Bridge Report:（6191）Airtrip Corp second quarter of the Fiscal Year September 2022

President & CFO Yusuke Shibata	Airtrip Corp.（6191）

Company Information

Stock Information

*The share price is the closing price on May 20. Number of shares issued, ROE and BPS are from FY 9/21.

Earnings Trend

*Unit: yen, million yen. The forecast of DPS for this term is still to be determined. The Japanese accounting standards were used until FY 9/17. IFRS is discretionally applied from FY 9/18. Profit before tax is the ordinary income based on the Japanese standards. Net income is profit attributable to owners of parent. Hereinafter the same applies.

This report outlines the second quarter of the Fiscal Year September 2022 earnings results and other information about AirTrip Corporation.

Table of Contents

Key Points
1. Company Overview
2. Second Quarter of the Fiscal Year September 2022 Earnings Results
3. Fiscal Year September 2022 Earnings Forecasts
4. Growth Strategy "AirTrip 2022"
5. Conclusions

Key Points

• The transaction volume in the second quarter of the fiscal year ending September 2022 was 19,651 million yen, up 8.7% year on year. Sales revenue decreased 38.6% year on year to 6,870 million yen, due to the change (reduction) of the scope of consolidation in addition to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gross profit decreased 15.7% year on year to 3,251 million yen. Operating income decreased 26.1% year on year to 1,477 million yen. However, operating income virtually hit a new high due to the exclusion through the change of the scope of consolidation (595 million yen).

   

• For the fiscal year ending September 2022, the company maintained the forecast revised upward on March 15, calling for sales of 14 billion yen (13 billion yen previously), an operating income of 2 billion yen (1 billion yen previously), an ordinary income of 1.9 billion yen (940 million yen previously), and a net income of 1.4 billion yen (700 million yen previously). The annual dividend amount is yet to be determined, however, the company is aiming for a payout ratio of 20%.

   

• The company revised the forecast upward for the first half of the year only, and the outlook for the second half of the year has been left unchanged. Transaction volume and gross profit both showed a steady growth backed by optimum advertising and marketing strategies, even though the demand has been declining due to the impact of COVID-19. Furthermore, the domestic travel domain has been recovering strongly after the full-scale cancellation of the measures to stop the pandemic. Except for the overseas travel domain that seems to be finally bottoming out, all existing domains have been healthy. As such, their performance can be expected to exceed the revised forecast for the term ending September 2022.

   

1. Company Overview

AirTrip Corp. conducts a variety of businesses centered on the AirTrip online travel business, which operates the comprehensive travel platform "AirTrip," boasting the largest Internet ticket trading volume. In the inbound travel business/Wi-Fi rental business, the company provides various services to foreign visitors to Japan and private lodging management companies. As for the IT offshore development business, the company has about 1,000 IT engineers and is engaged in the largest lab-type offshore development among Japanese companies. Moreover, the company is focusing on the investment business, aiming to expand service lines and improve profits by pursuing synergies through collaborations with investee companies by investing in growing companies.
The company set “Air Trip 5000” as their medium-term target to achieve a transaction volume of 500 billion yen.

【1-1 Corporate History】

In May 2007, Tabi Capital Co., Ltd. was established to provide online travel agency services.
Since then, the Company has been expanding its product line-up through M&A and business transfers.
In March 2012, the Company began IT offshore development business in Vietnam. Taking this opportunity, in order to clearly show the Company’s direction towards the integrated IT business, it changed its name to Evolable Asia Corp. in October 2013.
In March 2016, it was listed on the Mothers Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. One year later, in March 2017, it moved to the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
In May 2018, the company achieved the largest Internet trading volume of airline tickets due to the reorganization of the former DeNA Travel into a subsidiary.
On January 1, 2020, as the operating company of "AirTrip," which has the largest Internet trading volume of airline tickets, the company unified its trade name and brand name to build a stronger business foundation and further improve the popularity of the "AirTrip" brand. Also, the company changed its name to AirTrip Corp. to demonstrate its stance of concentrating on various businesses centered on "AirTrip."
In April 2022, the company got listed on the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange following the reorganization of the market.

【1-2 Corporate Philosophy, etc.】

【1-3 Business Description】

There are five business domains: AirTrip online travel business, Inbound travel agency business/Wi-Fi rental business, Media business, IT offshore development business, and Investment business.
There are three reportable segments: online travel business, IT offshore development business, and investment business. Inbound travel agency business/Wi-Fi rental business and Media business are included in the online travel business segment.

(1) Online Travel Agency Business
① AirTrip travel Business
It sells travel products such as domestic airline tickets, domestic hotels, overseas airline tickets, overseas accommodations, AirTrip plus (Airline tickets + hotels), package tours, busses, rental cars, and Shinkansen through the comprehensive travel platform "AirTrip" and various sales channels.

（From the company's website）

※IATA (International Air Transport Association): The IATA is a trade association of the world’s airlines.

The comprehensive travel platform "AirTrip" handled omestic and international airline tickets, hotels, domestic and international tours, buses, rental cars, and the Japanese bullet train (Shinkansen).
Moreover, the company steadily increased the number of users by actively developing various advertising activities such as TV commercial to raise awareness, operating various campaigns, and improving UI and UX on a daily basis.

(Strengths of business)
The Company has the largest trading volume of airline tickets in the Japanese OTA industry.
The agreements with all domestic airline groups, a unique business condition enjoyed only by the Company, enable the Company to issue flight tickets. Advantageous procurement prices combined with self-issuing of tickets (no need to outsource) make its cost competitiveness overwhelmingly strong.

In addition, the Company has “competitive supply routes” based on strong relationships of trust with each airline company resulting from long-term business relationships, “diverse sales routes”, and “low-cost system development using its own offshore IT development capacity”. Because of these factors, the Company has created high barriers to entry.

②Inbound Travel Business/Wi-Fi Rental Business
The company uses the know-how nurtured in the Air Trip Travel Business to provide services for foreign visitors to Japan and companies operating private residence lease business.

(Primary Services)
*Wi-Fi Rental for Foreign Visitors to Japan
Inbound Platform Corp., a subsidiary of Air Trip, has been providing a Wi-Fi router rental service for travelers visiting Japan, with a performance of over 330,000 rentals, establishing its brand through the long-standing trust and word-of-mouth.

*Dynamic Package for Foreign Visitors to Japan
As the number of foreign visitors from Southeast Asia has been growing, the company has been strengthening its language support. They established the information on domestic hotels and inns in Thai to start with, and providing domestic hotel and inn contents to the “Japan’s first dynamic packages for foreign visitors to Japan” sold by JALPAK Co., Ltd. The company will further establish an environment to promote trips to Japan in other countries.

*One-stop Service for Hosts for Private Residence Lease
In order to efficiently utilize vacant houses that have been increasing in Japan, “Air Trip Stay” provides opportunities to manage such rooms pursuant to the Private Lodging Business Law. They became the first official partner of “Airbnb” in Japan, which is used by 1 of 5 foreign visitors, and provides one-stop support from property registration to property management. They plan to further expand the services in the future.

③ Media Business
Working with MagMag Inc., which is a consolidated subsidiary with the ethos of “distributing what you want to convey to those who want to know,” the company collects creators’ contents from all over the world, develops and provides systems to deliver the information to those who see value in them. They operate the free and paid email newsletter service “MagMag!,” holding the country’s largest 7.5 million-member base, “mine” where users can purchase respective articles, the online media “MAG2 NEWS,” “MONEY VOICE,” “TRiPEDiTOR,” and “by them,” in which users can discover contents and deliver them to a number of people who want to know.

(2) IT offshore development business
The company provides lab-type development services mainly for development companies for e-commerce, web-solutions, games and systems, in 3 locations in Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi and Da Nang). The company forms a team with dedicated staff members hired for each customer of its lab-type development services, which allows customers to check the development status of the lab whenever they need to.

（From the company's website）

(Features of the IT Hybrid Development)
The company has a number of project managers with 5 to 10 years or longer of practical experience in Japan, and carries out upstream processes in Japan, including the requirement definition. They communicate with customers in Japanese, while they communicate with engineers in Vietnamese, therefore, the company can provide development solutions that are consistent from upstream processes to downstream processes, without any inconsistency between their understanding.
Furthermore, they accumulate know-how by assigning dedicated development staff members, so that they can improve the efficiency of their business operation in proportion to the operation period. In addition, they achieve optimum cooperation and management by having a Vietnamese project manager on the ordering side.

(3) Investment business
It is positioned as the business having characteristics of CVC (corporate venture capital). The company will pursue a synergistic effect as well as opportunities for capital gains. The company also engages in investment incubation business.
As of May 2022, the company had invested in a cumulative total of 73 companies, and the total investment amount was 3.1 billion yen.

2. Second Quarter of the Fiscal Year September 2022 Earnings Results

(1) Consolidated Business Results

*Unit: million yen. IFRS is applied. Net income for this period means profit attributable to owners of parent.

Sales and profit decreased, but operating income virtually hit a record high.
Transaction volume for the second quarter of FY 9/22 increased 8.7% year on year to 19,651 million yen.
Sales revenue decreased 38.6% year on year to 6,870 million yen due to the expansion of new coronavirus infection as well as the change in the scope of consolidation (decrease). Gross profit declined 15.7% year on year to 3,251 million yen. Operating income fell 26.1% year on year to 1,477 million yen. However, since the company was excluded due to a change in the scope of consolidation (595 million yen), operating income was actually a new record high.

(From the company's material)

In addition to the ongoing fixed cost reduction, the company aims to minimize cash-out costs by optimizing advertising costs in response to the increasing travel demand. In the second quarter of FY 9/22, the company reduced monthly SG&A expenses to 450-500 million yen. They aim to take control of variable costs responding to the increasing travel demand following the full-scale lifting of the measures to stop the pandemic.

(From the company's material)

(2) Trends by segment

*Unit: million yen. The composition ratio of operating income means operating income margin on sales.

① Online travel agency business
Sales and profit declined.
Sales declined due to the change in the scope of consolidation, but the transaction volume of Air Trip products increased, and the company secured substantial sales growth.
Segment profit dropped 9.9% year on year to 1,256 million yen due to the recoil from the Go To Travel Campaign in the previous term.

② IT offshore development business
Sales and profit dropped considerably.
Due to the change in the scope of consolidation, the company’s core group company, Hybrid Technologies Co., Ltd., was transformed from a consolidated subsidiary to an equity-method affiliate, which resulted in a fall in sales.
Segment profit declined 39.9% year on year to 368 million yen due to the posting of a spot profit of 595 million yen following the change in the scope of consolidation in the previous term (profit generated by losing a control of a subsidiary).

③ Investment business
Sales declined, and profit dropped considerably.
One of the investees of the company’s IPO project (Mental Health Technologies) was listed on the Growth Market of TSE, but sales declined. Segment business profit decreased 20.8% to 308 million yen.

(3) Financial standing and cash flows

◎Summarized Balance Sheet

*Unit: million yen. “Cash, etc.” mean cash and cash equivalent. “Trade receivables, etc.” mean trade receivables and other credits. “Trade payables, etc.” mean trade payables and other liabilities. Interest-bearing debts include lease liabilities.

Retained earnings increased, and capital stock increased by 984 million yen to 9,120 million yen.
As a result, the equity ratio (the ratio of equity attributable to owners of the parent) improved 2.4 points from 34.9% at the end of the previous period to 37.3%.

◎Cash Flow

*Unit: million yen

Free cash flow improved because of an increase in operating cash flow and a decrease in use of investing cash flow. The cash position kept improving.

3. Fiscal Year September 2022 Earnings Forecasts

(1) Earnings forecasts

For the fiscal year ending September 2022, the company maintained its March 15 upwardly revised forecasts of 14 billion yen in net sales, 2 billion yen in operating income, 1.9 billion yen in ordinary income, and 1.4 billion yen in net income. The company has not yet decided on the dividend amount, but is aiming for a dividend payout ratio of 20%.

Consolidated Business Forecasts

*Unit: million yen. IFRS is applied. Net income for this period means profit attributable to owners of parent.

However, the company noted that the upward revision was only for the first half of the fiscal year and that the second half forecast remains unchanged from the previous forecast. Although demand for both transaction volume and gross trading profit has declined due to the impact of the COVID-19, both have been steadily increasing thanks to optimal advertising and various marketing measures. In addition, the domestic travel domain is on a steady recovery trend following the full lifting of measures to prevent the spread of the disease. With the exception of overseas travel, which finally appears to have bottomed out, all existing segment are performing well. Given this, further upward momentum can be expected in the fiscal year ending September 2022.
The gross profit in the Domestic Travel domain in January fell below that in the previous corresponding period, but from February onward, it increased 34% in February, 72% in March, and 116% in April, from the respective corresponding period of the previous year.

(From the company's material)

4. Growth Strategy “AirTrip 2022”

New growth strategy for the quickest achievement of AirTrip 5000 from Restart.

(1) AirTrip 2022 Restart

Restart is a new growth strategy for the quickest achievement of AirTrip 5000. The company will keep the trading volume at the pre-pandemic level: 500 billion yen. The company will aim for the quickest accomplishment of discontinuous growth of the whole Group based on the continued growth of the five existing businesses and strategic investments including M&A, with the AirTrip Online Travel Business as the starting point.

(From the company's material)

①Reorganization of the Healthcare Business
To redevelop a business portfolio with five new business domains (AirTrip Online Travel Business, Inbound Travel Agency Business/Wi-Fi Business, Media Business, IT Offshore Development Business, and Investment Business (AirTrip CVC)).

②AirTrip Online Travel Business
To expand revenues at the quickest pace in the industry based on the strategic investment in mass marketing that considers the proactive utilization of the GoTo Travel campaign, centered on the domestic travel field. Business growth will be accelerated with the new post-pandemic travel demand as the driver for growth.

（From the company's material）

③IT Offshore Development Business, Inbound Travel Agency Business/Wi-Fi Business, and Media Business
Accelerate the promotion of diversification and restructuring of the business portfolio by continuing steady growth of the three existing businesses.

（From the company's material）

④Investment Business
To continue the strategic and proactive investment in growing fields. The company accurately understand the rapidly changing business environment after the COVID-19 pandemic, and continue to carry out active investments in the growing areas with a focus on the high probability of IPO.

（From the company's material）

（2）Aim to secure gross profit by promoting business portfolio diversification

While the domestic travel domain was impacted by the pandemic of the omicron variant, it has been on a significant recovery trend. Other business domains continue to be healthy, and continue to generate a stable monthly surplus. The company steadily secures gross profit through their promotion of diversification and restructuring of their business portfolio.

（From the company's material）

5. Conclusions

Following the full-scale lifting of measures to prevent the pandemic, the Go To Travel program is expected to resume, in addition to the prefectural discounts and area block discounts to be extended until the end of June. Moreover, full-scale overseas travels can also be expected to resume because of the relaxed immigration restrictions, etc. The company started selling Hawaii Trip products in May 2022 to reel in travelers to Hawaii, a very popular destination among the Japanese. In cooperation with airlines, accommodation facilities, and local authorities, the company constantly updates and provides the latest information and prices associated with Hawaii trips.
When not only domestic travels, but also overseas travels resume, it will further boost the company’s revenue. Therefore, we would like to pay attention to them.

＜Reference: Regarding Corporate Governance＞

◎Organization type and the composition of directors

◎Corporate Governance Report
Last updated on Mar. 8, 2022.

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