IG Port, Inc.’s Profit as a Group Soars, but Wit Studio, Inc. Suffers Massive Losses for Fiscal Year 2021

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This is a follow up report of Great Pretender is IG Port’s Biggest Copyright Title Earner for the Fiscal Year Ending May 2021.

IG Port, Inc. has noted its best sales since Fiscal Year 2012 to record 9,934,081 thousand yen (~87.8 million USD) for Fiscal Year 2021, as such its current profit has risen significantly year on year to see its second best performance at 444,957 thousand yen (~3.9 million USD), mainly thanks to its Copyright and Publishing businesses.

The group has expressed its concerns regarding the Animation industry where birth decline has been impacting its TV ratings, and the diversification of tastes plus the sluggish sales of video packages have caused it to be in a tough position. However, its Publication Business is booming thanks to the rise of digital content.

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Big Trouble for Wit Studio

While Production I.G. has reported a growth in profit for the year, up 59.29% from prior year, Wit Studio has seen its worst ever performance. The Fiscal Year 2021 witnessed the studio in an abysmal state of a massive loss of 501,579 thousand yen (~4.43 million USD), plunging its net asset to a negative 866,868 thousand yen (~7.7 million USD) as confirmed by Crunchryroll via gamebiz. As a result, this has caused it to be in major debt. To remedy the situation, its parent company, IG Port has decided to step in and implement the “Subsidiary Management Project.” in a bid to return the studio to profitability.

It is unknown what the fate will be for the studio if it ended up not being able to recover from its position. In 2018, then IG Port owned Xebec studio was transferred to Sunrise after reporting that the studio had been running a deficit for a long time (Source: ANN). Measures were implemented to return the studio to profitability, but situation did not improve.

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Looking Good for Publication and Copyright Businesses

The group’s publishing company Mag Garden on the other hand, has been reporting steady profit. The Manga focused publication company has so far published 116 books including the following titles: Mahoutsukai no Yome, Reincarnation no Kaben and Tensei Kizoku no Isekai Boukenroku. The strong e-book sales, and higher sales to bookstores were noted to be among contributors that secured its best profit since Fiscal Year 2012. Profit is up 66.19% year on year to 310,683 thousand yen (~2.7 million USD).

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Its Video Production Business remains in a tough spot as it records more losses than profit since 2012. For the Fiscal Year 2021, the group produced several noticeable titles such as films: Fate/Grand Order: Shinsei Entaku Ryouiki Camelot 1 and 2, Shika no Ou and TV Animations: Noblesse, Yuukoku no Moriarty, Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song and B: The Beginning Succession. The group attributed the loss to the growing demand of higher quality Animation, the lengthening of production period and higher outsourcing costs. As a result, a loss of 127,285 thousand yen (~1.1 million USD) was recorded for the Fiscal Year.

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Its Copyright Business flourished thanks to the licensing of titles such as: GREAT PRETENDER, B: The Beginning, Shingeki no Kyojin, Koukaku Kidoutai, Haikyuu!! and Vinland Saga. As such, sales climbed to a record high of 2,131,559 thousand yen (~18.8 million USD), around 20% of the Group’s overall sales, and profit grew to 495,272 thousand yen (~4.4 million USD) from 272,393 thousand yen (~2.4 million USD) the previous year.

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As of Fiscal Year 2021, the current Group structure is as follows:

IG Port, Inc. is incorporated in Japan with its head office in Musashino​-shi. It is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under ticket symbol: 3791.

Sources:
Securities Report (FY2012)
Securities Report (FY2013)
Securities Report (FY2014)
Securities Report (FY2015)
Securities Report (FY2016)
Securities Report (FY2017)
Securities Report (FY2018)
Securities Report (FY2019)
Securities Report (FY2020)
Securities Report (FY2021)

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8 thoughts on “IG Port, Inc.’s Profit as a Group Soars, but Wit Studio, Inc. Suffers Massive Losses for Fiscal Year 2021”

  1. Muy interesante, gracias por la información. Generar una mejor calidad en animación les generó perdidas, crees que no se arriesgarán más y harán animación barata?. Sería interesante una lista sobre los estudios en números rojos o los que están en mejor situación.

    Reply

    1. I am glad that you find the article useful! Well, it will be hard to say what they would do. They still have several titles in their pipeline, and I think they will proceed with these projects as usual. Though, I expect them to trim down on future plans, and see if they can increase licensing more of their titles to other platforms, or renew them. Well, Vivy does seem to be doing well. A quarterly report will be out on the 14th, so I will check that one out to see if they had or had not recoup (to a certain extend) their losses. What a tough position they’re in… 😭

      Reply

      2. Hmmm I can’t say since many of them do not publish their financial reports. I am still searching and see if I can find any for other studios. So far Wit Studio is in this situation, but Production I.G. is not. Signal.MD seems to be in quite a difficult state too, but its profit data is scarce, so I was unable to make an analysis for it.

  2. hey, i’ve got a question , is Production IG’s growth in profit part of video production or it comes from their copy right production?

    Reply

    1. Hey! Do you mean sales? If it is sales for Production IG, it should derived mostly from Video Production. But, hang on to that for now since IG Port will be releasing another report soon. That should confirm Production IG’s performance for the fiscal year.

      Reply

      1. won’t you mind me asking what is exactly the video production? there are several forms of income for an animation studio, one of them is the money they receive from the committees to work on the animation, another one is the money they earn for investing in the anime and being a member of the committee themselves.

        which form is the video production?

      2. Hey! Well it depends. a studio can also be a part of a production committee and earn income based on its investment ratio (through the copyright business). However, if a studio is not part of the committee, it will earn sales based on the production of videos (in this case the production of Anime, PV etc) when contracted. One good example would be in the case of IG Port earning revenue from Attack on Titan because it has investment through Production IG via production committee, but it is not the one producing the Anime (referring to Attack on Titan: The Final Season), MAPPA was.

        TL;DR A studio tends to make money when contracted by a production committee to produce video related products. If they are part of a committee, they can earn sales based on their investment ratio: 10% ownership = 10% of the sales.

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