HYOJITO Co.,Ltd. Q2 FY2026 earnings call

• Overall Financial Results

  • The company achieved top-line and bottom-line growth for the quarter: total revenue reached 4.826 billion yen (100.4% YoY), operating profit reached 0.436 billion yen (105.8% YoY), and ordinary profit reached 0.48 billion yen (109.5% YoY). Revenue grew because strong gains at Ad Promotion offset declines at Navita and Sign Business.
  • Overall operating profit increased by approximately 24 million yen YoY. While higher sales promotion expenses and labor costs pushed up total SG&A, the strong profit contribution from Ad Promotion and slight improvement at Sign Business offset this increase to deliver net profit growth.
  • The balance sheet showed no major changes, with the equity ratio increasing 1.6 percentage points from the previous fiscal year-end to 56%.

• Navita Business Expansion

  • The company has a total of 4,112 Navita units deployed nationwide, including 2,390 Station Navita units at railway stations. To reverse the slight flat trend of Station Navita, the company has rolled out the new Densha Navita series starting in select regions, primarily at Kanto area stations, with train line-themed casings that have received positive feedback from railway operators and generated public interest via social media and industry media coverage.
  • Medical Navita installations increased by 28 hospitals in the 12 months from September 2024 to September 2025, continuing steady growth. Shrine/Temple Navita, a multilingual offering, has seen steady demand driven by growing inbound tourism, with 7 new installations added over the past year.
  • The company completed joint research with Kyushu University to improve universal design for public guide maps, refining color schemes to make maps more easily recognizable for people with color vision deficiency and low vision. Improved maps based on this research will be rolled out gradually going forward.

• New Digital Solution Initiatives

  • The company formed a business partnership with Azila Inc., an AI-based security systems specialist. The partnership combines Hyouji's Navita footprint (mostly at high-public-traffic locations) with Azila's AI to enable pedestrian flow analysis for smoother, more efficient wayfinding, plus AI-powered rapid accident detection and alerting. The combined solution is being developed to offer as a value-added service to existing location partners.
  • Hyouji acquired the number guidance business from Seiryo Denki Co., Ltd. in fiscal 2023, and re-launched it as the enhanced Turn NAVI business focused on reducing wait times and crowding at local government counters. Classified under the Sign Business segment, the offering has received strong inquiry volume from local governments, with management expecting it to contribute to future revenue and profit growth for the segment.
  • The company launched Plan de GO!, a customized travel route planning tool for tourists that lets users create original sightseeing routes by area, interest category, and other criteria. The tool supports multiple languages for inbound tourists, and is already being integrated and supported for Hokkaido-based startup Sumahiro's MATOKA media service.

1. Navita Business: Total revenue is 3.997 billion yen (99% of prior year period revenue), broken down as: Station Navita (railway segment) 1.733 billion yen (96% YoY), City Navita (local government and medical institutions) 2.07 billion yen (101.3% YoY), Public Navita (police stations and driver's license centers) 0.194 billion yen (102.3% YoY). The segment achieved a slight decrease in both revenue and profit overall, as growth in medical and public segments was offset by a small decline in Station Navita.
2. Ad Promotion Business (General Advertising Business): This segment delivered large growth in both revenue and operating profit, with operating profit increasing 192.8% YoY, driven by strong growth of the coupon business on the免税店 search site TAXFREESHOPS.JP. It was the primary driver of the company's overall profit growth.
3. Sign Business: Total revenue is 0.403 billion yen, with an operating loss of 0.1 billion yen. The segment was impacted by the absence of the large-scale projects recorded in the prior year period, and ongoing unabsorbed costs for the disaster prevention solution NAVI Alert. Excluding NAVI Alert, the core traditional sign business maintains a small profit, and the segment's overall bottom line showed a slight improvement compared to the prior year.

No explicit forward-looking guidance for full-year 2026 March fiscal year results is provided in the available transcript, aside from management's stated expectations for growth from new digital initiatives including Turn NAVI, the Azila partnership, and Plan de GO!. Management also noted that improved universal design maps from the Kyushu University joint research will be rolled out progressively, and the new Densha Navita rollout will continue in order to drive a rebound in Station Navita performance.

• The disaster prevention solution NAVI Alert under the Sign Business segment has not generated enough revenue to cover its related development and operating costs, resulting in an overall operating loss for the full Sign segment.
• Sign Business performance is vulnerable to fluctuations from large project timelines, as the lack of the large-scale projects recorded in the prior year period negatively impacted the segment's current period revenue.
• Station Navita revenue has seen a slight year-over-year decline, creating mild downward pressure on the entire Navita Business segment's results.

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