A real fall in revenue, and the turn from volume to quality (2025)

What a decline in sales with a rise in profit reveals

The core of these results is not the fall in revenue itself but the fact that the trade-off between quality and volume, inherent to a brokerage paid on completion, showed up clearly in the numbers for the first time. Tighten screening and quality after an accounting scandal and the friction before a signing increases; the count slows. Even so, by shifting its weight toward higher-priced mid-cap mandates, the group posted record ordinary profit in a year of falling sales. A set of results in which the volume measure — deals closed — and the quality measure — fee per deal — move in opposite directions is a plain picture of a company still in the middle of its turn from volume to quality.

Disclosing a decline is an awkward moment for a company the market has valued on the assumption of high growth. Rather than chasing deal counts to dress up short-term revenue, the holding company under Miyake Suguru chose to stay on the quality-first line. That judgement was, for now, vindicated by the recovery that followed: double-digit growth and a record profit in the year to March 2026. In what order to reconcile the restoration of trust with growth — this decision stands as a case in which a business built on credit put the quality of its own operations ahead of the near-term number.