SOLIZE Holdings Corporation Q4 FY2025 earnings call

• Medium and Long-Term Growth Strategy
  • The company maintains a medium-long term target of reaching 100 billion yen in annual revenue by 2033, built on a 5-part growth framework: 3 core expansion priorities (capability expansion, industry/market expansion, regional expansion) supported by investment strategy and human capital strategy.
  • Capability expansion: Expanded process scope upstream into client R&D (leveraging 3D printing suitability for proof-of-concept testing) and downstream into mass production (earned Japan's first 3D printing mass production certification from Toyota Motor for service parts). Expanded domain scope from hardware to software, adding embedded software development, digital risk, and cybersecurity to its service offerings since 2020.
  • Industry/market expansion: Beyond the core automotive industry, the company has entered higher-growth sectors including defense-inclusive heavy industry, energy, nuclear power, AI, and aerospace, and has newly expanded into the two-wheeler vehicle market.
  • Regional expansion: Added a Canadian business via M&A in 2025 to strengthen North American presence, and entered Thailand to expand capabilities in North America and Southeast Asia, complementing existing hubs in the US, India, and China.
  • Investment Strategy: Established a dedicated investment function 3 years ago, with a strategy of growing existing businesses and using existing profit to launch new in-house ventures. Proactively pursues M&A to accelerate growth (completed the acquisition of software firm FUREX in the Tokai region in 2025 to expand software capabilities), and makes CVC/fund investments to build relationships in high-synergy sectors for future new business creation, including an investment in Silicon Valley's Soma Capital Management LLC and a top-10 US startup Medical Devices Corner Inc., where SOLIZE also handles part of development and design work.
  • Human Capital Strategy: Scaled annual hiring from ~200 at listing to over 360 in 2025, approaching a target of 500 annual hires. Reformed personnel systems to strengthen salary and compensation structures, and practices human capital management through strategic, role-aligned talent placement.
• Growth Roadmap & Operational Milestones
  • Preparatory investment to build out the organizational framework for a 50-60 billion yen revenue scale was completed in the 2025 fiscal year, alongside the completion of holding company restructuring. 2026 is marked as the turning point to enter an accelerated growth phase, with management function strengthening, investment strategy buildout, and hiring scale-up now nearly complete.
  • The company has now returned to a profit generation growth track after completing all framework strengthening investments. Quarterly revenue has grown continuously; with the majority of framework investment completed, large incremental cost increases are no longer required, and ramp-up of new graduate hire utilization from Q3 to Q4 will expand the gap between gross profit and SG&A, driving gradual profit recovery.
• 2025 Full Year Operational Performance
  • Q4 2025 revenue exceeded 7 billion yen for the first time in company history, after temporary softness in Q2 driven by seasonal factors (new graduate onboarding timing, Golden Week holidays), with growth resuming in Q3-Q4 as new hire utilization ramped up.
  • 360 new hires were added in 2025, hitting a new record for annual hiring volume. Domestic engineer count has grown steadily, dispatch rates for engineering services have risen close to 5,000 yen, and utilization recovered to a high level by the end of 2025 after temporary softness from Q2-Q3 linked to weak automotive orders and large new graduate intake.
  • The balance sheet reflects capital reallocation from current assets to fixed assets following the addition of the Canadian business and FUREX via M&A; retained earnings decreased slightly due to dividend payments.

After the transition to a holding company structure completed in July 2025, SOLIZE operates 3 core business segments under an autonomous management framework: 1. SOLIZE PARTNERS (Engineering & Manufacturing): Focused on existing core engineering and manufacturing business, delivered less than 7% year-over-year revenue growth in 2025. 2. Consulting & Engineering: Centered on existing consulting and engineering services, achieved approximately 20% year-over-year revenue growth. 3. Business Incubation: Focused on new business creation, with the in-house launched software firm STELAQ growing to over 200 employees, and the addition of FUREX via M&A in 2025; the segment recorded 86.5% year-over-year overall revenue growth. Aggregate full-year 2025 consolidated revenue hit an all-time high of 25.779 billion yen, up 13.5% YoY, with gross profit also hitting an all-time high of 7.274 billion yen, up 12.8% YoY.

• For the 2026 December fiscal year, management forecasts consolidated revenue of 30.5 billion yen, representing 18.3% year-over-year growth from 2025.
• Management forecasts 5 billion yen in operating profit for 2026, a sharp increase from 85 million yen in 2025, alongside 5 billion yen in ordinary profit and 3 billion yen in net profit. The forecast reflects a return to sustained profit recovery after the completion of organizational framework strengthening investments.
• While some incremental costs will still arise for M&A and new location expansion to support growth, the pace of cost increases will slow sharply because core framework strengthening (including holding company restructuring) is nearly complete.
• The company will maintain a steady dividend of 55 yen per share for the 2026 fiscal year, choosing to avoid reflecting short-term earnings volatility in shareholder returns and prioritize sharing medium-long term growth with shareholders.

• Operating profit missed the 2025 full year target of 5 billion yen, ending at 85 million yen, due to temporary order disruptions in the core automotive client base from the Trump administration tariff policy that impacted results from Q2 through Q3. Management notes this is a temporary headwind, and recovery was already underway by Q4 2025.
• The automotive industry demand uncertainty related to global trade policy created temporary shortfalls in sales and gross profit in the first half of 2025, though recovery was observed by year-end.

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