{"id":835891,"date":"2025-08-25T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T08:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=835891"},"modified":"2025-08-25T10:00:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T08:00:51","slug":"prominent-south-african-company-buying-and-opening-new-private-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/835891\/prominent-south-african-company-buying-and-opening-new-private-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Prominent South African company buying and opening new private schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AdvTech continues to expand its private school and ‘university’ network across South Africa and the rest of Africa, as the group sees a solid rise in earnings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

JSE-listed AdvTech is one of the largest players in the private education space, and owns Crawford International, Pinnacle College, Varsity College and a host of other instiutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2025, AdvTech said that its Schools South Africa division saw Robust enrolment growth, with all brands seeing enrolment growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall revenue grew by 11% to R1.7 billion. Operating profit increased by 12% to R354 million, while operating margin improved to 20.6%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that strong enrolment growth at Pinnacle College Raslouw has necessitated the accelerated build-out of the school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pinnacle College Ridgeview also opened in Roodepoort in January and is performing in line with expectations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at the rest of Africa, the group said that its existing brands in the rest of Africa continue to experience strong enrollment growth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Combined with the November 2024 acquisition of Flipper International School in Ethiopia, revenue increased by 31% to R281 million, and operating profit increased by 34% to R83 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDriven by continued strong demand, construction of the next phase of Crawford International School in Kenya will be completed at the end of August this year,\u201d said the group. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The international schools operating will also be expanded. Following the acquisition of Makini Schools, Regis Runda School in Nairobi, Kenya, for approximately R172 million, which will add 2,000 students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe international and local management teams are driving improved academic outcomes with a focus on standardising student information systems and platforms.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur higher-priced Makini Cambridge International curriculum continues to experience strong demand, with parents increasingly choosing it over the Kenyan national syllabus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, South African school student numbers increased by 4% to 34,093, while international student numbers increased by 40% to 11,580. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘University’ push\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Regarding the group\u2019s tertiary education division, revenue increased by 13% to R1.2 billion, while operating profit increased by 14% to R496 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that the division continues to perform well and grow on the back of a well-established brand portfolio that offers a comprehensive range of programmes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In line with its strategy, the division is seeing strong enrolment growth in its distance offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group added that our Rosebank College Cape Town mega campus has been relocated, whilst expansion projects for the Braamfontein and Polokwane campuses are underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, the group acquired a 47,000 sqm property off Grayston Drive in Sandton. The site is being used to develop a brand-new mega campus, with capacity for 9,000 students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that the development is in line with the group\u2019s intention to become a fully-fledged university. Varsity College Sandton and Vega Bordeaux will relocate to the site in time for the 2026 academic year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group is also looking for its tertiary schools to be called Universities, which is currently reserved for state-owned institutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA draft Policy for the Recognition of South African Higher Education Institutional Types was released in September 2022, setting out the criteria to be recognised as a university,\u201d the group said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFollowing the submission of comments, a second draft was published in April 2024. We submitted our comments on the second draft in May 2024 and await the gazetting of the policy and criteria.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said that recognition as a university will benefit its students, who will be afforded the same status as their peers who obtain identically accredited qualifications through a Public University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking internationally, Rosebank International University College (RIUC) in Accra, Ghana, was inaugurated in August 2025, with student registrations having commenced in preparation for the academic year in January. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new RIUC campus builds on ADvTECH\u2019s existing international presence in Kenya, Botswana and Ethiopia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group\u2019s total student numbers at its tertiary division increased by 14% to 60,067 over the period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

School<\/th>Feb 2021<\/th>Feb 2022<\/th>Feb 2023<\/th>Feb 2024<\/th>Feb 2025<\/th>Feb 2025 vs Feb 2024 % increase<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Schools: South Africa<\/td>27 334<\/td>29 599<\/td>31 347<\/td>32 786<\/td>34 093<\/td>4%<\/td><\/tr>
Schools: Rest of Africa<\/td>6 569<\/td>7 203<\/td>7 943<\/td>8 224<\/td>11 550<\/td>40%<\/td><\/tr>
Schools Division<\/strong><\/td>33 903<\/td>36 802<\/td>39 290<\/td>41 010<\/td>45 643<\/td>11%<\/td><\/tr>
Tertiary Division<\/td>45 647<\/td>47 539<\/td>49 341<\/td>52 718<\/td>60 067<\/td>14%<\/td><\/tr>
Total group enrolments<\/strong><\/td>79 550<\/td>84 341<\/td>88 631<\/td>93 728<\/td>105 710<\/td>13%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Financials<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When looking at the group\u2019s financials, revenue increased by 10% to R4.7 billion. Operating profit before interest and non-trading items grew by 14% to R982 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earnings per share increased by 16% to 113.0 cents per share, while headline earnings per share increased by 15% to 112.7 cents.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An interim dividend of 45.0 cents per share was declared, compared to the 38.0 cents per share dividend declared for the comparable period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Metric<\/th>Current Period<\/th>Comparable Period<\/th>Change<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Revenue<\/td>R4 683 million<\/td>R4 274 million<\/td>+10%<\/td><\/tr>
Operating profit before interest & non-trading items<\/td>R982 million<\/td>R865 million<\/td>+14%<\/td><\/tr>
Normalised earnings<\/td>R620 million<\/td>R535 million<\/td>+16%<\/td><\/tr>
Normalised earnings per share (NEPS)<\/td>113.0 cents<\/td>97.7 cents<\/td>+16%<\/td><\/tr>
Headline earnings per share (HEPS)<\/td>112.7 cents<\/td>97.7 cents<\/td>+15%<\/td><\/tr>
Earnings per share (EPS)<\/td>113.0 cents<\/td>97.6 cents<\/td>+16%<\/td><\/tr>
Interim dividend declared<\/td>45.0 cents<\/td>38.0 cents<\/td>+18%<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AdvTech has continued its school expansion across Africa, with the group seeing solid jump in earnings. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":816815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[7286,22015,20630,23436],"class_list":["post-835891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-advtech","tag-crawford-international","tag-rosebank-college","tag-vega"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835891"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":835901,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835891\/revisions\/835901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}