Mitsubishi Research Institute's Think Tank Arm Offsets a Loss-Making IT Project as 9M Net Profit Rises 38%

A year framed as business restructuring

Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. (TSE: 3636) published consolidated results for the first nine months of FY9/2026 on July 29, 2026, covering October 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026 under Japanese GAAP. Revenue rose 7.2% to ¥98,232 million, operating profit 14.5% to ¥7,596 million, ordinary profit 5.3% to ¥8,695 million and net profit attributable to shareholders 38.0% to ¥6,880 million. Earnings per share reached ¥436.72 against ¥316.73.

Management calls this fiscal year a year of business restructuring ahead of the next medium-term plan starting in FY9/2027, with both segments narrowing their focus and the overlap between them being defined more tightly. Its priority areas are power and energy, business analytics and AI, public-sector digital transformation, and management consulting — several of which map onto the seventeen strategic fields named in the government's economic policy framework.

One segment paid for the other

Think Tank & Consulting lifted external revenue 15.8% to ¥42,564 million and segment profit — reported on an ordinary-profit basis — 35.2% to ¥7,529 million. Level-4 autonomous-driving and digitisation projects for government agencies contributed, along with private-sector work in energy, business-plan support and satellite-related services.

IT Services grew external revenue just 1.5% to ¥55,668 million and saw profit fall 56.7% to ¥1,169 million. Large financial and card-sector system projects that had been driving the segment tapered after completing cleanly in the first quarter, new financial-sector business did not grow as fast as planned, and — decisively — the company booked additional contract-loss provisions in the third quarter to close out a troubled large system-development project that emerged during the first half.

The order book tells the same story

Orders received across the group rose 2.0% to ¥105,008 million and the backlog 0.6% to ¥87,307 million — but the composition diverged sharply. Think Tank & Consulting orders rose 19.7% and its backlog 22.0%, while IT Services orders fell 11.4% and its backlog 12.7%, with system development down 7.6% and outsourcing services down 17.9%. On a delivered basis, system development revenue rose 6.4% to ¥34,570 million while outsourcing services fell 5.7% to ¥21,097 million.

Below the operating line, two one-offs reverse

Ordinary profit grew more slowly than operating profit, up 5.3%, but net profit grew far faster. The reason sits in the extraordinary items: this period carried ¥1,247 million of extraordinary income, essentially gains on sales of investment securities, against ¥8 million a year earlier, and only ¥253 million of extraordinary losses against ¥762 million — the prior year having absorbed ¥605 million of impairment in Think Tank & Consulting and ¥4 million in IT Services. Pre-tax profit therefore rose 29.2% to ¥9,689 million.

Balance sheet and guidance

Total assets edged up 0.8% to ¥129,104 million while net assets rose 6.2% to ¥86,381 million, lifting the equity ratio 3.7 points to 59.8%. Shareholders' equity reached ¥77,222 million.

Guidance for the full FY9/2026 year is unchanged: revenue of ¥125,000 million (+2.9%), operating profit of ¥8,400 million (+4.9%), ordinary profit of ¥9,500 million (−2.4%) and net profit attributable to shareholders of ¥6,600 million (+3.3%), for earnings per share of ¥418.88. With nine months delivering ¥6,880 million of net profit, the full-year plan implies a fourth-quarter loss at the bottom line — a reminder of how heavily this business is weighted toward its first three quarters. The annual dividend forecast is unchanged at ¥165.00 per share.

JapanStockPulse provides informational content only and does not constitute investment advice. Figures are taken from the company's published earnings short report and may be subject to subsequent revision.