Raffles Education Group – Has doubled its full-year net profit to $98.8m, thanks to strong revenue growth, a jump in other operating income, and negative goodwill. For the 12 months ended June 30, 2008, turnover came to $190m, while EPS rose to 4.33 cents from 2.34 cents previously. Raffles, which runs 22 colleges across the Asia-Pacific, attributed the higher turnover to an increase in student enrolment, higher course fees, and full-year contribution from China Education Limited, compared with just five months a year ago. New contribution also came from Oriental University City (OUC), Hefei Wanbo College and Shaanxi Electronic Information Institute. As there were extraordinary items such as negative goodwill of $12.1m arising from OUC investment, fair value adjustment for OUC's investment properties as well as other things, Raffles said that its normal profit would have been $84m after adjustment - up from $49.3m a year ago. Because of the significant investments made in the year, Raffles reported a cash outflow of $224m from investing activities - up from $96m a year ago. However, CEO Chew Hua Seng expects a free cashflow of some $120m in the new year, he said at a results briefing yesterday.
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