HONG KONG, Apr 22, 2020 – (ACN Newswire) – Edvantage Group Holdings Limited ("Edvantage Group" or the "Group", stock code: 0382.HK) announces its unaudited interim results for the six months ended 29 February 2020 (the "reporting period"). The Group operates four schools during the reporting period, Huashang College Guangdong University of Finance and Economics ("Huashang College") and Guangzhou Huashang Vocational College ("Huashang Vocational College") in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area ("Greater Bay Area") of the PRC, and one private vocational education institution in Australia, Global Business College of Australia ("GBCA"), as well as NYU Language School, a private education institution in Singapore, which was acquired during the reporting period.

Financial Highlights (for the six months ended 29 February 2020)
– Number of student enrolments increased by 8% YoY to 35,300
– Average tuition fee of Huashang College increased by 11.3% YoY to RMB24,315
– Average tuition fee of Huashang Vocational College increased by 3.4% YoY to RMB15,573
– Revenue rose by approximately 18.9% YoY to approximately RMB418.3 million
– Gross profit increased by approximately 23.3% YoY to RMB204.1 million
– Gross margin climbed 1.8 ppts to 48.8%
– Adjusted net profit1 surged approximately 35.4% YoY to approximately RMB150.8 million
– Adjusted net profit margin rose by 4.4 ppts YoY to 36.1%
– Net profit2 surged approximately 61.1% YoY to approximately RMB147.1 million
– Net profit margin climbed 9.2 ppts YoY to 35.2%
– Interim dividend per share is HK4.9 cents
Note: (1) Adjusted net profit includes three one-off adjusted net profit items: 1) Net foreign exchange loss and gain (FY2020 Interim: Loss of RMB2,364,000; FY2019 Interim: Gain of RMB565,000); 2) Share-based payments relevant to a share option scheme and share award scheme as incentive for employees (FY2020 Interim: RMB1,345,000; FY2019 Interim: nil); 3) Listing expenses (FY2020 Interim: nil; FY2019 Interim: RMB20,710,000); (2) Profit from continuing operations

During the reporting period, the Group recorded an outstanding growth performance in its interim results. The total number of student enrolments amounted to 35,300, representing a year-on-year ("YoY") increase of 8.0%. The average tuition fee of Huashang College was RMB24,315, representing a YoY increase of 11.3%, while Huashang Vocational College's average tuition fee was RMB15,573, representing a YoY increase of 3.4%. Revenue rose by approximately 18.9% YOY to approximately RMB418.3 million. Gross profit rose by approximately 23.3% YOY to approximately RMB204.1 million, while gross margin rose by 1.8 percentage points YOY to 48.8%. Adjusted net profit grew by approximately 35.4% YoY to approximately RMB 150.8 million, while adjusted net profit margin grew by 4.4 percentage points YOY to 36.1%. Net profit soared by approximately 61.1% YOY to approximately RMB147.1 million, while net profit margin increased by 9.2 percentage points YOY to 35.2%. The Board of Directors of the Group declared an interim dividend of HK4.9 cents per share.

Business Operation Overview

During the reporting period, Huashang College moved up six spots from the previous year to the 29th place in the 2020 ranking of top independent colleges released by CUAA.NET and was rated as "China's Top-Level Independent College". During the reporting period, Huashang College offered 37 undergraduate courses, including three new major courses, namely, taxation, cosmetic science and technology, and science of Chinese traditional medicine. In terms of student enrolment in the 2019/2020 school year, the top five majors were accounting, English, international economics and trade, financial engineering and Chinese literature. Among majors, accounting and journalism were designated as a "featured key disciplines in Guangdong Province" and "key development disciplines in Guangdong province" respectively and included in "leading top undergraduate majors for development in Guangdong province". In the 2019/2020 school year, the minimum scores of liberal arts and science students for admission to Huashang College were 31 and 28 points higher than minimum admission scores of Guangdong Province, respectively. During the reporting period, the total number of student enrolments in Huashang College was 24,110, representing a YOY increase of 6.5%, and the average tuition fee for its students was RMB24,315, representing a YOY increase of 11.3%.

Huashang Vocational College offered 44 junior college diploma programmes during the reporting period, including 10 new programmes such as medical aesthetics technology, health management, interior art design and automotive electronics technology. Among the majors, tourism and hotel management were rated by the Education Department of Guangdong Province as "key development disciplines". During the reporting period, the total number of student enrolments in Huashang Vocational College was 10,661, representing a YOY increase of 11.8%, and the average tuition fee for its student enrolments was RMB15,573, representing a YOY increase of 3.4%.

GBCA offers vocational education courses and non-academic short-term courses. A total of 22 training courses were offered during the reporting period. These courses are divided into five categories: interpreting, English, business and accounting, information technology and childcare and community services programmes. Students will receive certifications issued by GBCA which are recognised or endorsed by relevant training agencies, such as the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters, or a diploma or advanced diploma upon completing all courses required by the respective programmes. During the reporting period, its number of student enrolments was 506.

During the reporting period, the Group acquired NYU Language School, a Singaporean private school. Established in 1991, the school has attained the authoritative EduTrust certification from the Ministry of Education, Singapore. It offers short-term and long-term language training courses and various courses in preparation for entrance to Singaporean schools for Singaporeans and international students. It is qualified to offer internationally recognised courses and accept local and overseas students in Singapore. The Group has established the Singapore campus based in the existing NYU Language School. The new campus is situated in the city centre with favourable geographical location and excellent accessibility. It is also in the vicinity of various universities, including the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, which are accessible within a short period of time. The new campus is expected to be put into use in the second quarter of 2020. The Group will then gradually add new teaching content. For example, the Group's "Global Immersion Program" will continuously provide short-term overseas courses (such as arts and landscape design courses) for students from the families of Chinese businessmen. The number of student enrolments was 23 up to the end of the reporting period following the Group's acquisition of NYU Language School in December 2019.

Business Update and Outlook

During the reporting period, the Group experienced the global outbreak of a novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic ("COVID-19"). Since the industry in which the Group operates is higher education, the Group was minimally affected. In early March 2020, both Huashang College and Huashang Vocational College opened as scheduled. Guided by the national policy of "classes suspended but learning continues", the Group actively arranged students to switch from studying offline to online, and online teaching progressed smoothly. In addition, the Group's APP "Huashang e-Home" fully demonstrated its advantages by providing various convenient services for Internet-assisted teaching, faculty and student management services and faculty's and students' lives during this period for responding to the COVID-19 epidemic. The Group will also seize the online education opportunity to focus on future and constantly discover and explore typical cases, laying the foundation for reform in online education.

Looking forward, the Group will continuously strengthen its core business, vigorously develop vocational education and training business, constantly improve the quality of the Group's education services, enhance the overall operation level and achieve higher profitability through diversified models.

Continuous Strengthening of the Core Business:

Improvement in School Condition and Proactive Deployment of Teaching Resources

New Sihui campus: The new Sihui campus will be put into operation as scheduled in September 2020. The new campus covers an area of approximately 533,300 sq. m. (800 Mu) and can accommodate approximately 16,000 students. The net increase in the number of students is expected to record no fewer than 3,000 each year.

Existing Zengcheng campus: The constructions of the Huashuang Science & Technology Centre and Huashang International Conference Centre on the Zengcheng campus are in progress as scheduled. The Huashuang Science & Technology Centre will be mainly used for related teaching activities, and the Huashang International Conference Centre will be mainly used to host industry or school-enterprise meetings, academic activities, and practical training.

Diversification of Education Services

New teaching venue in Shenzhen: The new teaching venue is located in The Mixc Commercial Zone, Nanshan District, Shenzhen and is expected to commence operation in the second quarter of 2020. It will serve mainly for the purpose of high-end vocational certificate training and examinations (training and examinations for certificates such as the certificate in finance and technology, big data/artificial intelligence (AI) certificate and related qualification certificates issued by the institute of chartered secretaries), high-end business activities and academic salons and serve as an innovation entrepreneurship base/incubator, an extracurricular practice base, and a place for delivering employment and internship skills training.

Course Improvement

Comprehensive strategic cooperation with SenseTime: The Group signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with SenseTime Group Limited, a world-leading AI platform company on 12 November 2019. The cooperation content includes developing AI courses (including providing general education courses for students from Huashang College and Huashang Vocational College and providing major courses for students from the school of data science in Huashang College and Huashang Vocational College) and training compound talents in combination with superior disciplines. The Group plans to offer relevant courses from the 2020/2021 school year.

Cooperation with the Southwest University of Political Science and Law: On 31 December, the Group entered into a cooperation agreement with the Southwest University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing. The joint establishment of Southwest University of Political Science & Law Huashang College to award double bachelor's degree of Business and Law inter-disciplinary talent to enhance the level of recognition and the competitiveness of its graduates. The Group expects the tuition fees of the joint programme will be considerably higher than its original single subject programme.

Comprehensive strategic cooperation with Kingdee Group: On 12 March 2020, the Group signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with Kingdee Software China Company Ltd., a leading enterprise management software and e-commerce application solution provider in the Asia-Pacific region. The two parties will work together to promote the integration of production and education, thereby developing compound application talents adapted to enterprise digital management.

Global Expansion and Improvement of Teaching Quality

New Singapore campus: The Group has established the Singapore campus based in the existing NYU Language School. Expected to commence operation in the second quarter of 2020, the new campus is situated in the city centre with favourable geographical location and excellent accessibility. It is also in the vicinity of various universities, including the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Besides providing long-term and short-term language training courses and various courses in preparatory for entrance of different schools, the new campus also provides college graduate degree and operates other universities' undergraduate and master programmes, as well as kinds of non-formal education training and innovation & entrepreneurship courses.

New campus in London: The Group is advancing relevant preparations for a new campus in London. As part of the preparations, software-related work such as licensing application is ongoing, but the management of the Group decided to postpone hardware-related work due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Given this, the Group strives to further implement the hardware-related work in due course. So far, the Group has not invested much in preparing for the new campus in London.

Vigorous Development of Vocational Education Training Business:

The business of vocational education training of the Group further grew under the provisional government policy on quality classification of vocational skills, i.e. "1 + X" certificate system, introduced for vocational colleges and technical training colleges.

The business of vocational education training of the Group has high growth and gross profit margin and will become a new revenue growth factor for the Group. The Group expects that the revenue of this business segment in the financial year ("FY") 2019/2020 will increase by approximately 50% or above YoY (approximately RMB9 million in FY2018/2019 and its gross profit margin will also exceed that of its core business (gross profit margin of the core business: approximately 48.6% in FY2018/2019. The Group has taken the following main measures recently to vigorously develop its vocational education training business:

The Group actively cooperates with industry-leading institutions/schools to offer high-end vocational education training courses in China and beyond: including Development of AI-related courses with SenseTime (expected to commence in the second quarter of 2020); Development of courses related to enterprise digital management talents with Kingdee Group (expected to commence in the second quarter of 2020); Implementation of vocational training projects in law with the Southwest University of Political Science and Law through overseas educational resources (expected to commence in the school year of 2020/2021);

More certified vocational training courses have been introduced in Zengcheng campus: such as CFA, junior accountant, computer science, teacher qualification certificate, CET 4, CET 6 and IELTS;

Further development of the School of Continuing Education in Zengcheng campus: The contribution of revenue from continuing education in the school year of 2020/2021 and beyond is expected to be more significant.

Mr. Liu Yung Chau, Executive Director and chairman of the Board of Edvantage Group Holdings Limited, said, "benefiting from national policies which support the Greater Bay Area as well as the natural demographic dividend there, Edvantage Group has been clearly positioned as 'Nurturing professional talents for the Greater Bay Area.' Our interim results performance in FY2020 was satisfying and surpassed the 30%-guideline stated in the profit alert announcement. Amid the epidemic, this was even more precious and was a surprise as well. We have always valued shareholders' interests. This is the first full interim dividend since listing, which remained the 30%-rate stated in 2019 Annual Report. Since Edvantage Group was listed on 16 July 2019, the Group distributed dividends in FY2019 for the first time in FY2019 ended 31 August 2019, which was HK1 cent per share for only a 1.5-month period, while for this time, an interim dividend of HK4.9 cents per share will be distributed. Our management hope to maintain outstanding and growing performance and stable dividends to reward shareholders for their unwavering support."

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 Greater Bay Area (in terms of total student enrolments of business majors for the 2017/2018 school year), and an early mover in education sector in pursuing international expansion. The total number of student enrolments of the Group were 35,300 as of 29 February 2020. 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 achieve employment prospects when they graduate and benefit from the availability of employment opportunities in the Greater Bay Area. The Group 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. The Group has also acquired NYU Language School, a local private 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 the second quarter of 2020. It is qualified to offer internationally-recognised courses and accept local and overseas students in Singapore.


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HONG KONG, Mar 12, 2020 – (ACN Newswire) – Edvantage Group Holdings Limited ("Edvantage Group" or the "Group", stock code: 0382.HK), the largest private higher education group in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (the "Greater Bay Area"), is pleased to announce that the Group has entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Kingdee Software (China) Co., Ltd. ("Kingdee Group", stock code: 0268.HK), a leading enterprise management software and e-commerce application solution provider in Asia Pacific. Edvantage Group fully exerts its professional recourses and brand advantages, along with Kingdee Group's industrial advantages in the field of management software industry and enterprise cloud service application information technology, to join forces to promote the integration of industry and education. In the light of that, the Group's digital transformation will be further promoted, and the Group's financial vocational training and social services capabilities will be further improved as well, bringing the realization of joint development and win-win situation.

Comprehensively realizing digital transformation
Further optimizing corporate operation and management
Edvantage Group is the first private higher education group to enter strategic partnership with Kingdee Group in China. With established regional network in China, Australia and Singapore, the Group will see expansion of international network in the future, thus comprehensive digital transformation will better fuel the Group's international business development and improve operation and management efficiency of domestic and international business. Operation cost will be significantly reduced as well.

– Regarding informatization construction, Kingdee Group will allocate the optimal resources and advanced management model to help Edvantage Group to fully improve its digital management level in accordance with the Group's informatization construction strategy and goals. At the same time, they will jointly analyze the advanced enterprise management model in the education industry. Kingdee Group will combine the management results of the research with the actual management situation and industry characteristics of Edvantage Group to form a Chinese management model in the education industry.

– Regarding the financial sharing center's construction, Kingdee Group provides related planning and construction consultation, system process planning, and software system support for the construction of Edvantage Group's financial sharing center. Both sides will jointly create an efficient sharing and management system and establish the financial sharing model for the education industry.

Further encouraging the integration of industry and education
Continuously expanding the vocational education training business
Kingdee Group also assists the Group in extending innovative information management technology, modern corporate management concepts, and advanced corporate culture to the Group's professional teaching and social services. Together, both parties will promote the innovative model of professional talent training and the integration of industry and education, as well as deepen the school-enterprise cooperation to further improve the employment quality of graduates. At the same time, both sides proactively respond to the government policy on "1+X" certification system and cooperate to develop certification courses for college students and adult learner, which enable the Group to develop vigorously in the field of vocational education and training.

– Regarding the integration of industry and education, both parties jointly create new business majors cooperation, and integrate cloud management with ABCD new technology-related industrial resources, to promote the updating of professional talent training programs in the fields of accounting, management and software, and jointly cultivate composite application-oriented talents that are suitable for enterprise digital management.

– Regarding the vocational education and training, both parties integrate their competitive resources and develop a series of training courses of enterprise digital management in new technology fields such as big data, industrial internet, and cloud technology to explore diversified education services for enterprise and social trainee in Greater Bay Area. In addition, both sides plan to establish an industrial college to jointly cultivate enterprise information management talents and application-oriented talents who fulfill the demand of industry digital management field.

The Group is the largest private higher education group weighed in business in the Greater Bay Area, while the Kingdee Group is a leader in the Chinese software market headquartered in Shenzhen, making the cooperation a strong alliance between two industry leaders both rooted in the Greater Bay Area. Adhering to the principles of "complementary advantages, resource sharing, mutual benefit and win-win development, and joint development", both parties establish close and long-term strategic partnerships of mutual benefit and complementary advantages to achieve the goals of joint development and mutual benefit. Looking forward, in the light of the comprehensive realization of digital transformation, the Group's domestic and international networks will be more efficiently and seamlessly connected, which will further optimize the overall operation of the Group. In addition, the further development of the integration of industry and education will not only grant the graduates' competitiveness in the employment market, but also strengthen the Group's brand reputation. The continuous expansion of the vocational education and training business not only conforms to the national education policy, but also enriches the Group's income sources.

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.

About Kingdee Software (China) Co., Ltd.
Kingdee Software (China) Co., Ltd. ("Kingdee Group", stock code: 0268.HK) was founded in 1993 and listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Well-known as a leading enterprise management software and e-commerce application solution provider in Asia Pacific, one of the fastest growing independent software vendors in the global software market and a leader in China's software industry, Kingdee Group is committed to becoming "the worthiest entrusted enterprise service platform". Kingdee Group is headquartered in Shenzhen, China, running nearly 100 branches in mainland China focusing on marketing and services, and partnering with more than 2,400 consulting, technology, implementation services, and distribution organization, providing cloud services to more than 6.8 million enterprises and government organizations. According to authoritative IDC data, Kingdee Group has ranked No. 1 in the market share of Chinese SMEs for 14 consecutive years and ranked No. 1 regarding the enterprise SaaS ERM market share for 3 consecutive years. It is the only Chinese enterprise SaaS cloud service vendor selected into Gartner's Global Market Guide.


Copyright 2020 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. http://www.acnnewswire.com

Cambridge, UK, Mar 12, 2020 – (ACN Newswire) – Yidan Prize Conference Series: Europe 2020 was held at Jesus College, the University of Cambridge. This year's conference focused on two themes: education and international development; wellbeing and education.

This year's Yidan Prize Conference Series: Europe 2020 honored the achievements of the Yidan Prize for Education Research Laureate 2019, Professor Usha Goswami, and also honored the work of the Yidan Prize for Education Development Laureate 2019, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed KCMG. He died in late December 2019. Sir Fazle was the Founder of BRAC, one of the world's largest non-profit development organizations, which currently operates across 11 countries in Africa and Asia and has set up hundreds of early childhood development centers, where close to 40,000 children are presently enrolled.

"The 2019 Laureates represent two very different approaches to ensuring that our children go on to lead happy, productive lives, but they also intersect. Both point to the need to achieve a better, deeper understanding of children's needs. Through their work, we now see promising ways to help millions of lives around the world. With technology, and active participation of our partners on this global platform, we can inspire hope for our future generations." Dr Charles Chen Yidan, the founder of the Yidan Prize said at the conference.

The University of Cambridge's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope said that the university had a 'critical' role to play in addressing the challenges of mental health, and it goes to the heart of what we stand for as a center for research and practice in education.

Professor Pauline Rose, Director of Research for Equitable Access and Learning Center, the University of Cambridge, said that inspired by the achievements of Sir Fazle, this year's conference discussed what works in education for the most marginalized communities.

"BRAC since the 1980s has been a world-leader in this area. BRAC's impact seems to stem from the fact that they gather evidence about their effectiveness and adapt their programmes accordingly, which helps to make their work adaptable and replicable in other countries. At the REAL Centre at the Faculty of Education, we have carried out assessments that suggest that similar reasons lie behind the success of another organization, CAMFED, in supporting the education of marginalized girls in Tanzania," she said.

BRAC IED's Executive Director Erum Mariam attended the conference. She said Sir Fazle dedicated his life to serve the needs of people living in poverty all around the world. Among his many contributions, he is best known for making girls' education a priority in Bangladesh with women as the drivers of change.

"Sir Fazle scaled a unique non-formal primary education model in every district of Bangladesh maintaining a strict policy of opening a one room school only if 70 percent of the students are girls. Started in 1985 BRAC's s non-formal schools have had six million graduates who would have otherwise been left behind," Erum Mariam said.

Professor Anna Vignoles from Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, hosted a panel discussion on children's mental health. She found that there is a growing global awareness of the mental health needs of children, and a growing consensus that mental health is an important indicator of the success or otherwise of any society.

"Children in particular experience a range of problems and challenges, including poverty, abuse, bereavement etc. Evidence from the World Health Organisation survey suggests that around a third of all mental health problems are down to such childhood adversities. We need to be clear what the main factors causing any increase in young people's mental health problems are, and the extent to which they really can be addressed by schools, rather than requiring a wider societal response. Second, we need to have far better evidence on what kinds of interventions are effective in a school setting, and reassure ourselves that schools are indeed the right institutions to be tackling the problem," Anna Vignoles said.

"We look forward to finding many more innovative solutions through working closely with educators who share our passion and determination to build a more inclusive society for everyone. Together, we can transform great ideas into meaningful actions. It is on the notion of the need for closer collaborations and collective impact that we curate these debates to create a new philosophy for the future of education," Dr Charles Chen Yidan said.

At Yidan Prize Conference 2020, Professor Toope announced officially that the University of Cambridge would be creating a new role – Professor of Psychology of Education and Learning Studies, which will be based in its Faculty of Education. The new post will strengthen existing research into how better to support young people's well-being and mental health, in particular through the education system.

The first post-holder will be Professor Gordon Harold, currently at the University of Sussex, who has led several, field-changing studies into the relationship between domestic adversity and young people's mental health, enabling schools and teachers to do more to support pupils with depression and anxiety.

The conference was broadcast live online to encourage educators from around the world to participate in discussions on important educational issues.

About the Yidan Prize

Founded in 2016 by Dr Charles Chen Yidan, a core founder of Tencent, the Yidan Prize has a mission of creating a better world through education. It consists of two awards, the Yidan Prize for Education Research and the Yidan Prize for Education Development. Yidan Prize Laureates each receives a gold medal and a total sum of HK$30 million (around US$3.9 million), half of which is a cash prize while the other half is a project fund. To ensure transparency and sustainability, the prize is managed by the Yidan Prize Foundation and governed by an independent trust with an endowment of HK$2.5 billion (around US$323 million). Through a series of initiatives, the prize aims to establish a platform for the global community to engage in conversation around education and to play a role in education philanthropy.


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