Private higher education group Stadio says interest in distance and online learning helped it increase its student base by 11% in the six months to end-June, with costsavings due to a delayed start to the academic year expected to provide a further boost to its profits.
Stadio's preferred profit measure, core headline earnings per share (heps), is expected to rise by between 32% and 49% in the period to end-June, the group said in a trading update, a rise of up to R27.8m.
Heps is a widely used profit measure in SA, with the group also adjusting for items that, in its view, distort comparative performance.
Stadio, valued at R2.55bn on the JSE, said due to the delayed start of the 2021 academic year along with further Covid-19 lockdowns during the period, it had managed to achieve “certain operational savings,” though these are not expected to be repeated in the second half.
The group, which ended June with 34,494 students, said its online professional programmes showed “solid growth.”
Stadio, which was spun out of Curro and listed on the JSE in October 2017, said in June it had reached an agreement to settle the increased purchase cost of its new accounting business, CA Connect, early.
In 2018 the group acquired CA Connect, which specialises in education services related to the postgraduate diploma in accounting, a pathway for students who aspire to be chartered accountants.
It had initially paid R32.3m for CA Connect, along with a further agreement subject to its profit performance. Stadio said in June the total cost had risen more than sevenfold to R258.3m as student numbers picked up faster than expected.
In afternoon trade on Friday, Stadio's shares were up 2.03% to R3.01, having risen 50% since the beginning of 2020.
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