Archived IR presentation for the Third Quarter of the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2026

We have strengthened new deal acquisition across the Company by reflecting it in our performance evaluation system. As the initiative would have limited value if it were only temporary, we are continuing these efforts. We believe that increasing the weighting assigned to new deal acquisition in performance evaluations has been effective.

The tax rate applicable to high-net-worth individuals will increase substantially from January 1 next year. However, most of the deals acquired recently will not close by year-end and therefore will not benefit from any rush to complete transactions before the tax reform takes effect. We consequently believe that the reform had no material impact on the recent increase in active deals. Most of these deals are expected to lead to closings next year.

Non-exclusive agreements have become more common than they were several years ago. However, the proportion of non-exclusive agreements did not increase significantly when active deals increased this time, so there has been no significant change in that respect.
About a year ago, new deal acquisition also increased, resulting in a sharp rise in active deals, followed by a period of broadly flat growth. At that time, the portfolio included some difficult-to-progress deals, and the subsequent replacement of those deals made it difficult to increase the number of active deals for a period.
There are two factors that increase the number of active deals. One is new deal acquisition, and the other is matching. As mentioned earlier, deals that show no progress for six months or more are excluded from the count. Therefore, if matching activities progress steadily, the number of active deals will increase. Accordingly, both growth in new deal acquisition and improvement in matching capabilities are extremely important.
This time, in addition to an increase in new deal acquisition, the number of basic agreements reached through partner referrals has increased, including through partnerships with 55 financial institutions, and is currently at a record-high level. We believe that the improvement in our matching capabilities was also one of the factors supporting the increase in active deals.
Going forward, we need to monitor whether the number of active deals will remain flat for some time after a sharp increase, as it did previously. In the past, resources became concentrated on following up on newly acquired deals, while matching difficult deals also required considerable time. To avoid a recurrence, we intend to steadily advance matching activities and achieve stable growth in the number of active deals.

The IB Coverage Department is performing very well. It handles more deals per person than the Corporate Information Department, and the current volume of deals exceeds what the existing team can comfortably handle.
We are therefore strengthening the team. However, this is not a department where simply increasing headcount is sufficient; we need to recruit professionals with an appropriate level of experience. Several hires have already been confirmed, giving us visibility on further headcount growth.
The department started with a small team, but it has attracted attention both inside and outside the Company. We therefore believe that we will continue to recruit highly capable professionals steadily. We see significant opportunities in this area.

At RECOF, I am directly involved as its president and hold regular meetings with the team. The main challenges are that productivity per person has not improved sufficiently and that we have been unable to increase the number of consultants.
In the previous fiscal year, newly hired members had relatively low productivity, while senior members drove results. An increasing number of these newer employees are now entering their second, third, and fourth years. If their productivity improves, we expect overall productivity to rise as well.
We also plan to strengthen recruitment by introducing measures that differ from those used in the past. RECOF has a strong brand, so we believe that securing the right talent is the first priority.

The partnership is a relatively loose form of collaboration. As for the background to the share acquisition, the founder was leaving the company, and several companies were considering acquiring the shares. We were given the opportunity to participate and agreed to acquire the stake.
We acquired the shares to promote various forms of business collaboration and have not appointed or dispatched any directors. We made the investment on a friendly basis with the intention of developing the relationship and disclosed this approach in our IR communications.
Business collaboration has not yet reached a highly active stage, but we do cooperate through deal referrals. Frontier Management operates an investment business, and we refer investment opportunities to the company. It also has strengths in management consulting, while we do not have an in-house consulting function, so we refer cases requiring such support. In addition, Frontier Management has expertise in business due diligence, and we make referrals in this area and jointly hold study sessions. At present, the relationship remains a relatively loose partnership of this nature.
Regarding any increase in our ownership interest, we made the investment after explaining that this was not the original premise. Therefore, we are not currently considering increasing our stake.

We cannot rule out that possibility entirely. It will depend on how circumstances develop in the future. We are not considering a sale at present, but we cannot say that such a possibility will never arise.