Howtelevision’s first quarter looked much hotter than its full-year plan suggests. Revenue for the three months to April rose 43% year on year to ¥825m, operating profit jumped to ¥164m from ¥34m, and EBITDA reached ¥253m, which the company described as a record first quarter. New graduate services did most of the lifting, with sales up 51% to ¥713m. The company also pointed to a hiring market that is still moving earlier, noting that 75.3% of university third-year students in its survey had already secured informal offers by March.
That makes the unchanged full-year forecast the real point of interest. Howtelevision still guides for ¥3.1bn of revenue, ¥50m of operating profit and ¥447m of EBITDA for the year to January 2027. In other words, first-quarter operating profit was already 328% of the annual plan, while EBITDA progress stood at 56%. Management did not raise guidance, and its materials say the year still has to absorb higher depreciation from the office move and new lease accounting, as well as continued investment in mond.
A separate disclosure on the office move adds some useful context. The company recorded ¥431m of interior and equipment assets for the new headquarters, and disclosed lease payments totaling ¥833m for 1,318.83 square metres of office space. That does not, by itself, explain the whole gap between a strong quarter and a cautious annual profit target. But it does show why a bumper start has not yet turned into a guidance upgrade.