Stadio Holdings plans to start building a higher education campus for contact and distance-learning purposes in Durbanville, Western Cape, this year.
“The board has approved the construction of the campus in phases, with construction for phase 1 commencing in 2024, at a cost of R220 million. The construction will be funded 50% cash and 50% through long-term debt, CEO Chris Vorster said at the release of their 2023 results yesterday.
Stadio provides access to higher education through its three registered private Higher Education Institutions: Stadio Higher Education, Milpark Education and AFDA –offering undergraduate and postgraduate programmes on the contact and distance-learning modes of delivery.
The group grew its student numbers a sturdy 10% to 46 508 in the year to December 31, and core headline earnings used by the group to benchmark its underlying performance increased by 19% to R209m. A dividend of 10 cents per share was up 12% over 8.9 cents in 2022.
“It is expected the campus will open to new students in 2026. Unlike Stadio’s Centurion campus, which opened with a handful of programmes, the Durbanville campus will kick-off with numerous programmes on offer across multiple disciplines. The expected number of students at the opening is 1 000 students,” said Vorster in an online presentation.
He said they would not build a campus in every city, but instead build comprehensive campuses in fewer key locations.
“We believe the Durbanville campus will be our showroom in the Western Cape, and is an exciting step in the execution of our strategy of having 20 000 students studying via contact learning and 80 000 via distance learning.”
The growth in student numbers in the past year had put the group’s target of 56 000 students by 2026 within reach, he said.
Vorster said firm demand for professional qualifications was driving growth in student registrations.
Distance-learning student numbers grew 11% to 40 689. There was 2% growth in contact-learning student numbers to 5 819, a positive sign considering the 4% drop in contact-learning students in the prior year.
“Registrations of new contact-learning students increased by 15% in 2023, evidence that our contact-learning strategy is working,” Vorster said.
The growing student numbers paved the way for a revenue increase of 16% to R1.41 billion, with ebitda growing by 11% to R391m. Growth in taxed profit was mainly due to organic growth in the underlying institutions, as well as lower growth in depreciation.
Core headline earnings grew 19% to 24.6 cents a share.
New qualifications were accredited during the year – to be offered in 2024 – in information technology, management and accounting. These would supplement disciplines ranging from education, commerce, management and administration, policing, law, fashion, media and design, architecture and spatial design, and humanities.
Milpark Education became the largest provider of candidates sitting for the Chartered Accounting exams last year and topped the list for the highest number of first-time passes compared to its peers.
AFDA, a contact-learning provider specialising in the offer of high-end qualifications in the creative economies (encompassing film, live performance, business and innovation, and creative writing) on four campuses in Johannesburg, Durban, Gqeberha and Cape Town was considering further expansion opportunities.
Vorster said Stadio generated R360m (2022: R308m) cash from operations for the year, while investing R59m into capital expenditure, of which R22m related to the development of curriculum intangibles and computer equipment and systems.
BUSINESS REPORT