Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited (BEDU) on Q3 2021 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
Operator: Good morning, and thank you for standing by for Bright Scholar's 2021 Third Fiscal Quarter Earnings Conference Call. . I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's conference, Ms. Ruby Yim, Investor Relations Counsel.
Ruby Yim: Thank you, Operator. Good morning and good evening. Welcome to Bright Scholar's Third Fiscal Quarter ended May 31, 2021, Earnings Call. Joining me today are Mr. Jerry He, our Executive Vice Chairman; Mr. Andy Chen and Ms. Wanmei Li, our Co-Chief Executive Officers; and Ms. Dora Li, our Chief Financial Officer. As a reminder, today's conference call is being broadcast live via webcast. In addition, a replay will be available on our website following the call. By now, you should have received a copy of our press release. This was distributed on July 21, 2021, after market close Eastern time. If you have not, it is available on the IR section of our website.
Jerry He: Thanks, Ruby. Good morning and good evening. Thank you for joining us on our third fiscal quarter 2021 conference call. We appreciate your continued interest in Bright Scholar. On today's call, on behalf of the senior management team, my prepared remarks will cover our quarterly performance, business progress and updates. Dora will then provide details on our respective business and financial performance. I will wrap up with brief conclusion before opening the call for questions.
Dora Li: Thank you, Jerry. Let's turn back to our financials. Please be reminded that all numbers are in RMBand all comparisons refer to year-over-year comparisons unless otherwise stated. Please also refer to our earnings press release for detailed information of our comparative financial performance on a year-over-year basis. Please turn to Slide 23. Our domestic business continued its strong recovery traction, mainly attributed to the strength of domestic K-12 and the complementary education service business. Top line for the quarter was up 42.5% to CNY1,053.8 million for the quarter and up 7.4% to CNY2,914.4 million on a 9-month basis. Domestic K-12 schools, that includes international schools, bilingual schools and kindergartens, showed a stronger-than-expected recovery. Revenue was up 72.5% for the quarter and 28.4% on a 9-month basis. International schools revenue for the quarter up 23.6% primarily due to 11.6% increase of student enrollment. On a 9-month basis, revenue was up 15.4% due to 9.6% increase in student enrollment. Bilingual schools revenue for the quarter up 40.3% due to 8.4% increase in student enrollment. On a 9-month basis, revenue was up 23.2% mainly attributed to 8.2% increase in student enrollment. Kindergartens. As Jerry mentioned earlier, kindergartens have experienced a sharp decline in third quarter fiscal 2020 when pandemic situation was at its worst in China. Kindergarten had the strongest recovery for the quarter with a 29.4% increase in student enrollment. On a 9-month basis, revenue was up 71.3%, and student enrollment was up 22.3%.
Jerry He: Thank you, Dora. This past year was a year of enormous change in global as well as China's education sector. It accelerated the changes and pushed all of us serving this industry to be flexible and innovative. It has pushed us to evolve faster than we ever thought possible. We firmly believe that the changes of this past year will lead to a better and more equitable future for K-12 education in China. Bright Scholar has demonstrated resilience and agility to evolve and progress, which makes us very optimistic about our ability to create sustainable value for our shareholders. The challenge of this past year required tremendous fortitude and adaptability from all of our staff around the world. I'm very grateful for their dedication and commitment to operate at the highest standards amid these ongoing challenges. We remain steadfast in executing our strategy to build a strong global company while driving scale growth in areas where we operate. This concludes our prepared remarks, and I would like to open the call for questions. Operator, please?
Operator: . We have a question from Len Law with Lucror Analytics.
Len Law: I would like to ask about the short-term investments. So are these short-term investments held onshore or offshore? And if onshore, do you foresee any difficulty repatriating the cash for your bond repayment due to the new regulations? That's my first question.
Dora Li: The short term - this is Dora. The short-term investment is onshore, but we have the vehicle and the ability to transfer the onshore funds to offshore. In short, we have - we are capable to repay all the bonds when it comes to - it matures. Thank you.
Len Law: Sure. And my second question, can you provide an update on the regulations on China's private education sector? At this stage, what are your expectations of the impact from the law for promoting private education? That's all.
Jerry He: This is Jerry. I will take that question. There are a lot of new laws and policy that came out in the last couple of months. If you're talking about - specifically about private schools, as we understand it today, it's very likely that going forward, it's very difficult to obtain new school licenses. But the existing ones, from what we can see today, most likely are continuing to operate. That's - and of course, there are details about recruiting and fees and stuff like that, but I don't think it's going to materially impact any of our existing schools.
Operator: . At this time, there are no further questions. And I would like to turn the call back over to management for any closing remarks.
Jerry He: Okay. Great. Thank you very much for joining the conference call. Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions. I wish everyone a great day.
Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.
