21st Century Education Announces 2019 Annual Results

Results Highlights:

• The Group achieved a strong performance in 2019, with revenue increasing by 16.0% over the same period of 2018 to RMB234.2, profit increasing by 19.2% over the same period of 2018 to RMB82.8, and the number of students increasing by 5.4% over the same period of 2018 to 32,228 people. The Board recommends a final dividend of HK$2.2 cents per share.
• During the Year, the Group actively promoted the strategic layout of "content + technology" and investment and cooperation projects. The output capability of vocational education and quality-oriented education was continuously improved. The digital expansion of education business was progressing smoothly. Meanwhile, multiple acquisition projects have been consolidated into the financial statement during the Year.
• The Group will exert great efforts to develop vocational education and quality-oriented education, while attach greater importance to content development, specialty construction and the improvement of teaching quality and operational efficiency, thus to enhance the core competitiveness of the Group.

HONG KONG, April 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A large private education service provider in China - China 21st Century Education Group Limited ("21st Century Education" or the "Company", together with its subsidiaries, collectively referred to as the "Group") is pleased to announce the audited comprehensive consolidated results of the Group for the twelve months ended 31 December 2019 (the "2019" or "the Year").

For the year ended 31 December 2019, the Group's revenue achieved RMB234.2 million, representing an increase of 16.0% compared with the same period of 2018, of which the revenue from vocational education was RMB141.0 million; the gross profit was RMB121.3 million, representing an increase of 18.6% compared with same period of 2018; the profit for the year was RMB82.8 million, representing an increase of 19.2% compared with the same period of 2018; the Group recorded 32,228 students enrollment, representing an increase of 5.4% compared with the same period of 2018. The Board recommends a final dividend of HK$2.2 cents per share.

Benefiting from the Group's standardized management and efficient operation, the Group has achieved significant growth in operating indicators such as student numbers, and key financial indicators such as profit.

The Number of Students Continued to Grow, while the Core Business Developed Steadily

The Group owned 21 schools in 2019 and 15 schools in the same period of 2018. In 2019, the Group recorded 32,228 students enrollment, including 16,772 full-time students and 15,456 part-time students, representing an increase of 5.4% compared with 30,567 students in the same period of 2018. The Group's tutorial schools under quality-oriented education segment delivered approximately 469,298 tutoring hours to approximately 7,620 students, with a 65.1% student renewal rate for those who still chose to study after completing the first curriculum. Besides, there were 620 partner schools under the New Gaokao business of Peijian Tutorial School under the quality-oriented education segment of the Group, providing 11,580 students with competition tutoring services on five subjects; among them, 1,159 students won the provincial first prize at the five-subject competition. Shijiazhuang Institute of Technology under the Group works to build a modern vocational education system, which adopts the "TOP" talent training model (TOP means "Technique-Occupation-Personality"), to continuously cultivate and deliver application-oriented talents for society. During the Year, the Group partnered with over 40 of the top 500 enterprises, established 14 order-based classes and organized 6 on-site training programs, which significantly enriched teaching practice of the Group. The employment rate of graduates was 95.3% in 2019. During the Year, the average tuition fee for vocational education of the Group was RMB6,418, and the average tuition fee for quality-oriented education was RMB16,574; The percentage of teachers of the Group with a bachelor's degree or above was 94.7%, while 81.1% in the same period of 2018.

Strategically Lay out "Content + Technology", Accelerated the Digital Expansion of Education Business

With years of experience in the education industry, the Group has acquired the capability of management output for the two major segments of vocational education and quality-oriented education. In 2019, the Group's vocational education segment provided the west campus of Sifang College with accommodation service for 3,017 students; the "Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Preschool Education Alliance" under the Group's quality-oriented education segment had 1,046 cooperative members, and provided service guidance and training services for over 1,100 teachers. We continuously improve our research and development capabilities to meet the needs of different customers. In 2019, The Group started the external promotion of the aesthetic education program jointly developed with Hebei Youth Calligraphers Association through the practices in internal kindergartens, with nearly 12,000 books sold in the whole year. The Group completed sports courses with the efforts of research and development team with the background of sports and preschool education, including children's football, children's basketball, etc., with a service coverage of nearly 60 kindergartens.

In 2019, the Group further accelerated the expansion of its traditional offline education business into the digital field. Science and technology empower the Group to establish content layout in two major segments of vocational education and quality-oriented education. During the Year, the Group successively developed five technology products: middle and high-end family education platform - "Parents Cloud - based Classroom", Gaojiaoyun management platform under vocational education segment - "Sousou Smart School", Youjiaoyun management platform under quality-oriented education segment - "Enlightening Homeland", online live broadcast tool - "Live Classroom", and intelligent education evaluation platform - "Grand Educational Evaluation", which basically met most of the needs of the target group. In the future, the Group will continue to promote the digital expansion of its core business and enhance its comprehensive competitiveness.

Investment and Acquisition Projects Processed Steadily, while Core Competitiveness was Enhanced Multidimensionally

On 28 February 2019, the Group invested RMB2,000,000 in Beijing Ying Yu New Media Interaction Technology Co., Ltd. * to acquire 2% of its equity interest. On 5 September 2019, a subsidiary of the Group acquired 51% equity interests in Zhejiang Peijian Technology Co., Ltd.* ("Zhejiang Peijian"), and had been consolidated into the comprehensive consolidated results of the Group since 22 November 2019. On September 6, 2019, another subsidiary of the Group acquired 70% of equity interests in Hangzhou Yimai Enterprise Management Consultancy Co., Ltd.* ("Hangzhou Yimai"), and had been consolidated into the comprehensive consolidated results of the Group since 25 September 2019. Zhejiang Province was one of the pioneer provinces for the New Gaokao (or college entrance examination) Revolution in 2014. This has enriched Zhejiang Peijian and Hangzhou Yimai with extensive experience in New Gaokao. These acquisition projects will improve the development of the Group's businesses in relation to New Gaokao under the culture and education business sector, optimize the Group's regional layout and coordinate with existing resources of the Group.

On the other side, the Group entered into cooperation agreement with the Dundalk Institute of Technology in Ireland, Great Britain, Zhonghai Ruanyin Investment Management Co., Ltd.*, and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.* to continuously enhance the core competitiveness of the Group.

Centering on the overall national objective for education modernization, the Group will exert great efforts to develop vocational education and quality-oriented education, and sustain a diversified industrial layout in the future. The Group will attach greater importance to content development, specialty construction and teaching quality, take advantage of various technologies to empower customers to learn more efficiently and effectively, and gradually achieve commercial output. Meanwhile, the Group will be more active to keep abreast of and establish our presence in overseas education business as appropriate.

The Board of Directors of China 21st Century Education Group Limited believes: "As China's economy improved steadily in 2019, the government emphasized more on enhancing the development of the education industry as well as the education system. During the Year, the Group seized the opportunity to expand its business coverage stably, improve the teaching quality and enhance the service quality with technology, and has achieved excellent results. The Group also achieved continuous growth in the number of schools and students as well as its revenue and won a number of honorary awards. In the future, the Group will attach greater importance on content research and specialty construction, advance professional vocational education and quality education simultaneously and diversify its business layout. The Group will improve the teaching environment and experience as well as learning efficiency and results with the use of technology in order to realize quality, efficient, sustainable development and bring greater return for the shareholders of the Company."

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About China 21st Century Education Group Limited (1598.HK):

China 21st Century Education Group Limited is the first large established private education service provider based in the area of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province with access to the capital market of Hong Kong. The Company focuses on the operation and content incubation of the education industry, and adhering to the corporate mission of "promoting the development of the education industry with contents and technologies", the Company has addressed itself to improving the efficiency and customer experience of education operation by virtue of technologies empowerment. The Company's business covers pre-school education, K-12 primary and secondary school after-school tutoring, higher education, continuing education and internet education, and has diversified revenue sources and a board coverage of the customer base.

For further information, please refer to the company's website at http://www.21centuryedu.com

*For identification purpose only