Cape Town– Unveiling another set of stellar results on Tuesday, Curro Holdings expressed confidence in the tertiary education market and revealed plans for a separate listing of its tertiary business during the course of the year.
The JSE-listed independent schools group reported a 69 percent improvement in headline earnings, from R100 million to R169 million, in the year to the end of December.
Headline earnings per share were up 55 percent, from 28.3 cents to 43.9 cents, in a year that saw a rights offer and two private placements.
Curro said revenue was up by 27 percent, from R1.4 billion to R1.8 billion, in the year under review, which saw student numbers increase by 14 percent to 47 589.
Curro invested R1.7 billion in the business during 2016, including R763 million in the construction of nine new campuses, R571 million in expanding existing campuses and R100 million in land banking.
The company said it planned to invest up to R1.8 billion in 2017.
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The statement added the company saw the tertiary sector as a potential star performer this year:
“We believe that the tertiary-education component can reach more than 100 000 students over the long term.”
There is still a way to go but, Curro said, in view of the potential it had already separated the schools and tertiary education businesses “to keep management focused and for segmental reporting purposes”.
Curro started expanding its tertiary education business, Embury, whose original campus could accommodate 1 000 students, in 2016.
At the end of 2017, the company said, the Embury operations would move to a new facility in Durban that could accommodate 2 600 students.
Two new campuses, Waterfall in Midrand and Montana in Pretoria, would be ready for full intake in 2018.
Also, Embury was in the process of concluding a transaction with Ba-Isago University in Botswana.
“It is envisaged that the tertiary education business will unbundle and list separately during the year,” Curro said.