In this briefing:
1. Recruit Holdings Reports Strong 3Q Results; Remains Expensive
Recruit Holdings (6098 JP) reported its 3Q FY03/19 financial results on Wednesday (13th February). Recruit’s revenue and EBITDA were up 6.0% YoY and 11.1% YoY respectively in 3Q FY03/19. This was mostly due to 1) consolidation of the results of Glassdoor Inc. (the company which operates the employment information website glassdoor.com), 2) steady growth in Japanese staffing operations and 3) growth in beauty and real estate app users during the quarter, partially offset by slowdown in global recruitment activity.
Despite its strong 3Q results and steady topline and bottom line growth over the forecast period, at a FY2 EV/EBITDA multiple of 16.0x, Recruit doesn’t look particularly attractive to us. Recruit’s internet advertising business and employment business peers, Yahoo Japan (4689 JP) and Persol Holdings (2181 JP) are trading at FY2 EV/EBITDAs of 6.8x and 7.5x respectively.
| FY03/18 | FY03/19E | FY03/20E |
Consolidated Revenue (JPYbn) | 2,171 | 2,327 | 2,478 |
YoY Growth % | 11.9% | 7.2% | 6.5% |
Consolidated EBITDA (JPYbn) | 258 | 288 | 312 |
EBITDA Margin % | 11.9% | 12.4% | 12.6% |
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