PERSOL HOLDINGS CO., LTD.
Financial Results Briefing for the Fiscal Year Ended March 2019
May 15, 2019

Event Summary[Company Name]PERSOL HOLDINGS CO., LTD.

[Event Type]Earnings Announcement[Event Name]

Financial Results Briefing for the Fiscal Year Ended March 2019

[Fiscal Period]

FY2018 Annual[Date]

May 15, 2019

[Number of Pages]

35[Time]

17:00 – 18:02(Total: 62 minutes, Presentation: 39 minutes, Q&A: 23 minutes)[Venue]Shin-Marunouchi Building, 20F
1-5-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-0005[Venue Size][Participants]

100[Number of Speakers]

3
Masamichi Mizuta
Hirotoshi Takahashi
Kiyoshi Seki

[Analyst Names]*

Hirofumi Oda
Shinnosuke Takeuchi

Representative Director, President and CEO
Director, Deputy President and COO
Director, Executive Officer (Chief Financial
Officer）
SMBC Nikko Securities Inc.
Jefferies Japan Limited*Analysts that SCRIPTS Asia was able to identify from the audio who spoke during Q&A.

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Presentation
Kasamatsu: Now, we will begin the financial results briefing of PERSOL HOLDINGS CO., LTD. for the fiscal year
ended March 31, 2019. I am Kasamatsu of the Group Finance Department and will serve as Moderator today.
Thank you very much.
First of all, I would like to introduce speakers. Masamichi Mizuta, Representative Director, President and CEO.
Mizuta: Mizuta. Thank you very much.
Kasamatsu: Hirotoshi Takahashi, Director, Deputy President and COO.
Takahashi: Takahashi. Thank you very much.
Kasamatsu: Kiyoshi Seki, Director, Chief Executive Officer.
Seki: Seki. Thank you very much.

Kasamatsu: The content of today's presentation is as shown. Part 1, Mr. Seki will explain the summary of theconsolidated financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019. Part 2, Mr. Mizuta and Mr. Takahashi
will explain the progress of the Medium-Term Management Plan. Part 3, Mr. Mizuta will explain the financial
results forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020.

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Now, we'll move to Part 1. Thank you very much.
Seki: Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you very much for your participation in the PERSOL HOLDINGS financial
results briefing for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019.
I would like to explain the summary of the consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31,
2019.

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First, with regard to our consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, as you know,
we are in an economic environment characterized by macroeconomic and other uncertainties. However,there are no major negative factors in our business environment, and we believe that we have been able todevelop our business in a favorable environment.
As a result, we achieved record-high net sales and operating income for the seventh consecutive fiscal year,
a very strong financial performance.
The figure on the right-hand side of the graph shows the figures for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019. Net
sales for existing businesses recorded 7% growth. Combined with the effects of M&A of Programmed, sales
were 925.8 billion yen, 28% growth year on year.
As shown in the green bar chart on the right, operating income rose 22% YoY to 44.1 billion yen. This exceeded
the previous forecast of 42.5 billion yen by 1.6 billion yen.
As I will explain here again, there are three major factors behind this. One is the improved profitability of the
Temporary Staffing business, which is one of our core businesses. Second, the Recruitment Consulting
business has maintained strong growth. Third, we are accelerating growth in PERSOLKELLY segments. I believethat we have achieved a very high level of performance on the income statement with these three points.

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4Next, I would like to briefly explain the results by business segment. In the Temporary Staffing and BPO
segment, net sales were 509.5 billion yen, slightly below the initial target, but operating income was 23.9
billion yen. As for operating income margin, we have improved our profitability by 0.1%.
I will explain this in a little more detail later, but with regard to the dispatch in Japan, contracts for more
people terminated due to the impact of the revision of the law and other factors, and it may seem that growth
has slowed somewhat. However, with regard to this, considering various factors, such as the improvement of
productivity and the number of referral fees, the profit level was 23.9 billion yen, or 4.7%.
We are also responding to legislative revisions throughout the year, and we were able to welcome more than
10,000 people who made the shift to open-ended contracts, and we believe that this will be a positive effectin our future business development.
Next, the Recruiting segment in the middle of the upper row. Here, the job change market in Japan is alsostrong in the current macroeconomic environment. Combined with these factors, sales increased 17.8% to85.8 billion yen. In terms of profits as well, we reported operating income of 15.5 billion yen on a consolidated
basis.
This is mainly due to a 29% increase in revenue in the Placement/Recruiting business, which was a strong
driving force behind overall performance.
As for the Programmed segment, which is shown in the upper right of this section, we have consolidated itfrom the fourth quarter of the previous fiscal year. As we have been explaining to you for some time, due tothe low-priced competition in the blue-collar dispatch business in Australia, orders from large clients havedeclined to a certain extent. We have implemented various measures during the past year, but we have notyet covered the decline, and we have only recorded sales of 201.4 billion yen.
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On the other hand, in the Maintenance Business, our performance has remained strong throughout the year.
In particular, in the last four quarters, we have been able to capture new orders, such as those related toairports and universities, and we believe that we will be able to make a positive impact on our performancein the fiscal year ending March 2020.
In the PERSOLKELLY segment, I believe that the overall market environment in the APAC market centered on
Southeast Asia was very good.
Against this backdrop, for the first time since the start of our joint venture, this segment has returned to an
operating profit. We believe that the Company maintained a high level of sales and other factors, and that
the Company was able to absorb certain investments, such as personnel expansion and IT investment, andwas able to turn profitable in the fiscal year under review. This is a very good result of the Company's financial
results.
In the middle of the bottom row, in the ITO segment, there was an extremely strong need for IT adoption anddiffusion among corporations. We have received very large inquiries from our customers, and we have beenable to properly capture systems integration projects and outsourcing projects utilizing IT, resulting in a 16.1%
increase in sales.
With regard to earnings, as I have explained for some time, we have implemented approximately 1.2 billionyen improvement in compensation in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019. Based on the results of thesemeasures, we are seeing a decline in earnings. However, I believe that we have been able to properly settle
our accounts in order to lay the foundation for a new growth path from the current fiscal year onwards.
Finally, in the Engineering segment, both sales and profits were generally firm. On a client basis, there wereweak results in some consumer electronics and electrical machinery industries, but I believe that in theautomotive and construction machinery industries we were able to receive extremely strong inquiries andshow very strong performance in the financial results.
I would like to explain the three points in more detail.

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First, as for the improvement of the profitability of the Temporary Staffing and BPO segment. We have beenpresenting this chart for explanation of the breakdown of factors since last fiscal year. The positive impact of
the increase in operating income is 22.1 billion yen. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, we also undertook
restructuring of our domestic subsidiaries and affiliates. As I explained, we have invested approximately 2.0
billion yen in PMI.
Based on these results, operating income improved steadily by 0.1% to 23.9 billion yen. In the absence of onetime expenses, such as PMI and integration costs, the overall earnings structure would be in place to achieve
an operating income margin of more than 5%. I believe that we can expect further growth in future businessdevelopments.
There were three main points that improved earnings: one is the core systems of our Temporary Staffing
business, Genesis, and we properly improved the matching rate using these systems. In addition, the Company
has been able to earn referral fees based on some open-ended contracts. In light of the market environment,
we have been able to pass through cost as planned. These three points contributed to the increase in profits.

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I would like to talk about strengthening our open-ended contracts. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, a
total of 25,000 people were eligible to change jobs in response to revisions to the law.
Of these, approximately 40%, 10,000 staff members are employed as our open-ended staff, and we have beenable to pass on the increase of approximately 10% to our billing unit price. With the exception of education,
training, and other hours, the utilization rate is almost 100%, so I believe that this is also contributing to acertain level of earnings.
In the middle row, the portion of direct employment by corporations was approximately 4,000. The situation
here also varies from company to company, but I believe that in general, based on careful communication,
we are able to respond directly to employment.
At the end of the year, new temp clients, who chose to work based on the so-called registered style, accounted
for 11,000 people, or 44%. There was a time lag in which these people could choose a variety of options. As aresult, as for P&L, some of our top-line performance has slowed down in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019.

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I would like to explain the outlook for individuals subject to changes in law.
First, as shown by the mountain shape in the middle of the slide, the vertical direction shows the absolute
number of persons subject to the revision of the law. There have been staff who have worked since before
the revision of the law, who have worked more than three years, with a certain percentage from October
2018 to March 2019.
The largest peak was in December. The second peak was in March. This represents staff who had been working
since before the revision of the law. During the past six months, we have been communicating carefully withthem regarding those who are eligible for indefinite service, who are subject to the change of the law, and
who are eligible for employment security measures.
We believe that the peak-out will be in April, as indicated by the narrow line on the right, I believe that acertain percentage of the open-ended-contract targets and those who are subject to the change of the law
will emerge in the normal cycle from April onwards. By effectively controlling and communicating with them,
we believe that sales growth will return to a strong pace in the fiscal year ending March 2020.

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9Next, we are looking at the high growth of the Recruiting segment. Overall, sales grew by 17.8% YoY, and as
for operating income, we have achieved profit growth in excess of 40%.
The driving force behind this trend is that the Recruitment Consulting business performed very well. The
annual growth rate was 29%. At the same time, doda plus, which is a non-face-to-face service provider, andthe multi-layered deployment of the job advertisement business for permanent employees, which is shownon the right, have enabled us to grow in all of our service domains. This is the driving force behind our overall
growth in the previous fiscal year.
In addition, although not available at this time, the year-on-year growth in the "an" business was generally
positive due to promotional investments made in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019.

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10Next, PERSOLKELLY's business performance is recovering. Sales growth is shown on the left. We have beenable to achieve positive YoY growth in almost all areas. Sales increased from 65.7 billion yen to 76.1 billion
yen.
The breakdown of operating income is summarized on the right side. After a partial impairment in the fiscal
year ended March 31, 2018, we recorded a profit of approximately 560 million yen. However, considering that
we are investing in personnel and systems in the fiscal year under review, we have made investments forupcoming growth and have largely built a strong profit base in the PERSOLKELLY segment.

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Finally, I will explain a little more about the market environment in terms of point comparisons. Overall, there
are still labor shortages in Japan. We show a year-on-year comparison of each business. The indices for
Dispatch, Placement, Advertisement, Full-time Employment, and Part-Time Employment al show extremely
strong figures.
I believe that this trend will continue in the future and we will be able to meet the expectations of our
stakeholders in the next fiscal year as well.
I explained the financial results for the first section of this report. Thank you very much.
Mizuta: Thank you very much for your visiting today. I would like to explain the progress of the Second
Medium-Term Business Plan beginning now.

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12This is the original quantitative medium-term plan. In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020, we aim to reachthe 1 trillion-yen mark against the sales target of 980 billion yen set in the medium-term management plan.
As for EBITDA, we aim not at 63.0 billion, but rather 66.0 billion yen. Operating income remains unchanged at
48.0 billion as we intend to invest in various areas.

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As I have explained to you, these are our five key strategies for the current medium-term management plan.
Of these five, today I would like to discuss the Group's visibility, investments for further business growth, andinvestments through M&A and other means.

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We changed our company name to PERSOL GROUP two years ago. Besides the fact that the PERSOL brand has
not yet penetrated, there is a problem that our service brands TEMPSTAFF, doda, and “an” are not connected.
Indeed, when I exchange business cards with customers and greet them, they ask if I moved the Company
from TEMPSTAFF.

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Have you seen this since April? We have selected Mr. Uchimura for our new commercials. Mr. Uchimura has
been selected as an ideal superior among entertainers for three consecutive years. I think it was a very good
choice, that very closely matches the image of PERSOL.

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16This is the core system Genesis for the Temporary Staffing business, which is one of our key initiatives. We
invested 4.6 billion yen in this system. In our simulations, the introduction of Genesis contributed profits ofapproximately 2.2 billion yen in the previous year.
We had nearly 30 group companies up to now, particularly in the Dispatch business. By investing in systems,
seven of these companies were integrated into the core company, PERSOL TEMPSTAFF, in the previous fiscal
year. There are a lot of effects.
This year, we will continue to increase the number of companies introducing Genesis, and we intend to further
restructure the Group this year.
As we use a common system, we will reduce costs by moving the operations we are currently conducting inTokyo to local areas.
Next, priority measures. It is an extremely important option for us to implement M&As and use digitaltechnology to improve convenience in the future. Takahashi will explain this in detail later.

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17Part 3, the forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the report, I would like to take on the challenge of reaching the 1 trillion
yen mark in sales for the current fiscal year. The growth rate is 8%.
I believe there are a number of concerns about the worsening of the economy, such as fears of a slight collapse.
On the other hand, the shortage of labor is a very structural problem. I believe that the labor shortage problem
is stronger than concerns about a slump in the economy.
I believe that the figure of 8% for this year is perhaps achievable, since the results at beginning have been as
expected.
With a growth rate of 66.0 billion yen, or 10.1%, in EBITDA, we maintain operating income target at 48.0 billion
yen.
From this fiscal year onward, we will disclose net income before amortization of goodwill for reference only.
It is expected to be 36.1 billion yen this fiscal year. I believe this would be about the same as the result in IFRS,As for the dividend, we have decided to increase the year-end dividend from 10 yen to 15 yen, a 50% increaseover the previous fiscal year. Therefore, we plan to pay an interim dividend of 15 yen and a year-end dividendof 15 yen for the current fiscal year, for a total of 30 yen.

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Next, I will report results by segment. First, the Temporary Staffing segment. As I explained earlier, I am very
dissatisfied with the growth rate in the previous fiscal year. I think the fact that the increase in the number ofpeople scheduled for contract termination exceeded expectations is the most important reason why sales did
not grow even more than I had expected.
In the current fiscal year, we plan to achieve 549 billion yen, or 7.7% growth in sales. As I will explain later,
this year's big holidays and three-day holidays have increased, resulting in a decrease in revenues ofapproximately 6.3 billion yen. Profits declined by approximately 1.1 billion yen. I hope that you will understandthat this is an external factor, and that we have nothing to do with it.
In the Temporary Staffing segment, approximately 10,000 staff were employed indefinitely until March of theprevious fiscal year, but the number will increase by around 5,000. I believe this will lead to extremely stablesales.
The billing unit price has risen significantly, and is approximately 2% higher than the previous year. The
amendment of the Temporary Staffing Law has come to an end, and in April next year, there will be an
extremely large amendment to the law, called equal wages for equal work.
While there are various positive and negative aspects of this law revision, I believe there are more positive
aspects.
For example, prices. In the case of an equilibrium between the wages of dispatched workers, the dispatchedworkers are to be paid wages equal to or greater than those of ordinary workers. If you do not pay more than
1,650 yen in general in Tokyo or this region, this would be a violation of law. Our current level is about thesame as at present.

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In the industry as a whole, however, there was a model of achieving very low prices by lowering payments,
but this is no longer valid, due to the amendment to the law of equal pay for equal work.
For example, if the payment is 1,650 yen, we will not be able to do business without a billing price of 2,300
yen or 2,400 yen. For this reason, there is a very strong price control significance in that it is virtually
impossible to charge less than 2,000 yen in this region. In that sense, we have to work hard to make higher
bills to our customers.

I'm sorry to say that this is a great excuse, but I hope you will understand that the 6.3 billion yen decrease inrevenue and 1.1 billion yen decrease in profit is due to the decrease in the number of days in operation. The
impact of this change is limited to the first quarter of the fiscal year under review, and sales in the first quarter
declined by approximately 5%.

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I think you may be concerned about Programmed. As you know, the Australian economy and population is
expanding moderately. Therefore, the market is expected to expand steadily, although there is no rapid
growth.

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There are two big businesses: Staffing and Maintenance businesses.
As for the trend of sales from Staffing, sales have declined by nearly 4% in the first quarter of 2019 comparedto the fourth quarter of 2018. This is actually the loss of revenue from large customers. We have not beenable to recover this large-scale revenue loss, but since then, there has been a steady trend in sales.
Regarding Maintenance, we are currently contracted to provide a very large multi-year maintenance service
for airports and public housing. As a result, the order backlog has accumulated considerably, and we expect
growth of 4% to 5% this fiscal year.

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As we must grow in the future, we will focus on infrastructure, mining and healthcare, which are expected to
grow. In addition, Australia will continue to actively invest in infrastructure, so we will be able to capture thisdemand.
Since Australia is a very large country, we would like to make the most of the technology that we possess toenhance the convenience of our customers.

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Next, PERSOLKELLY. As APAC's economies are growing strongly, we intend to achieve double-digit growth withthis trend as a tailwind.
With regard to profits, we will continue to invest in personnel and systems.

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The remaining ITO & Engineer segments are performing well without any problems.
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I'll now conclude the explanation of Parts 2 and 3. Thank you very much for attending today.

Takahashi: Takahashi. Thank you very much today. Please turn back the pages a little. I would like to explain
the status of our new businesses, as we are actively engaged in M&A, which was a priority strategy of the
Mid-Term Management Plan.
I hope you will look to the front or down at your hands. Overseas, we have been expanding quite actively overthe past few years. In particular, in the medium-term plan, via very large M&As, the Company expanded salesof the PERSOLKELLY and Australian Programmed Co., Ltd. to more than one-fourth of the group's sales,
exceeding 250.0 billion yen.
In overseas markets, investment in order to solidify our foothold has been completed, and we are now in thephase of steadily improving PMI and internal systems.
We have been improving EBITDA steadily. Though we had sold less than 10.0 billion yen overseas four andfive years ago, this will be 250.0 billion yen or nearly 300.0 billion yen in total in the next fiscal year. We will
make steady improvements by making investments internally.
On the other hand, we have developed several small-and medium-sized businesses in Japan. Avanti Staff
became a group company, and we took over the carrier support business from Shosen Mitsui. We establisheda general research institute with Fuji Xerox Group, which we announced earlier. This is an area of employee
education. So far, we have been engaged in some areas of employee education, but we intend to make newpillars in the education fields as a new business.
In this way, while we are trying to calm down overseas operations a little, we will steadily contribute to ourcurrent business in Japan. As described on the right side, as for our new challenges, there are many smallSupport
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scale companies, but we have also established a CVC fund called PERSOL INNOVATION FUND, and we are now
actively pursuing various alliances and M&A opportunities.
Sharefull is a new business, through joint investment with Lancers, that started this fiscal year. COMPARABELY
is a viral website. Sukedachi is an on-demand matching website for architectural craftsmen, on which we have
not worked hard to date. Wonolo with the W logo on black on the right side is a U.S. company, an online
staffing firm that supplies staff widely in the United States as a platform.
At times, we have been actively engaging in activities that allow these companies to join our group. We have
tried to find out how new technologies can be added to our traditional Temporary Staffing,
Placement/Recruiting, and Outsourcing businesses to achieve greater productivity than before, and in somecases to acquire new markets. In this fiscal year, I would like to continue these efforts steadily.

The following page. In the final year of the Mid-Term Management Plan, maybe you feel that the scale is small
at 2.5 billion yen. However, I believe that these businesses are performing very strongly, such as Sharefull,
MIIDAS, which was organized by the Company itself, and Postas. Although MIIDAS and Postas are still at ascale of several billion yen, they are doubling and tripling compared to the previous year, and we intend to
expand by 200% and 300% in the current fiscal year.
In such cases, we are currently accelerating our investments if conditions are favorable on a weekly andmonthly basis, rather than considering them relatively cautiously, as in the case of existing businesses. Rather,
we will develop new services and products in a way that 2.5 billion yen can be used up, while cultivating
businesses firmly. We will do our utmost to achieve this goal in the near future.
As for the promotion system, while PERSOL INNOVATION is in charge of the actual state of business,
INNOVATION FUND will conduct a wide range of research not only in Japan, but also in U.S., Singaporean andSupportJapan
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Indian companies. We intend to continue to refine our services themselves and enter in new areas if
opportunities exist, while finding HR-tech companies that are slightly different in content from ourconventional HR services, or new AI technologies that greatly contribute to the matching and fitting services
we areconducting.
PERSOL INNOVATION was also newly launched in April, and we intend to lay the groundwork not only in our
existing businesses, but also in new domains toward the beginning of the next fiscal year, the final year of themedium-term management plan.

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Question & Answer
Kasamatsu: Now, we will move on to the question and answer session. Please show me your hands.
Oda: Thank you for your explanation. I am Oda of SMBC Nikko Securities. I have two questions.
First, I would like to touch on page 22. In the Temporary Staffing and BPO segment, you planned to increase
the OP margin of the Temporary Staffing and BPO segment to 5.3% just a year ago. Excluding various factors,
I think you plan to take this step.
I would like to confirm here that there has been a story about productivity or population growth regarding
Genesis investments. Could you tell us more about this? In addition, when we look ahead, whether there is
still room for further productivity gains. Also, I believe that the hiring of indefinite-term employees is
progressing and the billing unit price is also rising. Could you tell us how much of this is effective aga inst themargin?
Seki: Thank you very much for your question.
I’ll begin with the first question you have asked, the effects of the investment in Genesis on the target of 5.3%
for the Temporary Staffing and BPO segment.
To begin with, by investing in Genesis, the efficiency of matching jobs has increased to a level of 1.6 times,
mainly in the Tokyo metropolitan area. While there are large markets in the Tokyo metropolitan area,
productivity is rising very high, with an average of 1.6, while in some areas, it has more than doubled.
In order to implement these measures and ensure that they lead to improved earnings, we need to matchthem within Genesis, and at the same time, to provide support. To this end, we have established a matching
center in Kurume, Kyushu. We now have support centers in Hokkaido, Kyushu, and Tokyo. I believe that wewill try to further increase productivity under this division of labor in the future.
The second question is whether we will be able to raise this level further in the future. First, we are startingwith the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. However, in rural areas as well, we believe that the output of the
Temporary Staffing business is still insufficient. Therefore, we believe that it is fully possible to further increase
productivity by strengthening the functions of these systems, promoting the establishment of centers formatching, and promoting the division of labor.
I also think you asked questions about the unit price. The unit price has risen by about 2% in the fiscal year
ended March 31, 2019. We set our target at 2% under the budget plan, but we believe that we can further
raise this figure given the increase in the number of indefinite-term staff and the possibility to pass on theincrease to customers from among markets.
Oda: The last question is about overseas, including Programmed. In the fourth quarter alone, a good
improvement in profits was shown. What has contributed to it, especially regarding the cost? In addition, I
would like to ask you about the concept of "synergy." At the time of the acquisition, you mentioned about itwith data. How do you expect the synergy to emerge in Japan and other countries, in a slightly longer term?
Could you please tell us your current opinion?
Takahashi: I would like to answer about our overseas operations. As for the profit disclosures for Programmed
for the fourth quarter, a reversal of the allowance for workers' compensation insurance has occurred. This
will be generated in a fixed amount every fiscal year, but at the initial budget stage, we should not expect thisSupportJapan
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to be very strong, so we are looking at it in general as a little weaker in the fiscal year. However, Programmed's
business operation is based on the concept of safety, since it operates the Maintenance business. This wasmaintained at a very high level in the previous fiscal year, and as a result, the reduction of workers'
compensation insurance exceeded expectations. I believe that this was a major factor behind theimprovement in figures in the fourth quarter.
The second is the synergy, both overseas in general and in Japan. I believe that there are three things in themedium-to long-term. First, there are three businesses we are developing overseas. In the temporary staffing
business, we have just begun to unify the backbone systems of each country.
We are now using [Bruhon] tools to improve productivity in traditional PERSOLKELLY segments using ATS
backbone systems.
On the other hand, for Programmed, another core system is included. Which country has a competitive
advantage, particularly in English-speaking countries, will be identified in the first and second years. Unlike
Japan, some English-speaking countries have relatively simple labor legislation. So, we will take on thechallenge of selecting good tools, discovering countries that can standardize them, and then converting theminto new business models in the staffing field. I think this will take three to five years.
On the other hand, in terms of recruitment consulting and agency services, the same is true. In some small
countries, core systems have not yet been introduced, and we are now very busy introducing them. Over the
past year or two, the core systems of these products have been introduced. If introduced, we will be able toobtain the same kind of productivity improvements. So, while we are still in the pre-use stage, we have raised
the top line of our businesses, particularly in PERSOLKELLY, by dozens of percent. If we can fully utilize it, we
will be able to generate revenue, not only from staffing, but also from agent services. I believe that these
improvements will be a very large factor in overseas markets.
In addition, regarding the third point, the maintenance services of Programmed comprise approximately
100.0 billion yen. I believe we have acquired a great deal of know-how through the M&A of last year.
We have been able to acquire expertise in the new area of maintenance, such as the operation of Melbourne
Airport, the operation of the Victorian Waterworks Bureau itself, and the specialized outsourcing that the
PERSOL Group has been developing in Japan so far, so we may be able to provide this to countries other thanAustralia and New Zealand.
In the medium-term management plan that will begin next year, we believe that we must thoroughly consider
each of these issues. Unlike the traditional staffing, placement, and recruitment advertising businesses, thesemaintenance businesses are very solid businesses. As the number of contracts is 3 years, 5 years, and over along period of 10 or more years, the business are extremely solid items, with sales of 100.0 billion yen, while
total sales have amounted 1 trillion yen. Furthermore, we will consider the possibility of expanding it to othercountries in the future, to Japan and other Asian countries in some cases. I believe that synergies may takeroot in the future. This is all.
Kasamatsu: Do you have any other questions?
Participant: Thank you very much. I have two points. Please tell us about the revenue growth rate of the
Temporary Staff and BPO segments in the fourth quarter, excluding Avanti Staff and other M&A activities.
And to what percentage is it adjusted for operating days? Could you tell us what happens when you compare
it to the third quarter?

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For the second point, you mentioned that you will invest about 2.5 billion yen in new innovation businesses
after the strategy described in the explanation. This year, the company-wide adjustments of 2.8 billion yen in
the current segment forecast have increased by about 2.1 billion yen. Please confirm whether this reflects
this.
Could you tell us about the future outlook for the return on these 2.5 billion-yen investments?
Seki: First, about the performance of the fourth quarter of the Temporary Staffing and BPO segment , organic
growth for the fourth quarter was 4.1%. The effect of Avanti Staff and the other M&As were 3.4% growth.
Combined, this is the latest growth.
Takahashi: There is overlap between about 1.5 billion yen out of new investments of 2.5 billion yen and thecost of 2.8 billion yen.
On the other hand, new initiatives will not be undertaken by this new unit alone, but will naturally beundertaken by existing segments, which will include about 1 billion yen of these expenses.
However, we believe that the entire company should have a certain amount of such funds, if the outlook andother factors are still unclear, and we have such a system in place.
Participant: Regarding the first point, I would like to ask you about the 4.1% increase in organic sales. If a 1.5%
or 1.6% decline in a quarter due to the number of working days is added to 4.1%, is it about a 5.6% increasefor organic sales? By the same calculation, is the third quarter improving by about 6%?
Seki: As I mentioned in the commentary, we believe that the daily operations impact is 1.6%. Therefore, I
believe that your understanding is right. Combining the organic 4.1% and the utilization impact of 1.6%, it willbe 5.7% growth.
In comparison with the third quarter, improvements have been made in the fourth quarter from the third
quarter. In the fourth quarter, there was an impact of working days, and as I explained earlier in the slides,
the number of contract terminations was quite high in December. However, due to the fact that the numberof terminations had fallen to a low level in March, we determined the growth in the fourth quarter was larger,
compared to that of the third quarter. This is all.
Participant: Thank you very much.
Kasamatsu: I would like to complete the session with the two people who are now showing hands.
Shirakabe: Shirakabe, a reporter in the Securities Department of the Nikkei Shimbun. In two respects, first ofall, Mr. Mizuta told us that the economy was weaker than last year, and that the sense of labor shortage wasstronger than last year. On the other hand, it has been expected that business performances of companies
would decline a little in the current fiscal year. I would like to ask you if you feel such a change at the moment,
or whether it will lead to a slowdown of your company's degree of growth in the current fiscal year.
Mizuta: Some companies are somewhat bearish. Looking at the overall situation, however, we have had a lotof inquiries in April and May, or since last year. However, we faced a dilemma in that we could not keep up
with demand. Therefore, the current situation of the market in April is like this, rather than from theperspective of macros.
Shirakabe: Thank you very much. Second, the rate of increase in earnings for the current fiscal year is slightly
weaker than in the last fiscal year. Do you understand that this is due to the fact that there were many casesof permanency or direct employment in the previous fiscal year?

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31Seki: Our operating results for the previous fiscal year totaled 44.1 billion yen, and the extent of the increasein profits has been very large. This is, of course, due to the very strong base of business, and because we havecontrolled a certain amount of costs.
Nevertheless, about the performance forecast for the next fiscal year, as mentioned earlier, this is the final
year of the medium-term management plan, and I believe that this fiscal year is the time for investment
toward the next growth strategy. We focused on strategies such as M&A, business alliances, capital alliances,and investments, as well as some of our R&D activities, to be carried out directly by top management. In thefiscal year ending March 31, 2020, some of our profit growth is likely to slow compared to the previous fiscal
year, in order to accelerate these activities to a certain extent.
Shirakabe: Understood. Thank you very much.
Moderator: Please.
Takeuchi: Thank you very much. Takeuchi of Jefferies. I have two things.
As for recruiting in the current fiscal year, I think the guidance is that the profit margin will not improve verymuch and will be on a par with the fiscal year under review. Do you think this segment is not expected to
improve profitability in the future, or do you have any special factors in the current fiscal year?
Seki: In the current fiscal year, the new fiscal year ending March 2020, the profit margin has been growing atextremely high levels for the past few years. We may be able to achieve profit growth at a certain level andat an appropriate level. In the Recruiting segment, we invested in doda's branding in t he fiscal year ended
March 31, 2019, and will invest in this brand once again. The impact of these investments on costs is includedin the P&L plan for this segment.
In addition, the media for changing jobs is experiencing extreme growth from last fiscal year to this fiscal year.
However, the size is not so large yet, and we plan to invest more aggressively in personnel in this area in thefiscal year ending March 2020.
Takeuchi: Thank you very much. Lastly, with regard to dividends, I had always thought that the dividend
payout ratio had been set at around 20% under the plan. However, as a result of the fact that the EPS after
the goodwill adjustment was set at 20%, the dividend payout ratio seems to have increased somewhat froma gross EPS point of view. In particular, you didn't explain this time, but is this a message that you are
reinforcing shareholder returns? I would like to ask you about whether this approach can be sustained while
expecting return to shareholders in the future.
Seki: I have not been able to give an explanation in detail, due to time constraints, but the fiscal year ending
March 2020 is the end of the current Medium-term Plan, and we are in the process of formulating the next
medium-term plan with top management. I would like to give an explanation of the return policy toshareholders in accordance with the timing of the next medium-term plan, in conjunction with businessplanning strategies.
In addition, in light of our dividend situation, it seems that the year-end dividend has increased only slightly.
However, this fiscal year, we decided to increase the dividend by 15 yen, taking into consideration thedividend situation in a comprehensive manner, including our competitors.
However, again, I believe that the dividend policy and return policy should be supported by the strategy, andI would like to explain these things in combination.

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Takeuchi: What is the dividend amount for the new fiscal year? As for the current fiscal year, I believe thatthe dividend has been fully paid, due to the increase in profits. I believe that you will achieve a certain amountof EPS, even under your plan.
Seki: Yes. In comparison with EPS, on the other hand, as we are currently firmly maintaining a stable dividend
policy, I believe that we will set a stable dividend of 15 yen per share for the second half of the current fiscal
year and 15 yen per share for the next fiscal year under our business plan.
Takeuchi: I understand. Thank you very much.
Moderator: We will now close the financial results briefing for the fiscal year ended March 2019 by PERSOLHOLDINGS CO., LTD. Thank you very much for coming today.
[END]______________
Document Notes
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