Local international school operation Overseas Education RQ1 announced that its FY2022 ended Dec 31, 2022 has declined by 16.7% y-o-y to $5.3 million from $6.3 million in the previous year.
Total revenue for the full year period saw a 2.4% y-o-y increase to $76.4 million from $75.6 million last year. The increase in revenue was due to an uptick in student enrolment in the second half of 2022 with expatriate families returning to Singapore as most international borders are now fully reopened post-Covid-19.
The group saw revenue improvement across all its revenue segments – tuition fees, registration fees, school shop revenue, enrichment programme revenue, interest income and other income.
Total operating expenses before depreciation and amortisation saw an increase of 10.8% y-o-y to $58.4 million from $52.7 million last year.
As at end-December 2022, cash and cash equivalents stood at $50.4 million.
The group has declared a final dividend of 1.1 cent per share, payable on May 19. This is lower than the 1.3 cent declared in FY2021.
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Looking forward, the group says: “With most international borders fully reopened, Singapore is seeing a step-up in expatriate families relocating to Singapore. Barring any set back by a further wave of pandemic, the group is cautiously optimistic that the student enrolment will also increase in tandem with the inflow of expatriate families entering and living in Singapore.”
However, the group expects the foreign system schools’ space and operating environment to remain competitive and challenging amid rising costs and a high inflationary environment.
Shares in Overseas Education closed at 26 cents on Feb 22.
