7042.T

Company Overview and Core Business

• Founded in 1982, the company operates three interconnected business segments centered on university partnerships: Human Resources Solutions (new graduate recruitment matching and outsourcing for corporate clients), Educational Institution Support (student recruitment and operational outsourcing for university clients), and Promotion Support (BPO and promotional services for corporate clients).
• The company's core revenue model combines low-margin joint event/ media platforms (which generate high incremental profit after fixed costs) with higher-margin custom outsourced projects, using platform events to identify new custom project opportunities.

Strategic Growth Priorities

• Human Resources Solutions is identified as the highest-growth segment, with a core focus on supporting late-stage job seekers (including students delayed by extracurricular/ study abroad commitments, public sector career changers, and international students) who are often overlooked by other recruitment services. Recruitment outsourcing is a fast-growing sub-segment driven by corporate demand to reduce internal HR workload.
• Leverage top market share in international student admission support (built via grassroots outreach starting in 2008) to expand into high-demand international student employment support, with existing initiatives including dedicated job fairs, a proprietary brand, and a specialized recruitment agency. Management plans to expand into adjacent life support services (housing, bank accounts, communication carrier selection) for international students, with growing inquiries from local governments and industry partners.
• The capital and business alliance with Pronexus (a leading disclosure/ IR services provider that serves half of all listed Japanese companies) is intended to open access to Pronexus's large listed/ large corporate client base, expanding the company's recruitment services into underpenetrated large enterprise accounts.

Recent Operational Initiatives

• Launched new online counseling services for universities using clinical psychologists to reduce student dropout rates, expanding the scope of university partnerships beyond traditional recruitment support.
• Launched a dedicated career support program for international students in partnership with university career centers, targeting the improvement of low international student employment rates (currently under 50% for job-seeking students).
• Started supporting universities with alumni association promotion for donation fundraising, responding to university revenue model shifts away from tuition/ entrance exam fees caused by growing adoption of recommendation-based admissions.

Shareholder Value Initiatives

• Implemented stock split to lower entry price for retail investors, expanded the shareholder benefit program to deliver a total dividend + benefit return of 4.5% to 5.4% based on recent closing prices, established a dedicated IR department to improve investor communication.

• The company maintains its full-year FY2026 earnings guidance, with no upward or downward revision despite the temporary operating loss in Human Resources Solutions from personnel investment.
• Management confirmed continued growth plans for all three segments, with a specific focus on accelerating growth in international student admission and employment support, and expanding client access through the Pronexus alliance.
• The company is actively exploring M&A and business alliance opportunities with companies that share its strategic vision, have existing deep university partnerships, or align with its international student growth strategy.

1. Human Resources Solutions Business: Continued revenue growth, recovering steadily from COVID-19 related declines. Reported a small temporary operating loss due to ongoing personnel investment, but full-year full-year earnings guidance remains unchanged. No absolute segment revenue/ profit figures or revenue contribution percentages were disclosed in the transcript.
2. Educational Institution Support Business: Revenue decreased slightly year-over-year due to the temporary loss of a large contract. Operating profit was slightly lower year-over-year, but gross margin improvement offset much of the decline, and overall operating performance remained stable. No absolute segment revenue/ profit figures or revenue contribution percentages were disclosed in the transcript.
3. Promotion Support Business: Through revenue optimization and operational improvement, the segment achieved operating profit improvement and turned a net profit for the segment. It continues to focus on meeting BPO market demand. No absolute segment revenue/ profit figures or revenue contribution percentages were disclosed in the transcript. Overall consolidated results for Q2 FY2026: Total revenue of 1.889 billion yen, total operating profit of 126 million yen, and interim net profit of 88 million yen (expected due to the elimination of prior period loss carryforwards creating taxable income).

• Seasonal revenue concentration: Revenue is heavily concentrated in Q4 (January-March) for Human Resources Solutions, and in the first half for Educational Institution Support, so full-year results cannot be accurately assessed from interim performance.
• Promotion Support revenue has some uncertainty due to variable demand for government-related projects.
• Geopolitical tension impacting international student inflows (specifically between Japan and China) is mitigated by the company's diversified approach, which does not concentrate exposure to any single source country and focuses on strengthening partnerships with all Japanese language schools regardless of student origin.
• The company faces ongoing pressure to improve liquidity and deliver visible growth to meet investor expectations and Tokyo Standard market listing maintenance requirements.

Q: What cost and quality advantages does your in-house operational model deliver? / A: Most outsourcing projects require multiple specialized vendors, each adding margin, which increases end client costs. Access Group handles all required functions (planning, execution, printing, digital, social media management) in-house, eliminating multiple markup layers and reducing total client costs while maintaining acceptable profitability for Access. In-house operations also enable faster, more coordinated responses to issues or risks, which is critical for sensitive projects handling personal information (like recruitment outsourcing), and delivers higher quality that clients value.

Q: What goals do you have for the capital alliance with Pronexus, and what progress have you made so far? / A: Pronexus works with nearly all Japanese listed companies, which are new, underpenetrated clients for Access. Pronexus has recognized Access's unique expertise in end-to-end student recruitment support, and the two firms are already actively making joint proposals to large listed firms with significant unmet hiring needs (especially lesser-known specialized trading companies and machinery manufacturers that struggle to attract student attention). Access expects the alliance to deliver meaningful large client growth over time, drawing on Pronexus's existing client relationships.

Q: What are your priorities for expanding international student-focused services, including life support? / A: There is large unmet demand for support beyond admission and employment: international students face major barriers opening bank accounts, securing housing, and choosing communication services, and Access plans to expand into these areas via expanded partner partnerships, where it sees clear path to profitable growth. The larger priority remains improving international student employment rates, as 60% of job-seeking international students still return home without securing employment, which is both a major social need and a large growth opportunity for Access. Details for the structured life support expansion are still being finalized.

Q: How is Access utilizing AI in its operations? / A: Access is actively implementing AI to improve operational efficiency and increase matching accuracy for recruitment, and to add risk monitoring capabilities for operational BPO work. Access is not an AI-first business, and does not plan to sell AI products, but will continue accelerating AI adoption to improve the accuracy of its core in-person matching services.