■Growth Strategy
1. Basic strategies
As a basic strategy for growth, HowTelevision ＜7064＞ is expected to continue to grow at a high rate from the viewpoint of “growth rate x profitability” in the BtoB domain, so it is promoting profitability improvement and re-growth by improving customer unit prices and increasing the number of customers in the new graduate service “foreign job hunting dot com” and an increase in the number of recruitment decisions in the mid-career service “Liiga” for growth. Regarding Loglio's engineer recruitment agency service, which became a subsidiary in 2024/4, recruitment support for engineer positions will also be strengthened through group synergy in response to rising demand. Regarding the CtoC knowledge sharing platform “Mond” in the new business domain, we are promoting product development and monetization studies for early commercialization. Furthermore, we will actively utilize M&A alliances to diversify our business portfolio.
As for the market environment, it has become difficult to acquire excellent human resources in the new graduate market for both business and engineer positions in the membership type, and the transition to job-type recruitment is accelerating not only at foreign-affiliated companies but also at major domestic companies. Also, along with social and industrial DX, the quantitative and qualitative demand for corporate IT human resources has further increased. According to the company's data, the new graduate/mid-career recruitment support market (BtoB) is about 700 billion yen, and the career advancement support market (BtoC) is about 900 billion yen, so there is plenty of room for the company to expand its business. Furthermore, in the medium to long term, we aim to expand into a capacity development support area that includes the knowledge sharing market (CToC) of approximately 2.7 trillion yen.
Note, target areas/candidate companies for M&A alliances are companies that have services (personnel/recruitment-related services, etc.) that can be cross-sold to the company's customer enterprise group in the career area, and opportunities to develop abilities through online services for customers of the company's career platform or those who can become future customers in the ability development area including lifestyle (learning/language learning for preschoolers to high school students, business for working adults It is an enterprise that provides schools, romance/marriage for high-class human resources, etc.), and in the technology area, it is an enterprise that owns advanced technology and products (advanced matching accuracy, use of generative AI, etc.) utilizing advanced technology that will lead to the expansion of the company's products.
Regarding M&A investment guidelines, target companies/businesses are companies and businesses that meet candidate selection criteria; in principle, EBITDA surplus companies (EBITDA deficits are acceptable depending on the size of expected synergy); the approximate amount is an EV/EBITDA ratio of 10 times or less (in the case of an EBITDA deficit, an investment amount of 500 million yen is the upper limit), and as a general rule, cash, deposits, and loans from financial institutions (capital schemes are also examined depending on the amount of money) That's it. Furthermore, the number of cases and price targets for each business year are not determined, and they are examined flexibly according to the project. Based on these selection criteria and guidelines, stock acquisition rights (1st J-KISS type stock purchase rights) issued by Palett, which develops early childhood education support businesses, were acquired in 2024/8, and Loglio, an engineer recruitment agency service, was made a subsidiary in 2024/4.
(Author: FISCO Visiting Analyst Masashi Mizuta Exhibition)