China New Higher Education Group Limited
Development Direction in Line with the National Policy of Higher Vocational Education Resulting in Remarkable Achievements of China New Higher Education Group
Development Direction in Line with the National Policy of Higher Vocational Education Resulting in Remarkable Achievements of China New Higher Education Group
BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS
(25 April 2022 -Hong Kong) a leading higher vocational education group – China New Higher Education Group Limited (“New Higher Education Group”, together with its subsidiaries, collectively referred to as the “Group”, stock code: 2001.HK) is pleased to announce the interim results for the six months ended 28 February 2022.
As a long runner in the industry, the Group actively responds to the call of the State to support and encourage the high-quality development of higher vocational education, adheres to the concept of “Student As The Center”, increases investment in connotation construction, and continuously improves the quality of school operation. In the meantime, the Group maintains steady growth of performance, and continues to reward shareholders to realize the longer-term and more sustainable development. During the reporting period, the Group made great progress in all aspects, especially school operation level and performance.
HIGH-QUALITY SCHOOL OPERATION ACHIEVEMENTS AND INVESTMENT
The Group continued to implement the high-quality development strategy, strengthened the connotation construction, and continued to invest, resulting in significant improvements in the employment quality, teaching level, brand effect and school operation strength, and great progress in its performance: the total revenue increased by 30.7% year on year to RMB1.21 billion, revenue from principle business increased by 31.7% year on year to RMB1.04 billion, and the net profit attributable to the parent company increased by 17.2% year on year to RMB345 million, marking a further improvement in the sustainable and high-quality development capacity of the Group.
The Group forges firmly onwards the path of high-quality development, focuses on building a high-quality education system, actively increases investment in connotation construction during the reporting period, upgrades school operation conditions and educational environment, laying a solid foundation for long-term sustainable high-quality development in the future.
THE HIGH-QUALITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTION OF THE GROUP IN LINE WITH THE NATIONAL POLICY OF HIGHER VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
The development direction implemented by the Group is consistent with the national policy which strongly supports the development of vocational education. In October 2021, the Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Modern Vocational Education(《關於推動現代職業教育高質量發展的意見》) was issued, clearly supporting and encouraging listed companies and industry leaders to develop vocational education, and encouraging application-oriented undergraduate schools to carry out vocational undergraduate education. In December 2021, the Office of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council issued the “Opinions on the Authorization and Awarding of Bachelor’s Degrees in Vocational Schools at the Undergraduate Level”, which makes it clear that the authorization, awarding and management of bachelor’s degrees in vocational education at the undergraduate level will be subject to the same rules as those for general undergraduates, while highlighting the characteristics of vocational education. The undergraduate-level vocational education degree certificate will thus be given the same status as the general undergraduate degree in terms of effectiveness and application value. In January 2022, the Central Government issued the “14th Five-Year Plan for Vocational Skills Training” for the first time, aiming to improve the ability of workers and relieve the pressure of employment, and the higher education industry will continue to benefit from the favorable policy on vocational education. In February 2022, the Ministry of Education announced the work focus of vocational education in 2022, which clearly supports vocational education and the private higher education industry. The first major amendment of the Vocational Education Law has recently been completed since its implementation in 1996, that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress approved the amended Vocational Education Law on20 April 2022. The new Vocational Education Law, which will become effective on 1 May 2022, clarifies that vocational education and general education have the same important status, supports the social forces to extensively participate in vocational education, fosters, guides and backs up enterprises and other social forces to organize vocational schools and vocational training institutions in accordance with the law, and encourages enterprises to participate deeply in the integration of industry and education, as well as school-enterprise cooperation. The Group will continue to benefit from the favorable policy on vocational education, and have much clearer direction and path of its high-quality development.
WITH THE ATTRIBUTES OF A TOP-PERFORMING PUBLIC UTILITY STOCK
The higher education industry features a high barrier to entry, with high certainty of three-to-four-year learning path after students’ admission. The national policy of supporting and encouraging the development of higher vocational education has never changed, and the Group will steadfastly follow the path of quality and connotative development, focus on organic development, continue to increase investments, and improve school operation capability, maintaining steady growth in its performance.
On this basis, the Group has the attributes of a top-performing public utility stock in the Hong Kong stock market: stable performance growth, solid investment returns, sufficient cash flow, high safety margin (Forward PE: 4.3 times, source: Bloomberg) and steady dividend payout (it has distributed dividend every year since listing, and the dividend payout ratio of the recent two times has reached 50%).
Looking forward to the future, the Group will practically implement three “Persistences”: continuing to follow the path of high-quality and connotative development and focus on organic development, to create and provide high-quality vocational education opportunities with high-quality teaching, high-quality employment and high-quality experience for all our students; strengthen the attributes of top-performing public utilities stocks in the Hong Kong stock market. In the future, the Group will continue to be a government-supported, long-term sustainable higher vocational education group with high quality development, to achieve long-term win-win situation with investors by providing a predictable, long-term and stable performance growth; continuing to adhere to “Student As The Center“, and deliver high-quality technical and skilled talents with innovative spirit and practical capability, trustworthy and social responsibility for the society, and create greater value for the society.
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About China New Higher Education Group
China New Higher Education Group Limited is a leading higher vocational education group in China with more than 20 years of higher vocational education experience. The Group focuses on providing high-quality higher vocational education in various fields and is committed to cultivating application-oriented and high-quality technical skill talents for the country, helping students gain high-level employability and achieve a wonderful life. As a leader in high-quality employment, the Group won the title of the Top 50 National Employment of the MOE with an average employment rate of approximately 98%, much higher than the national average. The group’s network of schools has covered Yunnan, Heilongjiang, Hubei, Gansu, Guizhou, Henan and Guangxi provinces.
The Group became a constituent stock of the Hang Seng Composite Small Cap Index and the Hang Seng Consumer Goods & Services Index in the Hang Seng Composite Index Series in August 2017, and was included as a constituent stock of the MSCI China Small Cap Index in November 2017 and included as a constituent stock of Shenzhen and Hong Kong Stock Connect in March 2018.
File: Development Direction in Line with the National Policy of Higher Vocational Education Resulting in Remarkable Achievements of China New Higher Education Group
25/04/2022 Dissemination of a Financial Press Release, transmitted by EQS Group. |