Chenlin Education, whose shares were suspended due to the delay in the publication of its financial report, resumed trading, and the company announced its 2023 fiscal year performance report for the year ended August 31, 2023. During the reporting period, the company achieved revenue of 563 million yuan, an increase of 9.39% year-on-year, and profit for the year was 33.67 million yuan, turning losses into profits year-on-year.
After the earnings report, the company's shares resumed trading.
Undergraduate enrollment is upward, junior college and vocational enrollment is downward
The financial report for the year ended August 31, 2023 showed that Chenlin Education's revenue for fiscal year 2023 was 563 million yuan, up 9.39% year-on-year. Among them, the income from education services was 553 million yuan, up 8.51% year-on-year, and the income from education-related services was 4.62 million yuan, up 111.8% year-on-year.
As a major component of revenue, in fiscal year 2023, Chenlin Education's tuition income will be 496 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.6%.
In terms of enrollment, there were 26,785 students enrolled in Chenlin Education, a year-on-year decrease of 2,264 or 7.79%.
Among them, the enrollment performance of undergraduate and junior college and vocational education is very different. In this fiscal year, Chenlin Education's undergraduate enrollment exceeded 10,000 people, reaching 10,285, a year-on-year increase of 16.85%.
However, there has been a decline in the number of students enrolled in specialist and vocational professions. Among them, Jiangxi Institute of Applied Science and Technology enrolled 2,782 junior college students, a year-on-year decrease of 44.75%. Guizhou University enrolled 8,201 junior college students, a year-on-year decrease of 5.59%.
In terms of vocational majors, the number of vocational majors enrolled in technical colleges was 3,053, a year-on-year decrease of 11.76%. Guizhou College enrolled 871 students in vocational majors, a year-on-year decrease of 47.34%.
In terms of expenses, in fiscal year 2023, Chenlin Education's sales expenses were 14.07 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 51.7%, and administrative expenses were 133 million yuan, an increase of 42% year-on-year. In terms of the adjustment of the expenditure structure, Chenlin Education said that it was mainly due to the decrease in recruitment activities of the Technician College and Guizhou College, the increase in depreciation due to the recognition of more fixed assets, and the increase in employee welfare expenses due to the recruitment of more employees.
In terms of profit, Chenlin Education's performance in fiscal year 2023 turned losses into profits, with a profit of RMB 33.67 million for the year, compared with a loss of RMB 37.99 million in the same period in 2022.
Gross profit increased by approximately 24.98% from RMB182 million for the year ended August 31, 2022 to RMB228 million for the year ended August 31, 2023.
As of August 31, 2023, Chenlin Education held cash and cash equivalents of 375 million yuan, an increase of 30.89% from 286 million yuan held on August 31, 2022.
Shares rose 3.41% after resumption of trading
Previously, Chenlin Education had been suspended due to the delay in releasing its financial report.
On December 1, Chenlin Education issued an announcement saying that because the external audit confirmation letter was not recovered and the auditor was hired for the first year, the release of the financial report was delayed and the stock began to be suspended.
On December 7, the company announced that it expects annual results to be published on or before December 15, 2023. But in the end, it was postponed again.
It was not until December 18 that the financial report of Chenlin Education was officially released, and the company's shares resumed trading randomly. On the first day after the resumption of trading, Chenlin Education's share price rose 3.41% to close at HK$1.82.
In the annual report, Chenlin Education proposes its business strategy for 2024: to improve the facilities of the institution, enhance the brand awareness and reputation, and expand the business and institution network, optimize the professional and curriculum to enhance the competitiveness of students, strengthen and enrich education-related services, and attract, train and retain talented teachers and other professionals.
Since the end of last year, Hong Kong-listed private universities such as General Education, Maple Leaf Education, and Yuhua Education have all been suspended due to delays in publishing their financial reports. As of now, most of the stocks have resumed trading, but General Education has postponed the publication of the 2023 interim results due to the fact that the 2022 annual results have not yet been finalized and may have an impact on the 2023 interim results, and the shares are still suspended.