AnyMind Group Inc. Q3 FY2025 earnings call

• Overall Financial Performance:
  • Consolidated sales revenue for Q3 is 15.008 billion yen, up 14% YoY; gross profit is 5.713 billion yen, up 19% YoY (same growth rate excluding foreign exchange impact).
  • Operating profit is 517 million yen, down YoY due to headwinds in the creator business, but up 16% quarter-over-quarter. Adjusted EBITDA is 1.101 billion yen, up 25 million yen YoY. Profit attributable to parent company shareholders is 264 million yen, with a 31 million yen unrealized foreign exchange gain recorded in Q3, while cumulative unrealized foreign exchange loss for the first nine months is 340 million yen.
• Growth Drivers:
  • Combined growth of marketing and D2C/EC business for corporate clients reached 34% YoY, becoming the core growth driver of the group. Japan/Korea achieved over 30% YoY overall growth, and brand commerce business (excluding partner growth) grew 41% YoY in Japan/Korea, 31% YoY in Southeast Asia, and 18% YoY in Greater China/India.
  • Two M&As completed: Vietnam's Vibula was consolidated from September 2025, and Japan's NADESHIKO Beauty (virtual influencer marketing business) will be consolidated from Q4. Synergies from NADESHIKO Beauty have appeared early, with monthly revenue expected to hit a record high by end-2025.
  • Past M&A post-merger integration (PMI) has performed well: acquired corporate EC companies grew total gross profit 2x since joining the group, and overall corporate EC business grew 3.4x YoY with M&A adding to organic growth of 2.5x.
• Operational Efficiency & Cost Management:
  • Productivity improvement projects have suppressed overall headcount increase (total headcount remained flat QoQ), while sales and business development headcount increased and delivery/operation headcount decreased through efficiency optimization.
  • Gross profit per employee improved YoY, especially after excluding the creator business. The ratio of SG&A to gross profit decreased slightly QoQ, and the company will continue to control costs through efficiency improvement.
• Financial Management:
  • Additional interest-bearing debt was raised in Q3 to fund completed M&As and future M&A preparedness. Total goodwill from 11 past M&As is ~4 billion yen, with a goodwill-to-net-equity ratio of 0.24x, maintaining a very safe financial position.
  • 1.25 million shares of treasury stock were acquired for 750 million yen, completed in September 2025.

1. Marketing Business: Gross profit grew 14% YoY. Influencer marketing, which accounts for over 70% of the segment's gross profit, grew ~25% YoY. By region, Japan/Korea grew 20% YoY, Southeast Asia grew 7% YoY, and Greater China/India grew 19% YoY. This segment contributes approximately 22.3% of total gross profit combined with D2C/EC at 75% of total. 2. D2C/EC Business: Gross profit grew 84% YoY, and its revenue and gross profit contribution share exceeded 30% of the group total. Corporate EC support grew 130% YoY driven by Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand are particularly strong), with Japan also expanding steadily. Creator D2C grew 38% YoY, led by the strong performance of fitness brand LÝFT. This segment, combined with marketing business, accounts for 75% of the group's total gross profit, up from 67% YoY. 3. Partner Growth Business: Gross profit decreased 11% YoY due to external market changes. The creator-facing sub-segment saw year-over-year gross profit decline, while the publisher-facing sub-segment remained stable. By region, Southeast Asia, Greater China and India recorded negative growth due to market environment impacts, while both creator and publisher sub-segments grew in Japan.

• The full-year 2025 guidance originally released in Q1 is maintained, with no changes to the underlying assumptions.
• As of the end of Q3, cumulative progress against the full-year guidance (revised May 2025) is 74% for sales revenue, 74% for gross profit, and 73% for operating profit, all of which exceed the year-ago progress rate. Net income is in line with plan, matching the year-ago level despite the impact of H1 foreign exchange losses.
• The company expects contributions from internal AI adoption and global business standardization to begin from the 2026 fiscal year onward.
• M&A will continue to be a core growth pillar, with the company planning to continue executing at a pace of several deals per year.

• The partner growth (creator-facing) business has faced negative year-over-year growth due to ongoing changes in the external market environment, which has pulled down group-level operating profit compared to the prior year.
• Global advertising unit prices remain in a prolonged slump, which creates pressure on the publisher-facing partner growth business.
• Client marketing budgets in Southeast Asia's digital marketing space have been conservative, which has slowed the overall growth rate of the marketing business after reallocating resources to faster-growing EC support.
• Cumulative unrealized foreign exchange losses of 340 million yen have been recorded through the first three quarters of the fiscal year, which has impacted net income performance.
• The continued expansion of the EC business has led to increased variable IT costs, logistics and warehouse costs, and office-related expansion costs, creating upward pressure on operating expenses.

The full question-and-answer exchange is hosted externally at the link provided in the transcript, and no Q&A content is included in the available text.