INTERTRADE mainly operates the financial solutions business with a focus on development and maintenance services for securities dealing systems. It also operates the business solution business including development of group management packaged software, health care business including manufacturing and sales of supplements and cosmetic products using sparassis crispa, and the complimentary proprietary fund management business within the financial solutions business.
Apart from INTERTRADE, the INTERTRADE Group consists of the Company, the following 3 consolidated subsidiaries: 1) BSJ Co., Ltd. (66.7% ownership) which develops and maintains the integrated business management platform called "GroupMAN@IT e2" (the business solutions business); 2) INTERTRADE HEALTHCARE Co., Ltd.(100% ownership) which manufactures and processes sparassi crispa, and sells sparassis crispa-related products via the Internet and catalog mail orders; and 3) Iter Corporation (21% ownership) which develops and sells solutions, products, and services using the Fintech-related technology. On July 31, 2018, the company transferred shares of TRADEX Co., Ltd., which had been handling the investment education business.
【Corporate History】
In 1998, the Acts for the Financial System Reform was established under the administration of Prime Minister Hashimoto. In the same year, Internet securities such as E-Trade and Charles Shwab emerged in the U.S. It was also the time when terms such as "Financial Big Ban" and "Net-venture" began to be used more commonly. Under these circumstances, based on the belief that the stock trading method would drastically change as a result of the Internet and further liberalization of financial services (e.g. transition to e-trade), the company was established in Jan. 1999, with two people who have a background working at securities companies, including the current President and Representative Director, Mr. Kazuya Nishimoto.
The Company started as a consulting company for front systems and expanded its business to sell packaged software for dealing/trading. In September 2000, it began sales of "Trade Office-SX", a packaged dealing system software for securities companies. At that time, the technology for e-trading was still under development, and there were only a handful of vendors that were specialized in the front systems for stock trading for financial instructions. Because of its affordable front system with excellent operability and functionality, "Trade Office-SX" was sought after by many security companies' equity department. The "Information distribution service" (distributing trade information of major stock exchanges such as Tokyo Stock Exchange), commenced in March 2003, grew steadily. In September 2004, the Company was listed on the Mothers Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Its market share further increased by the sales of "TIGER Trading System", the successor of "Trade Office-SX" launched in August 2007. Aiming to offer comprehensive solutions for securities companies, the Company also achieved strong business results in the realm of back office systems for securities companies (Client information and account reserves management systems) and middle office systems (Risk management systems to measure risks of contract positions). In January 2005, it launched "ITMonster", the world's only auction-style private trading system (PTS).
However, after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008, the company began to develop ASP for its services, while also looking into the diversification of business in the non-financial IT and life science fields, which are expected to grow steadily. The management solutions development company BSJ Co., Ltd. was turned into a subsidiary in October 2012. In order to grow the healthcare business (previously known as the food service business), the company renamed and restructured its subsidiary, Pal Co., Ltd. (Currently known as INTERTRADE HEALTHCARE Co., Ltd.) was turned into a subsidiary to secure sales channels for the healthcare business,
【Business Contents】
The Company's businesses are composed of the following: the financial solutions business which designs, develops, and sells packaged front systems for securities businesses with securities companies as clients; the business solutions business that designs, develops, and sells corporation-oriented packaged systems with general business firms as clients; the healthcare business which develops and sells healthcare products, such as supplements, and cosmetics, and procures and sells health-related products, to consumers; and the investment education business which is aimed at educating individual investors through various approaches, such as holding investment education seminars and disseminating trade information. The sales composition ratio of each business segment for the FY September 2018 was as follows: 72.2% for the financial solutions business; 14.0% for the business solutions business; 13.6% for the healthcare business; and 0.2% for the investement education business.
Financial Solutions Business
In addition to the securities dealing system "Prospect," the retail foreign exchange trading system "fortissimo," and the off-exchange transaction system "ITMonster," which have been introduced to the general trading participants of Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Company designs, develops, and sells "J1" that is a system for connection with systems used in various stock exchanges, including arrowhead, ToSTNeT, and J-GATE, "MEX&MSR III" which can perform purchase and selling simulations and tuning, such as algorithm programs, and "DPSS" which provides various kinds of information necessary for intelligence trading on trading systems in real-time, chart, and historical-analysis formats. The Company also engages in design, development, and sale of middleware and communications software.
Recently, utilizing know-how gained from the above products, the company has also been developing a solution called "Spider," which uses blockchain technology to provide an infrastructure for next-generation businesses.
Business Solutions Business
The Company aims to secure stable sales and profit based on the following 3 pillars: 1) the packaged services with a focus on internally developed integrated business management platforms "GroupMAN@IT e2" (or "e2") and "Gadics MAN@IT"; 2) the system engineering services (SES) which mainly provides maintenance and operation; and 3) the support center services that offer system design, development, and establishment, and to provide comprehensive multi-vendor, multi-product, and multi-business system support services. BSJ Co., Ltd, one of the Company's consolidated subsidiaries, engages in development and maintenance of "e2."
Companies often use multiple operational systems for accounting, human resources, payroll, facilities, and materials, and, in many instances, each system is sold by different vendors for each task, or a parent company and its subsidiaries use different systems sold by different vendors for similar tasks, which is making it difficult to control management information, or in other words, business analysis of the entire corporate group through data sharing of each system, in an integrated manner within a company or a corporate group. This is why many companies invest a great amount in constructing a separate system for coordination (major system companies are extremely negative about connecting their own systems with other companies' systems). In contrast, as "GroupMAN@IT e2" is equipped with a highly flexible interface called "FLEX I/O," it is possible to connect various data of different vendors or systems. On the other hand, "Gadics MAN@IT" is not offered as a function, but, as a "virtual engineer," it supports operation and management of personal computers at low cost on a cloud basis from 4 aspects, including "collection," "decision making," "implementation," and "confirmation."
Healthcare Business
In the healthcare business, the Company engages in various activities, ranging from cultivation of sparassis crispa to sale of sparassis crispa-related products (i.e., supplements, health food products, and cosmetic products) under its own brand name, OEM supply, and sale of raw materials for use in cosmetic products that are manufactured using ingredients derived from sparassis crispa, both in and outside of Japan. With INTERTRADE taking charge of managing the overall healthcare business, including marketing, INTERTRADE HEALTHCARE Co., Ltd.. manufactures and processes sparassisi crispa,, and sells sparassis crispa-related products via the Internet and catalog mail orders. Furthermore, the Company is currently endeavoring to obtain scientific evidence concerning immune-stimulating functions of the components derived from sparassis crispa through industry-government-academia collaborative research. The human clinical trials carried out in 2013 have confirmed not only that the sparassis crispa-derived component "LB-Scr" is effective against type-II diabetes, Type-I allergic diseases, and liver function indicators (γ-GTP, GOT, and GPT), and changes in skin type, but also that, through studies of adverse events, it is safe and causes no side effect.
Sparassis Crispa
Sparassis crispa thrives naturally in Japan, Europe and America in coniferous forests at an altitude of 1,000 meters in which edible mushrooms typically does not grow under ordinary circumstances, which makes it very rare to find naturally grown sparassis crispa; therefore, it is called "rare mushroom." In addition, although typical mushrooms are in brown, sparassis crispa is in beautiful white to pale yellow, as if fluffy white flowers are blooming. Sparassis crispa has over 35% of the β-glucan content, which plays a particularly important role in maintaining good health (compared to agaricus mushrooms which has 12.5% of the β-glucan content), and besides, it is rich in myriad effective components, such as amino acids and trehalose. Moreover, sparassis crispa is edible.
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