Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Day 1 of the Sidoti Microcap Conference. My name is Aashi Shah, and I'm an analyst here at Sidoti. With me today, I have SBC Medical Group. It trades under the ticker SBC. Join me in welcoming Hikaru Fukui, Head of IR, and Stephen Rogers, Head of the Overseas Department. We have 30 minutes today, including the Q&A. I would request everyone in the audience to submit your questions at the Q&A function at the bottom of your screen. With that, I will let you take over, Hikaru.
Thank you very much, Ash. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Hikaru Fukui, Head of IR of SBC Medical Group Holdings. Thank you very much for joining our conference call today, despite your busy schedule. As some of you may be meeting us for the first time today, I will begin by briefly introducing an overview of SBC based on Q3 figures. In the latter half of this presentation, Stephen, our Head of Global Planning and Strategy, will explain our current global business expansion strategy, as well as OrangeTwist, the U.S.-based med spa in which we have recently invested. Firstly, SBC is the biggest aesthetic medical group in Japan, and we provide comprehensive management support services to franchise clinics. We generate income through franchise fees.
While aesthetic medicine remains our primary area of focus, our franchise clinics have expanded their offering to include a comprehensive range of specialized medical services, including orthopedics, ophthalmology, hair loss treatment, and infertility treatment. This diversification allows us to meet a broader spectrum of customer needs, enhance customer retention, and further strengthen our position. Next, let me begin with our current status of our franchise clinics. The number of locations has been expanded to 258, and the annual number of customers continues to increase steadily and has now expanded to approximately 6.5 million. Meanwhile, amid intensifying competition in the domestic market, the average revenue per customer visit temporarily declined, but we turned around, h as already begun. We have provided more detail on this on the next slide. The graph on the left shows the quarterly trend of average spend per customer.
As you can see, thanks to initiatives such as pricing, promotion strategy optimization, and our multi-branding strategy in the dermatology segment, which has successfully captured a higher-spending customer group, the overall average revenue per customer visit is clearly showing a sign of recovery. We intend to sustain this positive trend by accurately capturing customer needs and continuing to provide high-quality, high-satisfaction services. Next, our financial performance for the third quarter of 2025. Sales have been declined through the second quarter due to business restructuring and the revision of the franchise fee, but it is showing signs of bottom-out. Additionally, a decline in listing-related costs, including share-based compensation expense, contributes to a turnaround to bottom operating income and net income. We would like to maintain a high level of EBITDA margin. Next, our financial foundation. We maintain a sound and robust financial base with sufficient cash and deposits.
To further accelerate growth, we believe building strong relationships with financial institutions would be effective. So recently, we utilized bank financing for working capital purposes. Our ample liquidity will continue to be actively deployed for strategic investments, including both organic growth and M&A in Japan and overseas. That concludes my remarks. Stephen, please take it from here.
Great. Yeah, thank you, Hikaru. Hi, everyone. I'm Stephen. I'm the Head of Global Planning and Strategy based here in the U.S. and focused on how can we more broadly expand SBC outside of Japan, whereas Hikaru just mentioned it's the number one aesthetic clinic in Japan with over 260 clinics, continues to grow and do well, just has so much economies of scale and ability to optimize, and so many strengths in terms of its medical treatments and diversity across all the different clinics there. So it's doing a lot of really cool things. And so now we're thinking more broadly as how do we take all the cool things that's going on in Japan and figure out how to make it more broadly accessible globally.
And as part of that strategy, we knew that to create something that's taken 25 years to build in Japan, it's not something that we can just do overnight in the U.S. or another country, and so our approach to going global is really finding partners that we feel like are strong and have an incredible platform and align with our values and our services, and that we could leverage SBC's strength to support growth and to figure out what we can make work well in the U.S. and other countries, and as part of that strategy, we had the opportunity to meet with the OrangeTwist team, and we just fell in love with their offering and their values and how they treat the customers and their sales and marketing mechanisms.
And that led to us wanting to partner with them and to develop a collaboration framework of how we can continue to support OrangeTwist and then how we can also implement a lot of the strong points of SBC. So a few things about them and about OrangeTwist is, I don't know if you've been there, but they're based in California. They've got 24 clinics in California, Nevada, Texas, Colorado, Washington, and they're continuing to expand and grow. It was co-founded by Dr. Grant Stevens and Clint Carnell, who's also been in the industry for a long time, so a lot of knowledge in the med spa space.
And they're also led by CEO Robert Settembro, who also has a great sales and marketing background and has a very disciplined approach in terms of how do you continue to grow business and remain disciplined at the same time and not growing for growth's sake. And then the other thing that we really liked about it, too, is that it's just got an incredible platform. It's a small but mighty company, and we feel like, hey, some of the things it's lacking, SBC has the kind of resources to help support, whether it's through just kind of know-how and different medical treatments or potentially developing some joint clinics together. So there's a lot of areas where we feel like there's some strong potential collaboration.
And we also have some great partners with Hildred and Athyrium, who've been in this space for a long time, too, and are bringing a lot of input and process to the business, too. You can go to the next slide. So as I mentioned before, we see a lot of positive things happening in the U.S. The aesthetic markets continue to grow. It's a really interesting time, too, because you're actually seeing some consolidation among some of the players. So we feel like this is a really dynamic time to start getting into the market and to start making moves and figuring out what's working and what's not. So that's why we're doing a partnership, and we're doing more of an incremental approach. And also, as part of this partnership, too, we have a collaboration agreement.
And some of the areas that we're thinking about and we've kind of started to work through already is how do we potentially leverage OrangeTwist platform and continue to develop and grow, maybe even introducing some OrangeTwist into Japan. We don't have any type of med spa clinic like OrangeTwist in Japan. Our clinics in Japan are much more clinical. It's a very different experience. When you go to an OrangeTwist, it's like you're a VIP. It's a much higher luxury experience. So we're thinking about different areas of how we can create differentiated experiences, even among our Japanese clinics. We have potentially product distribution and then also developing JV clinics together. So we've got a lot of different brands in Japan that we have with NEO Skin, JUN CLINIC. There's so many different offerings and so many different things that we're doing.
And so we're really excited to work with OrangeTwist to figure out, hey, what would work well in the U.S. and what could we potentially leverage that could create a really cool, unique, differentiated offering that customers will really love. You can go to the next one. And as I mentioned before, we are working on our global strategy to become the group chosen by the most customers in the world. And so obviously, we want to be the medical group chosen by the most customers in Japan by 2035 and then by the world in 2050. So it's a pretty big goal. And we're starting off slow right now, which is with some partnerships, and we're taking an incremental approach. I think we want to be cautious and disciplined with how we continue to expand.
We obviously don't want to deploy a bunch of capital into something that we don't feel confident that we would be able to operate. We want to make sure that we continue to develop our know-how, our knowledge, and really, we're kind of taking an incremental approach and working with partners that we feel like do have a lot more knowledge, especially in the local markets, which is why we're partnering with OrangeTwist and some other companies, too, coming up, and also trying to figure out how to leverage SBC's strong points. The things that are really getting us excited, too, obviously, OrangeTwist is a med spa. It focuses on non-invasive treatments, which aligns well with SBC, where we have a lot of our fastest-growing areas in dermatology and non-invasive treatments, so I feel like this is just a logical approach and a logical partnership for us.
But some of the other things that are getting us really excited, too, is just around regenerative medicine, longevity, and some of the new technologies that are coming out. And a lot of these stuff, we don't have in Japan yet, but we see it expanding in the U.S. and in other parts of the world. So we're really excited about some of these new areas as well. And we feel like OrangeTwist is sort of step one for us to kind of get our feet wet and to learn and to grow and to utilize kind of our bread and butter of dermatology. You can go to the next slide. So as I mentioned, phase one, we're doing kind of an incremental approach. We're looking for partners, potentially some small M&A or some M&A here in the U.S. and even in other countries, too.
Another big region for us is Southeast Asia, where we feel like we can really leverage the Japanese brand in terms of quality and governance and safety and compliance, which is very high in Japan, and we know that that's very important for a lot of customers, especially in different parts of Southeast Asia and, of course, America, too. We'll continue to deploy minority investments where we feel like it makes sense and even launch new clinics and kind of test things out, so taking an incremental approach, probably this year, maybe early into next year, and just kind of see where we feel like things are working, where things are not working, and then as we develop more knowledge, we can start to double down on those investments, and so 2027, 2028, really looking at how can we accelerate the growth and figure out what's working.
And once we feel like we've got a good framework, we can start to double down on that and really to invest and to deploy more capital. And then as we go on further, we can continue just to build that out. But I think for right now, it's going to continue to be more partnership, smaller acquisitions, incremental growth, developing stronger market knowledge in different areas, and just to kind of build out that strategy a little bit more before we start to really deploy a significant amount of capital. But that's it from me. Hikaru, I'll hand it back to you.
Yeah, thank you very much. This is all from us. So shall we move to Q&A session?
Sure. Thank you so much, Hikaru and Stephen, for doing the presentation. We really appreciate it. I would like to remind everybody in the audience, if you have any questions, please submit them at the Q&A section at the bottom of your screen. One of the questions I have from the audience is, can you please discuss your expectations for M&A going forward?
There's going to continue to be M&A, especially in Japan, where it just makes sense for us. I mean, SBC has such scale and operational efficiencies that it's really easy to go out and to do M&A of clinics and bring them in and get a really good ROI on that. Globally, we're looking at potentially some things in Southeast Asia and, of course, in the U.S. And if we feel like we find a good partner, I think we would go ahead with that. But again, I would say probably most of the M&A will be continuing to focus in Japan, like we did JUN CLINIC last year. And I think that's just where we'll continue to think because that's where we feel like, obviously, we can leverage SBC the most.
Then as we continue to build out our global strategy, we'll probably start to see some more M&A there as well. I don't know, Hikaru, if you have any additional.
Yeah, thank you very much. And as for the Japanese M&A in Japan, of course, the main area is the aesthetic medical area. But in addition to that aesthetic medical, I think the general medical area, such as dentists, orthopedics, could be another potential area because we consider it's a very some of the area is a very we can expect further growth and very profitable. Yeah.
Right. And can you discuss the health of the local Japanese market from a more macroeconomic perspective? And has the market conditions improved? Do you think people are spending more on cosmetic surgeries?
Yeah, thank you very much. Yeah, still, I think the Japanese aesthetic medicine market is competitive. But I think it's getting better compared with last year. If we see our, as I explained, our average revenue per visit, we definitely showing the bottoming out this trend. So I think the situation is still severe, but getting better.
Okay. And if we can talk a little bit about your overseas strategy and priorities, can you tell us what does the long-term strategy look like? Is it more expanding into the overseas market or deepening the penetration into the Japanese market? And also, just as a follow-up, how many more clinics can the Japanese market support in the longer term, given that you are already over 200 clinics?
Yeah. Basically, we pursue both the Japanese market and the international market. So as for the brand, we may expand more. But yeah, basically, yeah, especially in the aesthetic dermatology area, I think the customer needs are very diversified. So that's why we are proceeding with the multi-branding strategy. I think that trend will continue.
Yeah. The nice thing about SBC, yeah, especially in Japan, is there's so much flexibility in terms of the different brands and offerings. And so it can kind of adjust the clinic makeup as needed to continue to grow. And so, like Hikaru mentioned, getting into more medical treatments, dentists or orthopedics or other areas, or continue to grow in the dermatology non-invasive aesthetics, we can kind of adjust the strategy as needed. But I think there's a lot more room to grow and to adjust. The platform is very flexible, which gives SBC a very unique advantage. But I think long-term, globally is where we're going to see a lot of the growth, maybe not in the next 2-3 years, but 3-5-plus years. A lot of the growth for SBC will probably be coming from the global markets as we continue to expand out.
Right, and are any of these services that you provide in Japan reimbursed by insurance, like the medical insurance?
Hikaru, do you want to talk about that, some of the insurance-based clinics?
Yes Stephen, if you have any idea.
I don't know the exact number. It's pretty small, but there are a few insurance orthopedics. We do have some infertility treatment clinics that we offer. Those are insurance-based clinics that we do have. I don't know the full numbers, though, but I don't know, Hikaru, if you want to go back up to the top, you can see the breakdown of what those medical clinics are. But most of those are insurance-based pay.
Got it. Okay. And one of the questions from the audience is about your relationship with OrangeTwist. Is that an exclusive relationship, or can you expand in the U.S. market outside of the franchise as well?
Yeah. I mean, in terms of med spa, we're really focused. We're excited about OrangeTwist. We feel like they're a really strong team. They've got a great service. And so we really want to continue to support their growth. But as I mentioned, there's also other areas that we're excited about, too, in terms of longevity and other types of offerings that we're looking at, too, that could complement OrangeTwist. So we're not done with what we're looking at in the U.S., but we'll probably see things that are more complementary. We're not going to try to do anything else, maybe nothing else. Or if we do anything else, it'll be in collaboration with OrangeTwist.
Okay. And what are the strengths that SBC could bring to the U.S. partner?
There's a few things that we're excited about. One, obviously, SBC just has massive scale. So that gives us a lot of leverage in terms of how we can negotiate some of our pricing. But we also have a lot of experience and know-how across different treatments. And we have a really differentiated experience medically. I'd say the medical bar in terms of what we offer in Japan is very, very high. So I think there's a lot of cool things that we could do there in terms of potentially creating some unique differentiated experience in the U.S. in terms of what type of treatments you can get. And then also, too, in terms of training, joint training and collaboration and sharing and know-how. We have thousands of machines, different lasers, and treatments. We've got so many great doctors who are going out and doing things.
We feel like there's a lot of knowledge that we can just leverage. And then there's also potentially some product development, too. We've started introducing some of the SBC products into our Singapore clinics, and they're doing well. We've had some success with what we call the sunscreen pill, which is a pill you can take that acts as sunscreen. So it complements the topical lotion that you put on. So there's different things that we feel like we could leverage to really start to build out that framework. And we love OrangeTwist. The overall experience is amazing. You walk into an OrangeTwist, it's curated. The customer service you get is— just the bar is so high. And so we feel like, hey, maybe this is something that we could even leverage for our SBC clinics.
They do a lot of things at OrangeTwist that we just don't do that makes the experience so much better. And so we feel like there's a lot that we can learn from them, too. It's not just what OrangeTwist can take away from SBC. So we're excited to work with them and to kind of share that knowledge.
Great. No, definitely an interesting investment. Can you give us a little bit about how different these markets are? The biggest differences between operating in Japan versus in the U.S. or just overseas, even Asia, if there are any differences or Asia versus the U.S.?
Yeah, it's a good question. There's a lot of key demographic differences. Obviously, Japan is a very population-dense country. And so it's easy to build a clinic where people can have access to it. You just have access to so many people in that area. Whereas the U.S., it's much more spread out. And so it makes things a little bit more challenging in the U.S. Also, too, in Japan, even though maybe salaries may be smaller than the U.S., they don't always have the same cost burdens. They don't have the tuition costs that they're carrying, or they don't have to buy a car because they're living in Tokyo. And so they have actually a little bit more expendable income and a little bit more savings to go and to do some of these treatments, too.
So there's some unique differences there that we have to think about in terms of, obviously, there's different demographics, different markets. And so we also want to think about the different types of treatments, too. Treatments that people want to do in Japan may not work. One of our more popular treatments in Japan is called the double eyelid surgery, which may not be as popular in the U.S. So there's definitely unique differences there, too. So we just want to be cognizant of all those different things.
And that's why we're trying to take an incremental approach instead of just trying to build out clinics here and try to copy and paste what we do in Japan, trying to work with OrangeTwist, who do have much stronger know-how in terms of how do you get customers, how do you do it at cost, how do you engage in maybe markets where the population is a little bit more spread out. And so that's why we're excited to work with OrangeTwist and to kind of build together and grow with them.
Right. No, great. Definitely an exciting announcement in the beginning of the year. And definitely look forward to how the year pans out for SBC. But thank you so much for taking the time. We're at time. But thank you so much for taking the time and speaking to us. And really appreciate everybody listening in the audience as well. Thank you for taking the time and speaking to us. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.