Investors

During the second quarter of the fiscal year under review, the Japanese economy was on a gradual uptrend amid progress toward overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and normalization of socioeconomic activities. In leisure market, the economy has been underpinned mainly by the service industry, where the flow of people has returned and inbound spending by tourists visiting Japan during the summer holidays has recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels.
Our group launched a three-year medium-term management plan ending March 31, 2026. In order to realize the group’s corporate philosophy of The Greatest Leisure for All People, we are steadily pushing ahead with initiatives aimed at becoming a global content business company. In the growth area of the content and digital business, the group aims to establish the Tsuburaya brand in the China and ASEAN regions and increase the value of its IP by virtue of a three-pronged cycle of developing visual products, developing theme parks, and developing merchandising. In pachinko/pachislot (hereinafter, PS) business, which serves as our earnings base, in order to “contribute to the sound development of PS sector as a leisure” as the mission of only nationwide distributor, we provide manufacturers with a vast amount of qualitative and quantitative information gathered from fans and halls nationwide, as well as IP that leads to hits that fans want. For pachinko halls, we provide a stable supply of merchandise that is supported by fans, and provide information on the needs of fans gathered from around the country, customized to each region. Through these measures, we ultimately aim to build a system that can provide high-quality PS machine titles at a rate of one title per month.
As a result of business activities in line with the medium-term management plan, both sales and profits increased significantly YoY. By continuing to implement various measures in accordance with the current medium-term management plan, we will establish a solid management foundation and aim for sustainable growth.

Consolidated financial results for the fiscal year under review were net sales \67,015 million (up 58.7% YoY), operating income \5,370 million (up 52.0% YoY), ordinary income \5,907 million (up 57.4% YoY), and profit attributable to owners of parent \4,123 million (up 62.6% YoY). Since Daikoku Denki Co., Ltd. became an equity-method affiliate in the second quarter of the fiscal year under review, ¥395 million was recorded as share of profit of entities accounted for using equity method.

The overview of each segment is as follows.

Content and digital business segment

[Table 1: Change in business revenues of Tsuburaya Productions Co., Ltd. (hereinafter, TPC)]

Chinese MD licensing revenue: ¥2.1 billion (up 104.9% YoY)
Trading cards continued to drive earnings, while block toys also performed well, and in the fiscal year under review, Chinese MD licensing revenues doubled YoY.
In particular, as a result of efforts from last year to acquire new licensees in order to expand the non-toy categories, the non-toy categories such as apparel and stationery expanded significantly from the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Domestic MD licensing revenue: ¥1.08 billion (+7.5% YoY)
With the Ultra Hero’s EXPO 2023 Summer Festival, which attracted more than 70,000 visitors, as well as other events and live shows following the lifting of restriction movement, the number of visitors greatly exceeded the previous year’s level, and product sales were strong. The original merchandise was also popular at Seibuen Amusement Park’s attraction, which opened in July. Besides Ultraman, merchandise related to the GRIDMAN UNIVERSE, which was released in March and had an audience of 520,000 people, performed well.
As a result, the content and digital business segment reported a YoY increase of 22.5% in net sales, to ¥7,409 million, and an increase of 22.1% in operating profit, to ¥1,980 million.

PS business segment
FIELDS CORPORATION recorded strong sales of 85,000 pachinko machines, 40,000 pachislot machines, and 126,000 total machines (+41,000 machines YoY) due to strong sales of titles during the fiscal year under review. The main sales titles are shown in Table 3 below.

[Table 2: PS machine unit sales in PS business segment] (Unit: machines)

[Table 3: Major sales titles up to the Q2 of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2024] (Unit: machines)

In addition to the above, we also resold 24,000 units of pachinko machine, NEON GENESIS EVANGELION -Roar for tomorrow-, which have earned strong support from fans as the hall's core title, and 10,000 units of light specs that make the title easier to play.
We are making steady progress in various initiatives aimed at achieving the goals of our medium-term management plan. These include acquiring other and new IP, and developing and strengthening our PS machine manufacturing system.

As a result, PS business segment reported a YoY increase of 67.0% in net sales to ¥59,022 million and a YoY increase of 133.1% in operating profit to ¥4,506 million.

Other business
Other business posted a net sales of ¥805 million and an operating profit of ¥20 million.

(2) Consolidated earnings forecasts

Content and digital business segment
1. Domestic
In order to achieve the goals of the medium-term management plan, we are working to solidify our footing in the current fiscal year in line with our plan, which looks ahead to three years from now, as described below.

Netflix and TPC jointly produced a CG animated feature film, which will be released in 2024 that was titled ULTRAMAN: RISING. The CG animation production is handled by Industrial Light & Magic (established by George Lucas with three Emmy Awards and 15 Academy Award for Visual Effects), which has a proven track record in Star Wars, etc. With this video product, we can expect to acquire new fans in North America, where Ultraman is still less recognized. In May, we established a subsidiary in Los Angeles in preparation for merchandise expansion in North America in conjunction with this video product, and are preparing with partner companies.

In October, Ultraman area opened in the newly established Zhengzhou Ocean Park in Zhengzhou. Ultraman area will be the first in China to have a number of attractions under the theme of Ultraman and KAIJU, and by the beginning of next year, Ultraman town will have a hotel, restaurants, shops, and other facilities located in this theme park. In December, Tokyo Dome City plans to open an interactive VR attraction called “ULTRASEVEN THE ATTRACTION”.

In October of this year, we announced the business of a new Ultraman card game with an eye to global expansion in order to make a full-scale entry into the card game market, which continues to expand globally. Beginning with AFA (Anime Festival Asia) to be held in Singapore on November 24 and 25, it will be gradually unveiled in countries around the world. Card games, which are currently popular in China, have differing merchandise designs and target users, so we will continue to aggressively develop them.

In the digital service area, we are currently planning and developing various games utilizing the contents of Ultraman series and KAIJU, and we plan to release some game apps worldwide during the next fiscal year.

In addition, as a measure to expand sales channels to meet diverse consumer needs, we have begun considering the development of EC in foreign countries.

Digital Frontier Inc.
Digital Frontier Inc., which boasts cutting-edge video production technology, has received steady orders for Netflix, large-scale anime movies and gaming projects, and is also aggressively developing web services using digital assets.

PS business segment
In PS machine industry, hit machines appeared in 6.5 regulation machine and smart pachislot, which were introduced last year, and pachislot is leading the market as a whole. Against this backdrop, in pachinko, pachinko halls and fans are expecting titles to be launched in the H2 of the fiscal year, which is a hot topic, in order to revitalize the market.
FIELDS CORPORATION is currently selling two pachinko titles and two pachislot titles for the Q3. The latest series Pachinko EVANGELION:3.0＋1.0 has already sold out, with orders greatly exceeding the sales plan of 60,000 units. We also sold 18,000 units of our first private-brand smart pachislot L Ring ni kakero1 V, which exceeded our forecast. Other sales of titles and Q4 sales preparations are progressing as planned.

At this time, we were able to achieve our consolidated results forecast for the year ending March 31, 2024, without any changes from the content published on May 15.

(Note 1) All figures in this report are based on our estimates.
(Note 2) Product names in this report are trademarks or registered trademarks of each company.

1. Assets
   Current assets increased by ¥12,367 million from the end of the previous fiscal year to ¥71,236 million. This was mainly due to an increase in trade receivable.
   Property, plant and equipment increased by ¥265 million from the end of the previous fiscal year to ¥5,560 million. This was mainly due to an increase in buildings and structures.
   Intangible assets decreased by ¥170 million from the end of the previous fiscal year to ¥2,717 million. This was mainly due to a decrease in goodwill.
   Investments and other assets increased by ¥2,485 million from the end of the previous fiscal year to ¥16,326 million. This was mainly due to an increase in investment securities.
   Consequently, assets increased by ¥14,948 million from the end of the previous fiscal year to ¥95,841 million.


2. Liabilities
   Current liabilities increased by ¥12,120 million from the end of the previous fiscal year to ¥42,609 million. This was mainly due to an increase in trade payable.
   Non-current liabilities increased ¥1,064 million from the end of the previous fiscal year to ¥9,650 million. This was mainly due to an increase in long-term borrowings.
   Consequently, liabilities increased by ¥13,184 million from the end of the previous fiscal year to ¥52,260 million.


3. Net assets
   Net assets increased by ¥1,764 million from the end of the previous fiscal year to ¥43,581 million. This was mainly due to an increase in retained earnings, a decrease in valuation difference on available-for-sale securities, and an increase in non-controlling interests.

1. Analysis of cash flows
   Cash and cash equivalents (hereinafter referred to as “cash”) at the H1 of the fiscal year under review decreased by ¥8,567 million from the end of the previous fiscal year to ¥27,929 million.


2. Cash flows from operating activities
   Net cash used in operating activities was ¥2,448 million (¥2,083 million used in the same period of the previous fiscal year). This was mainly attributable to profit before income taxes of ¥5,886 million, an increase in trade receivables of ¥15,522 million, an increase in trade payables of ¥14,985 million, an increase in inventories of ¥4,078 million, an increase in accounts receivable -other of ¥2,098 million and income tax paid of \1,587 million.


3. Cash flows from investing activities
   Net cash used in investing activities was ¥4,675 million (¥1,462 million used in the same period of the previous fiscal year). This was mainly due to purchase of shares of entities accounted for using the equity method of ¥3,167 million, purchase of non-current assets of ¥744 million, purchase of investment securities of ¥411 million and loan advances of \320 million.


4. Cash flows from financing activities
   Net cash used in financing activities was ¥1,443 million (¥4,291 million used in the same period of the previous fiscal year). This was mainly due to dividends paid of ¥1,959 million, repayments of long-term borrowings of ¥1,877 million, proceeds from long-term borrowings of \2,950 million and net decrease in short-term borrowings of ¥549 million.