Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Financial Guidance
This release contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, which involve risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or future financial or operating performance. In some cases, you can identify these statements by forward-looking words such as “expectation,” “forecast,” “anticipation,” “intention,” “plan,” “possibility,” “may,” “will,” “should,” “anticipate,” “could,” “would,” “target,” “project,” “contemplate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “potential,” “goal,” “objective,” “seek,” or “continue,” the negative of these terms and other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements in this release may relate to, but are not limited to, expectations of future results of operations or financial performance of the Company, including expectations related to full-year and quarter Total Revenue growth and Adjusted EBITDA, expectations regarding certain of our key financial and operating metrics, our business and growth strategy, including future product development plans, our market opportunity, the performance of newly launched products and innovations, our technological capabilities, the demand for the Company’s products and services, our expectations and management of future growth and acceleration, and our expectations regarding our industry and traditional banks, as well as assumptions relating to the foregoing. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include risks related to our ability to manage our growth effectively; our ability to attract new users, retain our active users and expand the scope of our relationship with our active users; our ability to attract new merchants to utilize our services, grow our relationships with our existing merchants, and increase transaction volumes across our payment settlement services; our ability to maintain and expand synergies between our code-based payment settlement services and our credit card payment services; our ability to maintain and strengthen the ecosystem effects of our platform; our alliances with the shareholders of our consolidated subsidiaries and equity-method affiliates; changes in the expansion and development of the cashless payments industry and the digital financial services industry in Japan; our ability to implement pricing strategies and expand our service offerings; our ability to maintain, protect, and enhance our strong and trusted brand; our ability to maintain or improve our technology infrastructure; and the complex and evolving laws and regulations applicable to our business and the banking ecosystem. Statements regarding our financial guidance and targets are forward-looking and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Moreover, new risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for the Company to predict all risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements contained in this release. These forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s views with respect to future events as of the date of this release and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Further information on these risks and other factors that could affect our financial results are set forth in our regulatory filings and periodic reports. Except required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise after the date of this release.
Non-IFRS Financial Measures and Key Metrics
This release includes financial information prepared in accordance with IFRS Accounting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (“IFRS”). This release also includes non-IFRS financial information, which should be considered supplemental to, not a substitute for, or superior to, the financial measures calculated in accordance with IFRS. Some of the non-IFRS financial measures that are included in this release are Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin. We use these non-IFRS financial measures in conjunction with IFRS measures to evaluate our operating performance, formulate business plans, prepare budgets and forecasts, and make strategic decisions, including those relating to operating expenses and the allocation of internal resources. We believe that these non-IFRS financial measures provide useful information to investors, analysts, and others about our business and financial performance, enhance their overall understanding of our performance, and can assist in providing a more consistent and comparable overview of our financial performance across periods. There are a number of limitations related to the use of these non-IFRS financial measures and their nearest IFRS equivalents. For example, the Company’s definitions of non-IFRS financial measures may differ from non-IFRS financial measures used by other companies. For reconciliations to the most directly comparable IFRS measure, see the financial tables attached to this release. However, the Company is unable to provide a reconciliation of certain non-IFRS guidance measures to the corresponding IFRS measures on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable effort due to the unpredictability of the amounts and timing of events affecting the items we exclude from the non-IFRS measures. Notwithstanding the foregoing, it is important to note that material changes to reconciling items could have a significant effect on future IFRS results. Additionally, this release includes key operating metrics that we use to evaluate our operating performance, formulate business plans, and make strategic decisions.
Unaudited Financial Information
Please note that the financial information for the periods presented in this release is unaudited and derived from the Company's management accounts.
Industry and Market Data
This release may contain information, estimates and other statistical data derived from third-party sources. While the Company believes such information forms a reasonable basis for such statements, such information may be limited or incomplete, and the Company has not independently verified such data.