Executives

Kiyotaka Ito, Representative Director and CEO

Mitsuharu Yazawa, Director and CFO

Moderator: Cision

 

Presentation

Moderator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to LEIFRAS Co., Ltd. First Half of Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions). The conference is being recorded today, Thursday, November 20, 2025.

Joining us today from Leifras are the Company’s Representative Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Kiyotaka Ito, and the Company’s Chief Financial Officer and Director, Mr. Mitsuharu Yazawa.

Mitsuharu Yazawa: I am Mitsuharu Yazawa, the Company’s CFO. During today’s conference call, I will be providing an overview of our company, our performance in the first half of the fiscal year, and our full-year forecast. We will also be taking the second half of the briefing to answer any questions you may have submitted in advance, so please stay until the end.

Moderator: Thank you. Before we continue, I would like to remind you that some information discussed on this call will contain forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Further information regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

First, please watch our video introducing our core business, the Sports School Business, Strengthening for the Children’s Heart. We offer programs in 13 different sports, including soccer, baseball, basketball, dance, and karate throughout Japan. And we proudly hold the number one position in Japan in both membership and the number of schools. We cultivate children’s non-cognitive skills through sports by implementing educational programs that foster their growth.

(Speaking Foreign Language). Our programs welcome children who are not confident in sports or new to them, with the joy of playing sports, rather than focusing on winning at all costs. (Speaking Foreign Language). We provide instruction by professionally trained coaches grounded in the philosophy of accept, praise, encourage, and inspire each child.

At LIFRA sports schools, we nurture essential non-cognitive skills such as greetings and courtesy, leadership, cooperation, self-management, and problem-solving that are vital for success in society.

In addition, we have independently developed Milabo, a unique tool that quantifies non-cognitive skills, which until now, had often relied on subjective judgments. We objectively measure the growth of each individual child, and through our sports schools, guide them toward further development. (Speaking Foreign Language).

Strengthening for the children’s heart. At LIFRA sports schools, we will continue to expand children’s future potentials through our unique sports services designed to foster non-cognitive skills.

Moderator: Thank you for watching. Now I’d like to welcome Mr. Ito, our Representative Director and CEO, for a few words of greetings.

Mr. Ito, thank you for your time.

Kiyotaka Ito: Thank you all for attending LIFRA’s first half 2025 financial results briefing today. We are pleased to share that our company successfully completed its initial public offering, and listed its shares on the NASDAQ market in the United States last month in October 2025. This is entirely due to the warm support and cooperation we have received from everyone who has been involved with us.

We’d like to express our sincere gratitude once again. Since our founding in 2001, we have believed in the infinite possibilities of sports, and have driven our business with our corporate philosophy of to change and design sports.

Building on our foundation of a sports school business that cultivates the non-cognitive skills of each child, we have expanded our activities to include school club support, and leave afterschool daycare service striving to develop a sports and social business that solves social issues through sports.

As a result, as of December 31st, 2024, Tokyo Shoko Research ranked as number one in Japan in terms of number of school members, number of schools, and number of schools contracted for school club support. With our IPO, we hope to expand the experience and know-how we have cultivated in Japan in the sports and social business to overseas and provide Japanese sports service to children around the world.

We believe that sports have the power to develop non-cognitive skills, connect people across languages and borders, and solve social issues. This is our first financial results briefing since our IPO. So I’d like to begin with a brief company overview. Thank you, Mr. Yazawa, for your time.

Mitsuharu Yazawa: Thank you, Mr. Ito. Now, let me continue. Since our founding in [2004], Reflux is a sports and social business company that has consistently provided sports education to children and contributed to local communities. We firmly believe that the various social issues faced by schools, families, and governments can be resolved through education, instruction, and social contributions through sports.

Our core business is a sports school business. Our schools are not simply places that teach sports techniques. Since our founding, we have consistently focused on developing children’s non-cognitive skills through instruction that emphasizes acknowledge, praise, encourage, and motivate by professional instructors who have received specialized training.

We cultivate essential skills for children to survive in society, such as greetings, manners, leadership, and cooperation through sports. This unique coaching program is our strength. As a result, as of the end of June 2025, we had over 69,500 members, and we are recognized as having the number one ranking in Japan in both the number of members and the number of schools.

Furthermore, leveraging the experience and the expertise cultivated through this sports school business to the full set, the school club support business is now at the core of our growth strategy. Currently, school clubs are undergoing a major transformation. As a pioneer in this field, we have been developing the school club support business in collaboration with the schools and local communities.

Accurately grasping the significant demand for the regional expansion of school clubs, we have supported 349 schools nationwide. As of the end of June 2025, establishing our position as the number one company in Japan in terms of the number of schools we support. Based on the know-how we have cultivated through our experiences, we will continue to expand the scope of activities we support to promote the healthy growth of children and the realization of sustainable club activities.

Another growth area for our company is welfare business, specifically the afterschool daycare service. Here we operate LEAF, a facility specializing in sports-based developmental support, providing assistance to children with developmental disabilities through sports. We foster communication skills, teamwork, and self-esteem through team sports. This is a unique initiative for our company, combining social contribution and business growth.

Since 2019, the number of facilities has been increasing steadily, and as of December 2024, we operated 18 facilities nationwide. We will continue to utilize the expertise we have cultivated to expand our sports network throughout Japan.

Next, I will explain the business model and the seasonality of operations. Our business model generates revenue primarily from two sectors, the sports school business and the social business. The sports school business mainly generates revenue from monthly membership fees and event participation fees from our members.

On the other hand, the social business focuses on school club support and afterschool daycare services, with the main source of revenue being service contracts with local government and school.

A key feature of our business is seasonality, a very important part for understanding our business performance. First, in the sports school business, membership temporarily decreases in March due to graduations, but then tends to increase again from April to June when a new school year begins. Also, events peak during school holidays in March, August, and December.

Furthermore, in the social business, payments for some contracts with government agencies tend to be concentrated in March. As shown in the paragraph on the right side of the slide, revenue and operating income are consistently higher in the second half of the year. Therefore, due to the combination of these business characteristics, our profits are typically lower in the first half and peak in the second half. When reviewing our performance in the first half of the year, please keep this point in mind.

Next, I will explain the market and revenue share trends of the school club support business. The school club support business is currently our company’s main growth driver. First, we would like to share with you the size and opportunities of this market. There are approximately 9,800 junior high schools throughout Japan. For this enormous market, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology is currently leading a club activity reform initiative, which is a powerful tailwind driven national policy. Please see this roadmap of this initiative.

The promotion period of the reform from academic year 2023 to 2025 has been, so to speak, a preparatory period. From academic year 2026, the implementation period will begin with a shift from school-based management to management by regional and private organizations like us.

In particular, regarding club activities on holidays, the government has set a clear goal of achieving regional implementation in principle at all schools with the reform implementation period. This indicates that an unprecedented and clear business opportunity has arrived for private companies like ours, which possesses the expertise and the nationwide network cultivated since our founding.

Page 12 contains supplementary information, so please refer to it for your reference.

Driven by this national policy initiative, our social business segment is experiencing strong growth. The proportion of social business revenue to total revenue increased from 24% in fiscal year 2023 to 28% in the first half of fiscal year 2025. We believe this reflects our progress in developing the social business segment in line with the market growth.

Next, I will explain the performance highlights for the first half of 2025. I will now explain the performance highlights for the first half of 2025. In the first half of the year, both our sports school business and social business delivered solid results. Net revenue reached USD38 million, a double-digit growth of 15% compared to the same period last year. Income from operations was USD471,000, a 108.1% increase compared to the same period last year, more than doubling.

As explained earlier, our company has a revenue structure where profits are expected to be maximized in the second half of the year, but we achieved steady growth in the first half compared to the same period of the previous year, evidenced by strong financial and operational KPIs.

The number of sports school members increased by 6.4% year-on-year to 69,500, and the number of schools contracting our school club support business increased by 48.5% year-on-year to 349 schools, showing growth, solid growth.

Next, I will explain the financial results for first half of the fiscal year 2025. Here is a summary of the profit and loss statement. As mentioned earlier, we see strong growth in net revenue and incomes from operations, driven by the increase in the number of members at our sports schools and the number of schools contracting our school club support.

Although there were increased expenses due to business expansion, we were able to absorb them, resulting in a 108.1% increase in income from operations compared to the same period last year, effectively doubling it.

Next, I will break down the revenue growth by segment. Our core business, the sports school business, achieved stable growth with revenue of USD27 million, a year-on-year increase of 8.5%. This is due to an increase in the number of members and strong performance in the event businesses.

Our growth driver, the social business, continued to show high growth with the sales revenue of USD11 million, a year-on-year increase of 35.4%. This is mainly due to an increase of 114 schools contracting our school club support business and the expansion of sales in afterschool daycare services.

Next, I will explain the full year 2025 earnings forecast. We anticipate net sales to be between USD80.2 million and USD82.6 million. This represents a growth of 12% to 15% compared to the full year of 2024.

Income from operations is expected to be between USD4 million and USD4.8 million, which represents a growth of 12% to 34% compared to the full year of 2024.

As noted earlier, our profit structure reflects seasonal characteristics with profits typically concentrated in the second half. Furthermore, the profit margin is partially affected by investments aimed at further expanding the extracurricular activity business.

We are making investments to expand the social business in anticipation of the further expansion of the extracurricular activity market. As explained earlier, until now, we have actively participated in a pilot project at the request of various local governments during the promotion period of the reform of extracurricular activities, which is essentially a preparatory period.

However, from 2026 onwards, as the implementation period begins and the privatization and regional transfer of extracurricular activities become full-fledged, we expect the seeds we have sown to bear fruits.

Next, please see the Appendix. Regarding the balance sheet, total assets have steadily increased due to the recording of net income for the current period. We continue to maintain a sound financial foundation.

Most notably, operating cash flow improved significantly, turning positive at USD2.16 million this half year, compared to a negative figure in the same period last year. This was due to the recognition of the net profit as well as the decreasing (indiscernible) expenses.

Now, I would like to turn the call over to the operator for questions and answer session.

 

 

Questions and Answers

 

Moderator: Thank you very much. We will now move on to the Q&A session. (Operator Instructions). We apologize for the inconvenience, but due to time constraints, we would like to answer the most frequently asked questions from the many that we received in advance.

First, the first question. Mr. Yuzawa, please answer the question regarding what do you think about the future of social business, especially school club support business? Also, what kind of economic impact do you think the transition of club activities to the private sector will have?

Mitsuharu Yazawa: Thank you. I will answer your question. As for the current status of the school club support business, as I explained earlier, we plan to continue growing it. We are considering public junior high schools in designated cities as our target.

In terms of market advantage, we believe we are a market leader, having been recognized as number one by Tokyo Shoko Research in terms of the number of schools we support. And we plan to leverage this position to further expand.

Next, regarding the economic impact, the December 2021 Nikkei Business Online Edition stated that if all club activities were outsourced to private companies, a new market worth approximately 1 trillion yen will be created. Therefore, we recognize this as a market with a significant economic impact.

The Japan Sports Agency has also explained that this is a period of reform implementation, and we expect the market to expand further from now on. To be specific, on November 1, a legislative study group to promote the regional development of club activities was held at the House of Representatives. First members of the Association of Mayors supporting children’s sports, cultural, and athletic activities, including club activities, who share our concerns, also attended and submitted a request.

The nature of club activities, a longstanding part of school education, is about to undergo fundamental change. We at (indiscernible) with a strong sense of responsibility and mission, are determined to be a game-changer in this huge market. We believe that this is an effective solution to the declining birth rate issue in our country.

Moderator: Thank you, Mr. Yuzawa.

Next, the second question, Mr. Yuzawa, please answer the question regarding — please tell us about your overseas business expansion in the U.S. and other countries.

Mitsuharu Yazawa: Thank you. I’ll answer your question. Given the background of our listing on NASDAQ, we intend to expand our sports goods overseas. We are currently considering and researching about expansion, not only in the United States, but also in Asia and other regions.

In terms of sports, we are not limited to soccer schools, but are considering expanding to include baseball, basketball, and other sports that are popular in each region. We would like to incorporate feedback from shareholders and investors and apply it to our business.

Moderator: Thank you. Next, the third question, Mr. Yuzawa, please answer the question regarding, are you considering listing in Japan?

Mitsuharu Yazawa: We are not ruling out the possibility of listing in Japan in the future. We have only just listed on NASDAQ, so we plan to do our best in the current situation. We believe that our focus on improving governance transparency, such as establishing a compensation committee and a nomination committee, in accordance with NASDAQ standards, will contribute to improving our first corporate value.

Moderator: Thank you. Next, the final question, Mr. Yuzawa, please answer the question regarding, why is the operating profit margin low?

Mitsuharu Yazawa: Thank you for your question. Our company’s business is also about solving social issues, and it is inevitable that we will incur a certain amount of cost in the process of doing so. However, as a public company, we will work to make improvements. We plan to take steps to improve this percentage, and we also consider growing sales by expanding our business and including gross operational profit as a strategy.

Moderator: Thank you. We apologize, but due to time constraints, we will have to conclude the Q&A session here.

Finally, we will hear from Representative Director and CEO, Toyotaka Ito. Mr. Ito, thank you very much.

Kiyotaka Ito: Thank you all for attending our financial results briefing today. We first were possessing a stable revenue base through our sports school business. Also, strive to become a leading company to solve the social issues that Japan is currently facing. The regional development of school club activities, this is not merely a business opportunity. We view this as a social mission to redesign a sustainable sports environment for the children who will shape the future.

Under the philosophy of to change and design sports, we will strive to achieve both social contribution and business growth at a high level, and work together as a company to continuously enhance corporate value and meet your expectations. We sincerely ask for your continued support and guidance to LEIFRAS.

Moderator: Thank you again for attending LEIFRAS first half of fiscal year 2025 earnings conference call. This concludes our call today and we thank you for listening in. Goodb