Phinma Education eyes IPO in 2-3 years

MANILA, Philippines — Phinma Education Holdings Inc. (PEHI), the education arm of Phinma Corp., is eyeing to go public in the next two to three years, a top-ranking official said.

In an interview with reporters, PEHI chairman Ramon del Rosario Jr. said at present the company has adequate funds for its current aspirations.

“But when the time comes, we are looking forward to listing Phinma Education Holdings, essentially doing an IPO (initial public offering) and hopefully that will raise more funds for us,” Del Rosario said.

PEHI recently received P1.875 billion funding from partners Indian-based private equity firm Kaizenvest, the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank (FMO) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), which will be used for the company’s expansion both in the Philippines and overseas.

Del Rosario said the company is not in hurry to publicly list the company, adding that plans to conduct an IPO will still be subject to market conditions.

Among these factors the firm will need to consider is the strong enrollment numbers, overall performance of the economy and the appetite of investors for IPOs.

“First, our enrollment numbers are have to be strong, meaning all those gaps created by K to 12 will have been filled up and that’s going to be next school year,” Del Rosario said adding that the company’s schools will have complete enrollment again for the first time in five to six years in the school year 2021-2022.

For the school year 2019, PEHI reported that it has 74,187 enrollees, higher than the 69,663 enrollees in the year before.

“We’re in no real hurry (to list). It’s just that there is an appetite for education listed institutions, we are told. And we think, we could use the additional capital if we are successful in expanding our network in the way we are thinking of doing it,” Del Rosario said.

At present, PEHI has seven schools in the Philippines, namely Phinma Araullo University, Phinma Cagayan de Oro College, Phinma University of Iloilo, Southwestern University Phinma, Phinma Saint Jude College and Phinma Republican College.

“The seven schools in the Philippines are experiencing very good growth in enrollment and they are all almost experiencing a need to expand the facilities,”Del Rosario said.

Apart from its Philippine schools, the company has already expanded its presence outside of the country, with Phinma Saytanar Education Co. Ltd. in Myanmar and Phinma Education PT Ind Phil management in Indonesia, particularly with a school in Karawang.

PEHI president and chief executive officer Chito Salazar said the company is already in negotiations for a second school in Indonesia, particularly in the Surabaya area.

“Our vision is to have 100,000-150,000 students in Indonesia in the next 10-12 years,” Salazar said.

Apart from Indonesia, Salazar said the company is eyeing to expand in other Southeast Asia countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, particularly countries where there are a lot of underserved youth.

Salazar, however, said the company needs to be able to establish its network in the Indonesia market before it is able to widen its presence in the region.

“There are certain things we need to consider. We would like to move sooner but caution tells us to take our time because we’re still digesting Indonesia,” Salazar said.

“We’re going to focus on Indonesia in the short term, and hopefully, maybe, my guess is within the next five years we’ll start to explore another country. But we’ll make sure first that Indonesia is stable and growing before we do that,” he added