Edvantage Group Holdings Limited (“Edvantage Group” or the “Company”, together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”; stock code: 0382.HK), is pleased to announce a positive profit alert regarding the interim results for FY2020, expecting to record core net profit for the 6 months ended 29 February 2020 (the “Review Period”) with an increase of no less than 30% compared to that for the same period last year. This is the second positive profit alert announcement since its listing.
Performance saw continuous improvement
Increase in No. of students and Avg. tuition fees
Edvantage Group operates two private higher education institutions in China, Huashang College Guangdong University of Finance & Economics (“Huashang College”) and Guangzhou Huashang Vocational College (“Huashang Vocational College”). Benefitted from the huge demand for business talents in the Greater Bay Area, widely recognition of the Huashang brand, the management’s capability in school management of the Group, as well as the widely recognized internationalized education model of Huashang College and Guangzhou Huashang Vocational College, both student number and average tuition fees saw increase in the Review Period. It is expected that the revenue of the Group would see a significant growth in the Review Period as well.
Ministry of Education expand enrollment of “Junior college to bachelor’s degree transfer programmes”
Significant policy benefits would be exerted
Recently, the State Council of China enforced a policy of “Junior college to bachelor’s degree transfer programmes” (the “Programmes”) enrollment expansion, with the expectation to expand enrollment with 322 thousand more students over the country made by Ministry of Education, while Guangdong Province is expected to have an expansion of 50%. This policy will directly benefit the Huashang College’s coming Programmes’ enrollment of 2020/21 school year. According to statistics, the number of applicants for the Huashang College’s Programmes is 6,688 in the 2020/21 school year, and the enrollment of the Huashang College’s Programmes is expected to increase by about 50% compared to the 2019/20 school year. Huashang College’s Programmes is popular among applicants, making Huashang College the private high education college with the largest number of both applicants and students in Guangdong province. Huashang College is constructing a new campus in Sihui of Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, which will accommodate approximately 16,000 students. With Sihui new campus commencing operation in September 2020 as expected, the Group’s education resources will be fully supplemented, and capacity of the school will be further strengthened.
The epidemic has limited influence on higher education institutions
Online teaching platforms’ advantages kick in
In the Covid-19 epidemic, schools of Edvantage Group proactively deployed various epidemic prevention and control work before the new school year. Implementing the “suspend classes but not learning” policy, the Group utilized existing online teaching platforms such as “Chaoxingerya”, “Zhihuishu” and “XuetangX” to exercise online teaching activities and teaching research. The starting time of new school year of Huashang College and Huashang Vocational College was 2 March and 9 March respectively, and online lectures was tentatively extended to the end of April, though the specific ending time would be adjusted based on the announcement of the Guangzhou Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters and the superior education authority. At present, Huashang College has successfully started the new school year. On the first day of the school, the Huashang College offered 189 online courses, with more than 40,000 students participating. Multi-time and multi-platform online teaching was a new attempt, new challenge and new exploration for Huashang College. Edvantage Group will also seize the opportunity of online teaching, focus on the future, constantly discover and explore typical cases to lay the foundation for online teaching reform.
The App of “Huashang e-Home” initiates the construction of smart campuses
Industry-leading level of education informatization
The Group has been preparing for the construction of smart campuses since 2015. Starting from education informatization, the Group was committed to promoting the upgrade of education services based on the industrial internet thinking. Up to present, the Group has set up its own smart campus portal and established a school-wide media platform:
– In terms of Internet-assisted teaching, “Huashang e-Home” provides auxiliary support for teachers and students’ teaching and learning, combining with teaching diagnosis and quality improvement requirements, such as recommending relevant knowledge systems based on majors and courses, and related auxiliary training and certification services, standardized online tests for non-core courses, and career development planning; meanwhile, school teachers can also build their own course systems on the platform;
– In terms of faculty, staff and student management services, the campus portal of “Huashang e-Home” realizes full platform, all media, and multi-terminal support services, providing various student management and services that helps students to exercise exam registration and student registration at home, etc.;
– In terms of faculty, staff, and student’s life, the “Huashang e-Home” provides an all-around protection and services covering clothing, living, food and medication for faculty, staff, and students, especially life support in special periods like epidemic by using a mobile terminal.
The Group applies smart campuses to the overall management of universities and conducts integrated management in five aspects, including teaching integration, student management integration, administrative office integration, logistics management integration, and resource platform integration. In the future, it will also focus on the “5A” smart intelligence innovative entrepreneurship system platform for universities and based on the talent cultivation with Internet model, as well as the innovative entrepreneurship ecosystem construction that breaks the limitation of traditional campus to combine the school life with entrepreneurship and create the “5A” new innovative entrepreneurship model, namely Anyone can start Any business and employment and get Any services Anywhere and Anytime.
About Edvantage Group Holdings Limited
Edvantage Group Holdings Limited (“Edvantage Group” or the “Group”, stock code: 0382.HK) is the largest private higher education group in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (in terms of total student enrolment of business majors for the 2017/2018 school year), and an early mover in education sector in pursuing international expansion. With a sizeable student base, the Company operates with economies of scale. In China, the Edvantage Group currently operates two private higher education institutions located in the Great Bay Area of Guangdong Province, China, namely Huashang College and Huashang Vocational College. Huashang College and Huashang Vocational College focus their programme offerings on business programmes, such as accounting, finance, economics and business English, and strive to help students to achieve employment prospects when they graduate, and to benefit from the availability of employment opportunities in the Greater Bay Area. The Company also operates a private vocational education institution named Global Business College of Australia (“GBCA”) authorized by ASQA in Australia, offering vocational education courses and non-formal short-term courses aiming to provide students with competitive advantages and global prospective.
The Group has also acquired NYU Language School, a local school in Singapore and has established the Singapore campus based in the existing NYU Language School. NYU Language School has been accredited as EduTrust by the Education Department of Singapore. The Singapore campus is expected to commence operation in April 2020. In addition to the language preparatory courses, the new campus also provides undergraduate and college courses and start-up/training courses. It is qualified to offer internationally-recognised courses and accept local and overseas students in Singapore.
