STI profit rises 10-fold to P293M

MANILA, Philippines - Tanco-led STI Education Systems Holdings Inc. jacked up its profit more than 10 times to roughly P300 million in the October to December period last year, the company said in a statement.

Revenues from its school network rose but the uptick was driven by realized gains from its financial assets, it said.

In its financial report, STI Holdings said it pocketed P293.09 million in the first quarter of its current fiscal year, up from P26.61 million a year ago.

Revenues, which were derived from tuition and school fees, educational services, royalties and sale of goods, jumped 13 percent to P467.13 million from P410.86 million.

STI Holdings said it recognized a P135.69-million income due to net gains of its associates and joint ventures, reversing the P103.35-million loss it booked a year earlier.

“Other comprehensive income pertains substantially to unrealized mark-to-market gains on available-for-sale financial assets,” STI Holdings said.

The latest data allowed the listed firm to record a net income of P578.74 million in the nine-month period ending December, more than double the P219.32 million a year ago.

Revenues climbed nearly 10 percent to P1.21 billion from P1.11 billion in the previous year.

“The nine-percent increase in gross revenues resulted mainly from the increase in the number of students of STI Education Services Group Inc. and its subsidiaries,” STI Holdings said.

Its students rose to 68,363 from 66,740, resulting in increased revenues from tuition and other school fees, the company said.

For the nine-month period, STI Holdings booked P301.96 million due to net gains of its associates, turning around from a P62.84-million loss it recorded a year ago.

In November, STI Holdings sold 2.627 billion shares at 90 centavos each through a follow-on offering, which was more than twice oversubscribed. STI allotted P1.528 billion for capital expenditures this year and P2.39 billion for 2014.

To date, the company has 85 schools nationwide, of which 55 are franchised and 30 are company-owned. It has 67,361 students for STI alone and 72,000 in affiliate schools Philippine Women’s University (PWU) and iAcademy.

Last year, businessman Eusebio Tanco consolidated all his education assets - the STI chain of schools, a 40-percent stake in PWU and iAcademy – under STI Holdings, formerly holding firm JTH Davies.

Also injected into STI Holdings is a 20-percent interest in STI Investments, which holds Tanco’s strategic investment in PhilPlans, a leading pre-need savings program with plans dedicated to education, and PhilCare.