Dialogue with Shareholders and Investors

The Company considers it imperative to maintain constructive dialogues with shareholders as part of its efforts to achieve sustained growth and increase its medium- and long-term enterprise value.

Policy for Constructive Dialogue with Shareholders

The Company has put the Director and Head of the Corporate Planning and Strategy Division in charge of IR. The IR and PR Group in the Corporate Planning and Strategy Division coordinates the Company’s IR activities, including planning and organizing investor briefings and one-on-one meetings, which serve as a venue for maintaining dialogues with shareholders.

Arrangements for Dialogue

In order to ensure the accuracy of information and the fairness of disclosure, the spokespersons for IR activities conducted by the Company shall be the President and CEO, the Director in charge of IR, and the department in charge of IR.
The spokespersons may also delegate other executives and employees to act on their behalf as necessary.

In preparation for shareholder dialogues, the IR and PR Group coordinates with management, sales, HR, and training divisions to share information.

The Company refrains from communicating with shareholders during a quiet period of three weeks prior to an earnings announcement to avoid unfairly disclosing any non-public financial information perceived as insider information.

Implementation of Dialogue with Shareholders and Investors

The following is an overview of dialogues conducted mainly by members of the Executive Team of the Company with shareholders, investors, and others in the fiscal year ended January 31, 2024.

(Chiefly handled by)
The President and CEO, the IR and PR Group in the Corporate Planning and Strategy Division

(Shareholders and investors)

(Number of dialogues)

(Main dialogue themes and topics of interest to shareholders and investors)
Growth rate of the number of engineers
Progress of new graduate and career hires and initiatives being taken
Hiring of foreign engineers
Placement of engineers in carbon neutrality-related projects
Recruitment cost per engineer
Content of training programs
Business expansion to regional areas
Advantages of contracting
The payout ratio exceeding 70%. Whether this payout ratio is sustainable, or whether it will return to 50% at some point.
Outlook of the unit price of engineers in the next fiscal year and beyond
How the Company is controlling the turnover rate
How the Company plans to expand the semiconductor field
Progress of the Medium-Term Business Plan
M&As

(Feedback for members of the Executive Team and the Board of Directors)
Opinions and concerns raised by shareholders and investors during dialogues are shared with members of the Executive Team.

・ Investors’ perspectives are shared with members of the Executive Team by circulating Q&As and surveys from briefings for individual investors, briefings for analysts and institutional investors, and one-on-one meetings with institutional investors and analysts.
・ Investors’ points of interest are shared at company-wide meetings attended by middle managerial or higher positions, including members of the Executive Team (twice a year).

(Topics and questions that have been included based on dialogue, etc.)
・ Please explain about your appointment of female officers.
・ Dividend decision process
・ Can we expect that the building of semiconductor plants in Kumamoto, Hokkaido, and Miyagi will have a positive impact on the Company’s financial results?
・ The unit price of engineers rose this fiscal year. Will it continue to rise at the same pace next fiscal year?
・ It was mentioned that newly graduated engineers were assigned ahead of schedule this fiscal year. Do you expect that clients will continue to request the early placement of newly graduated engineers in the next fiscal year?
・ Please explain about the impact of the weak yen and inflation.
・ How do you plan to deal with the upward pressure on wages caused by recent inflation? Many industries are raising wages to account for inflation. What is the situation with the unit prices of dispatched engineers?
・ Are you involved in the rapid development of ChatGPT and other generative AI?
Please explain about AI-related engineers.
・ Has the demand for human resources in semiconductor-related industries recovered? Do you think the demand will increase?
What can you tell me concerning the shortage in engineers supplied to your clients?
・ What is your company’s market share in the industry? Do you have any strategies for increasing your market share?