GEMS Education revenues rose 17.3 percent-year-on-year to $926.2 million, according to its latest financial results.
Additionally, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 22.9 percent to 261.6 million, compared to 212.8 million the prior year. Revenue per student also grew to $8,079, a 6.6 percent year-on-year increase that was primarily driven by tuition fee increases and the grade ageing effect.
According to the results, GEMS also deployed $343 million of capital expenditure, including $318 million of school capital expenditure for the 2017 fiscal year. Since 2014, GEMS’ cumulative investment in schools and transport assets has totaled over $1 billion.
Across the 47 GEMS schools, enrolment rose 10 percent to 114,000 students, from 104,200 the previous year. With the opening of four new schools, purchase of one and extension of seven, capacity rose to 132,000 from 116,000, with capacity utilisation moved to 87 percent, from 90 percent the year before.
“This has been another year of continued investment in our schools. Over the last four years, we have invested well over $1 billion to build 16 new schools, upgrade our infrastructure and develop our teacher’s capabilities across the board,” said GEMS CEO Dino Varkey.
“Our commitment to improving the quality of education is central to GEMS Education, and the reason for investing back into the business,” he added. “Our strong results, along with the refinancing we have just announced, will enable us to maintain our rigorous focus on delivering exceptional, quality education.”
Follow us on
