI Cross. For this one, we're preparing it to become dark pool, and TSE, PTS and others, including this dark pool. And towards the customers who are 4 markets Aplus, SBI Cross, they'll be able to order and execute from the best one out of the 4. Therefore, from the customers' perspective, with a favorable price, they will be able to execute. And for us as well, depending on the trading amount, we are paying the commission to TSE, but we are able to lower that fee as well. And this revenue, high revenue of over JPY 9 billion in the first quarter, why we're able to do that is because we have been expanding our customer base. 2019 June, we have announced a zero commission fee. And from that time, the number of accounts have been rapidly increased. And as of July 16, it has surpassed 13 million accounts. This is the share of trading value plus margin and spot, both have hit the record high. Both of them have exceeded 50% especially for the margin trading, it is close to 50 -- excuse me, 60%. As for the NISA accounts. Currently, we are strongly trying to chase up to Rakuten. And on a daily basis, we are rapidly increasing the number of accounts. NISA Purchase amount after the new NISA has commenced, it is increasing significantly. Before NISA commenced, it was JPY 601 billion. And now it is to [ JPY 2.6 ] trillion. And this is the positive impact of new NISA and ZERO Revolution. In addition to that, iDeCo, we are looking at it as a strategic product. SBI Group, from 2001, the 401K is a possibility is what we have seen as the future potential. And we have established this SBI benefit system and been responding to the situation. And from then, we -- it has rapidly growth and the CAGR is 32.4%. And the number of subscribers, individual and corporate together have reached 1.226 million. And as for iDeCo, it's the largest in the industry, it's 970,000 and is maintaining the top position. And as for FX already, the customer base that we have acquired through ZERO Revolution, we are seeing an inflow from that. And SBI FX business, the number of accounts is increasing significantly. And number of accounts in AUM is positioned to be the top player in industry, [ 2.3 ] in a number of accounts. And as for AUM, customer margin deposit is JPY 400 billion. And next is turning asset management into a new pillar of revenue. As for the SBI Global Asset Management, J-GAAP consolidated results is as shown in all line of loss and profit, it has hit a record high. SBI Global Asset Management group assets under management is increasing and is approximately increased to JPY 6.5 trillion. And for others, the management companies belonging to the segment RHEOS HIFUMI, Okasan Asset Management, both are experiencing an increase in both revenue and profit. For Okasan Asset Management, once it became subsidiary company, we have a strict cost control and they have shown a significant increase in profit. And SBI Group's asset under management, overall, in total, has surpassed JPY 10 trillion, and this is a stable revenue, and it is contributing to our financial performance. In addition, and towards our customers, we would like to provide diverse products and respond to various needs. Therefore, under this way of thinking, we have a business alliance with overseas asset management companies. And one of them is the Franklin Templeton, which is a leading asset management firm. Regarding the digital asset management, we will be developing products together with them. They are already managing the Bitcoin ETF and also have been receiving the approval. And in the future, not just for crypto asset but for security token for the other digital assets, we will be developing products as well. Next is the alliance with Man Group. This is a multi-strategy fund, and we have already offered -- start offering this. Usually, in this type of funds, there's a large amount of fixed fee and performance-based fee that is taken. However, for us, we are customer centric. Therefore, there's no performance of base fee. And for the fixed fee, we have realized it being under 1%, as for both fees and commissions. And we also have some alliance alternative investment products, private equity and we will be developing new products for the asset management business. And through these initiatives and by fiscal year 2027 we are endeavoring to achieving AUM surpassing JPY 20 trillion of diversifying products. And that is why we're focusing on development of products. If we're able to achieve this, we'll be able to secure stable stock revenue. Next is strengthening efforts in digital asset area and in creating new financial products. This is a number of customers in crypto assets. We are already seeing the effect of ZERO Revolution. And this is plus 10% Q-on-Q increase. So SBI VC Trade and BITPOINT achieved customer balance of JPY 100 billion, respectively. So that's the situation. Also, in order to meet the needs of the customers, we are handling a variety of capital assets. And there are lineup of crypto currencies that only we handle in Japan. In addition to that, we offer staking services. This is very similar to investment trust. Customers have paid a certain amount of interest equivalent compensation and they will be entrusting their capital assets to us. And with an active crypto asset market, we begin to see an increase in balance, we are seeing increasing large customers are transferring to us. So the contribution to the revenue is increasing gradually as well. This is security token. At Osaka Digital Exchange, they are developing new products. There are 3 real estate STs, which are already listed and the market cap is approximately JPY 10 billion. Also going forward, they will look into corporate bond type of ST, and we're discussing this with different experts from the industry so that we can develop this product going forward. This is Dojima. They have already been handling precious metals. But from June, we have been given a permission from Ministry of forestry and fisheries. And we have been able to establish a list price index market. We basically make an index of more than 100 varieties of rice nationwide. And going forward, there's a joint venture that we have a partnership with, and we will list emissions credits related products in the future or within the prospect of linkages to the Carbon EX and the Group's carbon credit and emissions credit exchanges. So our overseas business, we are particularly focused in Southeast Asia, where there's a great contribution from population bonus in Cambodia and Vietnam. And we have banking and security business, which we have made into subsidiaries. Ly Hour, this is Cambodia Bank with -- this is a company that was given a birth as a result of partnering with major conglomerate in Cambodia. In the first half, we have already seen a profit before tax of JPY 963 million in the first half and we're now expecting this to continue to increase. TPBank, this is a bank in Vietnam. We have 20% ownership. We actually acquired an additional ownership of 20% and made an equity-method affiliate in February 2023 last year. It is the TPBank, they have generated JPY 21.3 billion in the first half. And in the first half, we have JPY 0.9 billion contribution to the Financial Services business as part of the equity method. Others, the size is not so substantial yet, but we have businesses in Thailand and Cambodia as well. Moving to Russia. Despite this current situation in Russia, we have downsized and we have been managing the operations very cautiously. Meanwhile, we have been able to meet if we maintain the role as a local financial infrastructure, mainly for the Japanese companies as a result of their need. And because of the such increase of the policy interest rates, in Russia, they have recorded a pre-tax profit of JPY 2.206 billion this year, in first half. Below that is Cambodia. This is Ly Hour partnership again. We have established an insurance company with Ly Hour Group. So again, this is an insurance business in a country where we can expect population growth, therefore, business growth in the future as well. UDC Finance is the subsidiary of Shinsei Bank. It's the largest non-bank in New Zealand. We also have a bank in Vietnam. This is MB Shinsei Finance, it's a Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank, which was established in Vietnam. Again, this is a non-bank but we continue to hold them. Others, we have formed a business alliance with Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, SNBL Group and we have decided to establish a business incubation in Washington State. And the 2 groups will also agree to establish fund in the United States as well. Moving on to semiconductor business. So along with Shimizu Construction, we have started designing and we are trying to calculate the cost. The semiconductor business for us is not just growing as semiconductor business, but this is revitalization of the regional community in Japan as well as manufacturing itself. So we're not so concerned about our investment ratio. We want to solicit the investment widely from like-minded companies. So for example, manufacturers of materials or semiconductor manufacturers, trading firms or even semiconductor users or in financial institutions, we want to jointly to and in solidarity rebuild the Japanese manufacturing. In July this year, so that was July 19, we held a special seminar for regional financial institutions on the semiconductor foundry business, and there were 108 financial institutions participating across Japan. And we also did a site visit where the foundry is expected to be built, and we had special seminars. And there were 14 heads of the regional financial institutions. And after the seminar, we took a survey and as a result, you can see that we have -- has been received quite well. And an individual feedback we have received indicated that they are very interested in this foundry business. Also, on the 19th of November, we are planning to hold a seminar for the corporates as well so that we can accelerate partnership with financial and business corporations, including local companies. In addition to this, this is not just the semiconductor business standalone, but we will collaborate with other financial institutions business of the group so that we can work closely with the customers, and we can that way, enhance our financial institutions business as well. So this is other main businesses. SBI Insurance Group. This is accounted on a J-GAAP basis. Ordinary revenue year-on-year was plus 10.8%, this was JPY 30.9 billion. Ordinary profit, and also profit attributable to owners of the company was actually negative year-on-year, JPY 3.7 billion and JPY 2 billion, respectively. But in the life insurance business in the previous year, we changed the ceding ratio and there was a reversal to the policy reserve, which actually we booked as a one-off item of JPY 1.7 billion. So without this one-off factor, we -- the business is actually growing and booking profits steadily. And this policy is in-force, you can see on a CAGR basis, it's 14.6%, you see steady growth. This is investment business. So in some of the listed securities, we have booked valuation losses. But for unlisted securities, we have been able to secure profit, especially in the listed securities and some of the securities, we were holding on to them since we were -- if they were unlisted and they were went public. And usually, the valuation went up, but then the share prices fell. And as a result, we had to book valuation losses. So that's the picture I think you can see from here. This is IPOs and M&As of the investees. Prospects is 36 and we're expecting to see multiple companies going public. So that is all from me on the explanation. Thank you. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]