UNITED,Inc. Q2 FY2026 earnings call

Consolidated Overall Performance

• Total consolidated first half revenue reached 4.313 billion yen, with an operating loss of 690 million yen. While Brewas and Fogg missed performance targets, positive contributions from securities sales in the investment segment and expanding student counts at Bestco put full consolidated results in line with original plan.
• An interim dividend of 11.5 yen per share was confirmed as previously planned, in line with the company's dividend policy.

Investment Business Operations

• The segment reported a year-over-year decrease in revenue and profit as no large-scale securities sales were expected for the full fiscal year, but unplanned securities sales gains and limited partnership investment returns pushed first half results above plan.
• As of the end of September 2025, the company holds 138 unlisted equities with a fair market value of 7.892 billion yen.
• For the full fiscal year, the company plans to invest 1.5 billion yen across 30 companies; 600 million yen across 14 companies was invested in the first half, with a focus on larger individual deal sizes, and full-year investment is expected to proceed as planned. Six new investments were completed in Q2.

Education Business (Bestco) Strategic Purpose & Plans

• The recently consolidated Bestco business has a core mission of reducing regional education opportunity gaps between urban and rural areas of Japan, and expanding future career and education options for rural students by addressing gaps in college access and long-term earning potential tied to education inequality.
• Growth Strategy 1: New store expansion. Six new classrooms were opened in regional areas (Tohoku, North Kanto, Chugoku, Shikoku) in Q1, and at least the same number of new openings are planned for Q4, expanding geographic reach through existing and adjacent regional markets.
• Growth Strategy 2: Expand student count per existing classroom. This is pursued via two levers: (1) Technology investment: build online learning options for geographically constrained students, and use AI to improve classroom operation and instruction efficiency; (2) Expand high school student services, leveraging Bestco's existing strength in daily learning support to align with the growing importance of regular academic performance for recommendation-based university admissions.
• Subsidiary Brewas: While its IT training business missed plan, its app development division saw strong project acquisition growth, delivering year-over-year revenue growth and narrowed operating loss. For the second half, Brewas will focus on AI-driven development to deliver higher quality, lower cost, faster turnaround app development services to drive growth.

Human Resource Matching Business Operations

• Revenue grew year-over-year and operating loss narrowed, driven by expansion of general recruitment and designer-focused matching services.

Adtech & Content Business Operations

• The adtech division returned to growth, with year-over-year revenue and profit growth following improvements to ad delivery algorithms that boosted client ad effectiveness.
• At Fogg, the content subsidiary, large contract losses for online lottery services led to year-over-year revenue and profit declines. Fogg launched Jump LAB, a new custom merchandise service in partnership with Shueisha on October 30, that allows users to create fully custom items using art from legacy Weekly Shonen Jump titles, an offering that differs from existing pre-made Jump merchandise. New titles and item types will be added to the service over time.

1. Investment Business: Revenue of 291 million yen (0.291 billion yen), operating loss of 33 million yen. Revenue contribution share: ~6.75% of total consolidated revenue. Performance exceeded plan driven by unplanned securities sales gains.
2. Education Business: Revenue of 1.76 billion yen, operating loss of 188 million yen. Revenue contribution share: ~40.8% of total consolidated revenue. Bestco outperformed plan while Brewas' IT training business missed plan, but overall education segment revenue increased year-over-year with narrowed operating loss.
3. Human Resource Matching Business: Revenue of 376 million yen (0.376 billion yen), operating loss of 37 million yen. Revenue contribution share: ~8.72% of total consolidated revenue. Both United Recruitment and Rebase outperformed plan, with revenue increasing year-over-year and narrowed operating loss.
4. Adtech & Content Business: Revenue of 1.889 billion yen, operating profit of 51 million yen. Revenue contribution share: ~43.8% of total consolidated revenue. United Marketing Technologies recovered to growth following improved ad effectiveness, while Fogg missed plan due to lost large online lottery contracts.

• Overall full-year performance is expected to proceed in line with original plan, with first half results hitting plan targets despite underperformance from two subsidiaries.
• Investment business: Second half performance is expected to proceed as planned, with full-year investment execution on track to hit 30 companies / 1.5 billion yen target.
• Education business: The second half is the peak demand season for Bestco (winter courses and exam preparation), so revenue is planned to increase compared to the first half. Brewas will shift focus to AI-powered app development to deliver second half growth.
• Human resource matching business: Second half growth will be driven by AI utilization and new service launches, with performance from subsidiary Rebase expected to proceed as planned.
• Adtech & content business: Fogg will pursue second half growth by expanding online lottery operations beyond its core artist vertical into the manga/anime space, and the newly launched Jump LAB custom merchandise service is expected to contribute to growth. The adtech division's positive recovery trend is expected to continue.

• Brewas (education subsidiary) missed plan for its IT training business, creating near-term pressure to shift focus to app development to deliver growth.
• Fogg (content subsidiary) missed plan after losing large online lottery contracts, requiring expansion into new verticals and new services to recover growth in the second half.
• Investment business revenue is dependent on sporadic securities sales, which can create year-over-year revenue volatility; no large securities sales are planned for the second half of this fiscal year.

No question and answer section was included in the provided earnings call transcript.