Advance Create ＜8798＞ announced consolidated financial results for the 2nd quarter (23/10/24 to 3/24) of the fiscal year ending 2024/9 on the 14th. Sales decreased 22.5% from the same period last year to 5.05 billion yen, operating profit fell 55.0% to 343 million yen, ordinary profit fell 50.1% to 332 million yen, and quarterly net profit attributable to parent company shareholders fell 55.4% to 144 million yen. There is no change in the dividend forecast for the end of the second quarter at 17.5 yen per share.

An overview of each segment is as follows.

Sales of the insurance agency business fell 27.4% from the same period last year to 3.673 billion yen, and operating losses were 123 million yen (profit of 323 million yen for the same period last year). Direct consulting plazas (branches) are reviewing insurance sales policies and promoting education to make more comprehensive insurance proposals. On the other hand, since this education requires a certain amount of penetration time, the number of contracts acquired at branch offices has temporarily fallen. Also, in the call center division, the number of distribution appointments for cooperative branches has decreased as a result of establishing a system to obtain appointments for customers who are more motivated to consider insurance. As a result, the number of contracts obtained through collaboration was also sluggish.

Sales of the ASP business increased 16.1% from the same period last year to 146 million yen, and operating profit increased 8.9% from the same period last year to 53 million yen. New sales of ACP to ride-sharing insurance agents etc. remained steady.

Sales in the media business fell 37.1% from the same period last year to 1.154 billion yen, and operating profit fell 39.1% to 249 million yen. Growth was sluggish compared to the same period last year when advertisement placement on the insurance selection site “Insurance Market (Insurance Market)” was strong.

Sales in the Media Rep business fell 35.6% from the same period last year to 426 million yen, and operating profit fell 42.3% from the same period last year to 64 million yen. Order growth was sluggish compared to the same period last year.

Sales in the reinsurance business were 584 million yen, up 7.3% from the same period last year, and operating profit was 72 million yen (loss of 133 million yen in the same period last year). Reinsurance payments went round due to the shift in classification of the novel coronavirus infection.

Although there was a decrease in sales and profit in the second quarter financial results, the initial plan with sales up 18.0% from the previous fiscal year to 12.00 billion yen, operating income of 1.70 billion yen, ordinary income of 1.50 billion yen, and net income attributable to parent company shareholders of 900 million yen remains unchanged. The year-end dividend is also expected to remain unchanged at 17.5 yen per share.

The company continues to aim for high profitability as an “insurtech company” with an in-house development department. The company's strengths can be broadly summarized into three categories. First, we are developing software specialized in insurance in-house. Although it is a specialized insurance agency, it has more than 100 IT personnel (engineers, designers, etc.), and in addition to making improvements to the largest insurance selection site “insurance market” in Japan on a daily basis, it also realizes agile development of customer management systems, etc. described above by a system development team directly connected to management and sales sites, and it can be said that it is the most advanced insurtech company in the insurance agency industry. Second, by not only attracting customers through the “insurance market,” we have been able to implement cost-effective web promotion measures by establishing unique marketing methods that actively incorporate advanced technology. In the past few years, the industry was the first to adopt customer support systems utilizing ICT, such as SNS advertisements, AI, and avatars, leading to an increase in the number of appointments and contracts. Third, it fosters a corporate culture that can respond quickly to changes in the environment. For example, when face-to-face business was temporarily restricted after 2020/3 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, young in-house engineers and the like were the first to develop an online video call system specializing in insurance consultations, leading to an early recovery in profits. The ability to respond quickly to such environmental changes can be said to be the result of implementing human resource development based on corporate culture and founding spirit. Also, one reason is that they have established a system to encourage self-improvement of employees, such as self-investment support allowances for non-management employees. The company's greatest strength is that the insurance selection site “Insurance Market” has a large ability to attract customers as a tool to acquire prospective customers for insurance policies, and this was realized by combining strengths 1 to 3. By expanding the contents and functions of the “insurance market” on a daily basis, it is increasing the number of accesses, requests for materials, and inquiries, leading to an increase in the number of insurance product contracts, and it can be said that high profitability has been achieved by implementing cost-effective web promotion measures and working to improve sales productivity.