Kubell (4448) Q1 2025 earnings summary

Executive summary

• Revenue for Q1 FY2025 rose 15.5% year-over-year to JPY 2,234 million, with EBITDA up 129.2% to JPY 285 million and operating profit returning to positive at JPY 76 million.

• Ordinary profit reached JPY 70 million, reversing a loss in the prior year, while net loss attributable to owners narrowed to JPY 29 million.

• Growth in the net number of paying IDs accelerated, up 0.8 percentage points compared to the previous quarter's year-over-year growth.

• Verification and implementation of AI agents in BPaaS operations are progressing, showing significant potential for cost reduction.

• The business transitioned to a single Platform business segment after discontinuing the Security segment at the end of 2024.

Financial highlights

• Gross profit increased 17.4% year-over-year to JPY 1,489 million, with a gross margin of 66.7%.

• EBITDA margin reached 12.8%, up 6.4 points year-over-year.

• Operating profit was JPY 76 million, reversing a loss in the previous quarter.

• Basic earnings per share improved to JPY (0.70) from (1.07) year-over-year.

• Net profit was negative JPY 29 million, an improvement from the previous year.

Outlook and guidance

• The medium-term management plan targets a revenue CAGR of 30% from 2024 to 2026, aiming for JPY 15.0 billion in revenue and an EBITDA margin of 10-15% by FY2026.

• FY2025 forecast expects sales to increase by at least 15% and EBITDA to exceed JPY 1 billion.

• The plan includes organic growth and M&A, especially in the BPaaS and platform services domains.