21 July 2012

CURRO ACHIEVES TURNAROUND AMIDST MAJOR EXPANSION

Curro Holdings, the JSE listed private schooling company, achieved a notable turnaround amidst a major expansion phase in its interim financial results for the six months to June by reducing its headline loss per share to 1,9 cents from 9,6 cents in the same period last year.

This follows an improvement in the headline loss from R7,7 million to R2,98 million. Income nevertheless increased from R79 million to R161 million and the earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) from R5,6 million to R18,4 million.

The number of Curro schools increased significantly from 12 to 22 during the six months, with the number of leaners growing from 5 500 to 12 500.

Announcing the results Curro Holdings CEO, Dr Chris van der Merwe, said the results exceeds the estimates in the company’s prelisting statement of more than a year ago.

Curro, which focusses on the acquisition, development and management of private schools, is currently developing another 5 schools this year, which will bring the total to 26. “The result of this will be that the company will have 9 schools more in operation by the beginning of next year than the 17 envisaged in the prelisting statement.”

According to Van der Merwe the positive results of the acquisition of Woodhill College in Pretoria and Embury College in KZN will come to the fore next year, to give Curro a further edge on estimates in the prelisting statement.

Registrations at schools, which are usually only reflected in the company’s books in last semester of the year, are currently above expectations. At the 5 schools currently under construction - Curro Century City in Cape Town, Meridian Pinehurst in Durbanville, Curro Thatchfield in Centurion, Curro Bloemfontein and Curro Krugersdorp – registrations already varies between 100 and 520 learners.

Intensive support is currently being given to the 22 Curro schools by the Curro Centre for Educational Excellence to make the curriculum as competitive as possible. It consists of intensive training of teachers in the tuition of Mathematics, Technology and Natural Science. An own curriculum in Mathematics for grade 1, 2 and 3 was developed, which reflects local standards as well as those of the top first world international schools.

“Curro is satisfied with the results of the first six months of the financial year. It is in line with what was budgeted for the period under review, as well as for the yearend tot December 2012,” Van der Merwe said.