REG - Fairview Intnl PLC - Operations and strategic update

Fairview InternationalAnnouncement

17/01/2025 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
https://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20250117:nRSQ7498Ta&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 7498T  Fairview International PLC  17 January 2025

Fairview International PLC

 

("Fairview" or the "Company")

 

Operations and strategic update

 

Fairview, the operator of international schools following the International
Baccalaureate curriculum, is pleased to provide an update on its operations
and its strategy for 2025.

 

Highlights

 

·    Increased student numbers last year supported higher profitability

·    Those profits were immediately reinvested in marketing campaigns to
drive sustainable growth

·    The use of AI techniques within the curriculum maintains Fairview's
reputation as a forward-thinker within the industry

·    Implementation of a structured pastoral care system

·    Ongoing review of expansion opportunities, primarily in the UK and
South-East Asia

·    Dr Vincent Chian, Principal and head of business development at
Fairview, discusses the year ahead with focusIR here:
https://youtu.be/RVyEh_N27WE (https://youtu.be/RVyEh_N27WE)

 

Financial review

 

As announced on 4 December 2024, student numbers for the year to 30 June 2024
rose by 12 per cent. over the previous period.  This reflects the Company's
ongoing strategy of working closely with its network of agents, ensuring they
are able to fully reflect Fairview's strengths to their underlying client base
- this includes, in particular, demonstrating consistency in academic
excellence, accessibility and the International Baccalaureate ("IB")
curriculum. This effort was backed up by targeted campaigns in key overseas
regions where management has ascertained a rising demand for quality
English-medium education.

 

The Company plans to build on that momentum in 2025 by investing in strategic
marketing campaigns and face-to-face engagement with international families.
This will include open houses, visiting trade event fairs abroad and
continuing to develop its agent network. Fairview will also commit additional
resources to digital marketing to reach students and parents who might not
otherwise encounter the Fairview brand.

 

Driven by the increase in student numbers, the Company reported a 32 per cent.
increase in gross profit to £2,395,000 in the year to 30 June 2024,
evidencing the economic gearing in the business model.  The higher proportion
of foreign students, who generally pay higher fees, further enhanced this
growth. Alongside that, Fairview continued to standardise certain academic
resources and centralise administrative tasks, to enable the Company to serve
a larger student body without proportionately increasing overheads. By
creating a consistent framework and shared resources, Fairview is able to keep
the quality of its offering high as student numbers rise.

 

The Directors are reinvesting this increased profit, along with part of the
proceeds of the IPO, in high-impact marketing areas to position Fairview for
sustained future growth.

 

Fairview expects to announce its interim results for the six months to 31
December 2024 during March 2025.  During this current financial year, the
Company expects to continue to benefit from its tight control of
administrative expenses and, more particularly, on fee increases that it is
being able to implement as the international schools sector continues to
recover in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic.

 

Initiatives for 2025

 

Alongside these continued marketing plans, one of Fairview's core objectives
for 2025 is to integrate AI-driven tools into its teaching methods to create
more personalised learning experiences. By way of example, the Company is
currently exploring adaptive learning platforms that can instantly adjust
English or Mandarin lessons to a student's proficiency level, whilst at the
same time giving teachers real-time data so they can offer targeted support
where it is needed most. Furthermore, by automating routine tasks like grading
quizzes and providing instant assessments, the Company enables teachers to
have more time to address students' individual requirements.

 

As regards extracurricular activities, in common with other independent
schools, Fairview continues to ensure that students benefit from an all-round
education that is not based on academic success alone. To support this,
Fairview has combined its pastoral efforts into a single framework, "RISE",
which contains four integrated programmes designed to develop well-rounded
individuals:

 

·    Anchor centres on wellbeing, creating an emotionally secure school
environment that fosters consistent performance and long-term trust in the
Fairview brand.

 

·    Ascend cultivates leadership through the 7 Habits methodology*,
equipping students with qualities that employers often identify as catalysts
for both organisational and personal growth.

 

·    Aspire guides students toward promising career paths via Jim Collins'
hedgehog concept**, ensuring they align their strengths with areas that have
genuine market demand.

 

·    Beyond encompasses off-campus expeditions, excursions and learning
camps that broaden horizons beyond the classroom.

 

By combining these elements, Fairview seeks to address what universities and
future employers seek. The Board of Directors believes that parents
increasingly value a school that offers a purposeful, structured cultivation
of essential soft skills, positioning their children for sustainable success.

 

Acquisition and expansion strategy

 

Since completing its IPO in October 2024, the Fairview management team have
continued to assess opportunities to expand its business with management
considering both acquisitions and new builds applying the criteria of economic
growth, demand for quality education and sustainability in their assessments.

 

As part of this strategy, Fairview will explore options to extend its network
of schools outside of Malaysia and, within South-East Asia, where management
have identified Indonesia and Vietnam as particularly interesting markets, and
in Hong Kong  The attraction of these countries is that they are experiencing
strong economic growth, but they also have a rising demand for high quality
international education. Beyond South-East Asia and Hong Kong, the United
Kingdom remains a core focus for the Company, reflecting both the positive
attitudes of Asian families to a British education and the growing interest in
the IB curriculum.  The recent VAT and National Insurance changes on
independent schools is, as expected, producing numerous opportunities as
schools experience falling demand and higher costs in the new tax regime.
The Board of Directors believes that the Company's cost effective model and
resource sharing capabilities gives it the resilience and growth potential to
take advantage of these opportunities.

 

Prior to any expansion, management carry out a feasibility study taking
account of:

·    the regulatory environment;

·    the ease of setting up foreign-owned schools;

·    partnerships with local stakeholders; and

·    demographic trends, including assessing whether there is a
sustainable market for IB education.

 

Daniel Chian, Chairman of Fairview, said: "Listing on the London Stock
Exchange last October allowed us to access new capital and we have wasted no
time putting it to work. One of our immediate actions has been to increase
international marketing, both to expand our reach and also reflecting the
higher fees and margins typically realised with international students. We
have also launched several upgrades with a particular focus on technology
enhancements to enrich the learning experience.

 

"I would also like to offer my thanks to the Fairview board, who together
bring a wealth of expertise and connections. Their input has played a key role
in helping us develop our global expansion strategy and I hope to provide
further updates on that as the year progresses.

 

"For 2025, we will keep up momentum going: increased marketing and modern
academic programmes provide the platform for higher enrolments, particularly
from international markets. We will always seek to ensure that our growth is
sustainable and that the quality of a Fairview education continues to rise."

 

*https://www.franklincovey.co.uk/solutions/7habits-foundations/

** https://www.jimcollins.com/concepts/the-hedgehog-concept.html

 

For further information, please contact:

 

 Fairview International PLC
 Daniel Chian, Chairman       via focusIR
 Website: www.fairviewplc.uk

 Optiva Securities Limited
 Vishal Balasingham           Tel: +44 (0) 20 3137 1903

 focusIR
 Kat Perez                    Tel: +44 (0) 7881 622 830
                              kat.perez@focusIR.com

 

 

About Fairview International PLC

 

Fairview owns and operates two private independent schools in Malaysia that
offer the International Baccalaureate programme. One of these schools is
located in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, and the other is located in
the southern state of Johor close to the border with Singapore.  These
schools trade under the Fairview brand which was founded in 1978, and were
subsequently acquired by Agodeus Sdn Bhd, a company owned by the Chian family,
in 2012.

 

There are three other schools in Malaysia and one in the United Kingdom that
also trade under the Fairview brand, which are under common control but
outside of the Company's group.  All schools in the Fairview network are
individually recognised by the International Baccalaureate Organisation as
fully accredited to offer the IB programme across the primary and middle
years; ages 5 to 16, with Fairview Kuala Lumpur also offering the diploma
programme for 16 to 19 year olds.  Each of the schools not owned by the
Company use the Fairview brand under licence from the Company accessing the
resources of the Fairview Network.

 

The school in Kuala Lumpur is the largest and flagship school that uses the
Fairview brand, whilst the school in Johor focuses on the expatriate market in
Singapore and so is internationally focused.

 

The Company plans to acquire more schools which can offer international
education including the International Baccalaureate programmes both in Asia
and the UK.  The Company in particular believes there is an opportunity to
acquire underperforming private independent schools in the UK and adapt its
product offering to be authorised to offer the International Baccalaureate
programme.  With a rise in popularity of the International Baccalaureate
programme in both the independent and state sector in the UK, with a growing
acceptance of International Baccalaureate graduates by UK universities, the
Directors believe that the Company's schools will appeal particularly to the
ASEAN, China and Hong Kong market; particularly families looking for an
educational foundation in the UK prior to studying at a UK university.

 

 Website          www.fairviewplc.uk (http://www.fairviewplc.uk)

 Social media     https://x.com/fairviewplc (https://x.com/fairviewplc)

                  https://www.linkedin.com/company/fairview-international-plc/
                  (https://www.linkedin.com/company/fairview-international-plc/)

 Video interview  https://youtu.be/RVyEh_N27WE (https://youtu.be/RVyEh_N27WE)

 

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  UPDEAKFXFSDSEEA