Profile

The Company is one of the leading online securities broker in Japan focused on providing competitive services and the superior quality of trading platform for retail investors. The Company mainly targets actively trading customers who are experienced and informed investors who value competitive pricing, convenience of trading platform and reliability of IT system over investment advice. Therefore the Company focuses on its resources in online-base brokerage businesses and believes this focus enhances its core competence by delivering unique and innovative services and products to target customers and its profitability by maintaining operational efficiencies.

The Company undertook structural reforms of its business since the economic bubble burst in 1990 under the leadership of Michio Matsui, the fourth president & CEO, and its initiatives attracted industry-wide attention as these involved innovative services and products which went against then industry practice and tradition. In May 1998, the Company began its online brokerage services before many of its principal competitors and prior to the October 1999 deregulation of retail brokerage commissions in Japan. Since then, the Company has transformed itself from a small-scale conventional securities broker into a leading provider of online brokerage services.

Recognizing early the potential of the Internet, the Company started offering full-fledged online brokerage services in 1998, being the first provider of this service in Japan. The Company believes it has positioned itself as the online brokerage of choice for experienced investors who want fairly priced, reliable services.

The Company believes it has been an industry innovator in meeting the needs of its customers. For example, the Company introduced an innovative commission structure “Box Rate” based on aggregate daily transaction value regardless of the number of transactions, which was the first of its kind in Japan, focusing the advantage of price reductions on investors who traded actively. The Company was also the first in Japan to introduce online margin trading, providing experienced investors with a quick, reasonably priced means for making leveraged investments. The Company believes its market-leading services and innovative terms have enhanced its reputation as a brokerage of choice for the sophisticated retail investors.

In 2013, the Company has introduced "Margin Trading Service for Day-trades" which is designed to take full advantage of the benefits under the newly relaxed deposit rules for margin trading. Since then the Company’s market share has risen with increase of the trading value for this service. In addition, the Company has introduced additional short-selling service under the platform of “Margin Trading Service for Day-trades”, namely “Premium Short-Selling Services”. It enables short-selling for unique stocks listed on JASDAQ and Mothers which are not currently available for short-selling on the normal type of margin transaction at any online securities brokers due to lack of stock lending inventory. Since the services have been well received by retail clients and the Company has succeeded in acquiring many of day-traders from competitors, some of other online brokers have completely copied the services and provide similar services.

In 2016, the Company has started mutual fund business and offering the investment management platform based on Robo-advisor. The Company has started to focus on development of services for inactive but affluent customers and customers who are building assets for the future, as well as focuses on expansion of services for active customers. Through this mutual fund business, the Company targets to acquire new customer base and supports customers’ long-term diversified investment.

The Company has a policy of concentrating its resources in selected businesses. By virtue of its strong commitment to this approach, the Company has been able to sustain high profitability even under the difficult market conditions. Its ordinary income for the fiscal year ended March 2022 was ¥12,791 million. The Company is one of the most profitable firms among the listed securities brokers with 42% of its ordinary income ratio for the fiscal year ended March 2022. The Company will continue to focus on concentrating its resources in online-base brokerage businesses in order to make the consistent and high profitability in any circumstances and expand its line-up of products and services by maintaining its low-cost operation.

During the fiscal year ended March 2022, the Company accounted for 10% of the value of all retail transaction of Japanese stock in Japan and 11% of the value of all retail margin transaction in Japan. Its operating revenues were ¥30,616 million for the fiscal year ended March 2022 and its ordinary income and net income in the same periods were ¥12,791 million and ¥11,439 million respectively. As of March 2022, the Company had 1,392,794 accounts for its online brokerage service and ¥2,958 billion in customer assets. The registered head office of the Company is located at Tokyo, Japan. The Shares are listed on Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and are one of the 225 components of the Nikkei stock average.

(Millions of Yen)