 |
| CFP/ for officers and soldiers / Cartography |
Mei Shuang, a reporter from the Securities Times.
With the landing of the double reduction policy, the curtain of the era of education and training is slowly falling. Over the past half a month, a number of listed companies, including New Oriental Education & Technology Group, TAL Education Group, Gaotu Techedu Inc. Education and University Education, have announced the termination of off-campus training in compulsory education in the mainland.
After quitting the K9 business, the teaching and training institutions have to save themselves and find another way to survive, among which quality education and vocational education have become the main track of transformation. A reporter from Securities Times e Company found that some discipline training institutions in the Shanghai area have withdrawn from the mainstream business areas with higher rents, and the training content has also been reinvented, and subject training has been replaced by drama speeches, programming experiments, picture book reading, and other forms.
"the main thing we do now is to save our lives, stabilize the position, and then explore new directions at the same time, which is very important to us." A person related to the A-share education and training listed company told the Securities Times e company reporter that at present, the transformation of many education and training companies is still in the exploratory stage, and the market to accept the transformation of enterprises also needs a process.
K9 business is leaving one after another.
Recently, the major education and training listed companies have issued articles to bid farewell to K9 discipline business. TAL Education Group's out-of-school training service for compulsory education in mainland China will be suspended from December 31, 2021, according to Weibo Corp, the official TAL Education Group. TAL Education Group was founded in 2003 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010. At present, TAL Education Group has brands such as learning while thinking about excellence, online schools for learning, and 1-to-1 for learning.
Similarly, New Oriental Education & Technology Group announced on November 15 that it is planned that all learning centers across the country will no longer provide subject-related training services to kindergarten to ninth-grade students by the end of 2021. On the same day, Gaotu Techedu Inc. Group said on the official Weibo Corp that in order to implement the national requirements on the policy of double reduction in compulsory education, Gaotu Techedu Inc. will end off-campus training services in compulsory education in mainland China, that is, primary and junior high school. Gaotu Techedu Inc. said that next, it will continue to operate its business outside the stage of compulsory education, shift its focus to other educational products and services, and strengthen the development of adult education, vocational education, quality education and intelligent digital products.
University Education of A-share Company also issued a reminding announcement on the adjustment of the company's business structure on November 15, and the company plans to stop carrying out online subject education and training in compulsory education from January 1, 2022. The plan is expected to come into effect by December 31, 2021. University Education said that on the basis of continuously consolidating the existing high school education and training business and non-disciplinary business, the company strives to enrich vocational education, quality, science and technology and other education and training products, and actively explore and expand new business growth points.
Judging from the announcements of various education and training listed companies, the end of this year is an important time point. A person in the education industry told reporters that with the implementation of the supporting policies related to the double reduction, the off-campus training business of compulsory education disciplines will most likely be spun off from listed companies by the end of this year.
On the other hand, education and training institutions also have a regulatory red line in terms of capital operation, that is, "discipline training institutions are not allowed to list for financing, and capitalization operations are strictly prohibited; listed companies are not allowed to invest in discipline training institutions through stock market financing." may not purchase the assets of discipline training institutions by issuing shares or paying cash.
Quickly change the track to "return blood".
When the wind changes in the industry, most teaching and training institutions either break their arms to survive or seek transformation, pinning their hopes on walking on multiple legs.
New Oriental Education & Technology Group founder Yu Minhong said in a live broadcast on November 11 that New Oriental Education & Technology Group will not shut down, but will only close his training business at the stage of compulsory education, and New Oriental Education & Technology Group's international business and university business are still in continuous development. Yu Minhong also said that New Oriental Education & Technology Group plans to set up a large agricultural platform in the future, with hundreds of teachers carrying goods through live broadcasts to help sell agricultural products and support the cause of rural revitalization.
In order to seek the development of new business, disposing of assets and returning rent are also the "blood recovery" methods adopted by listed companies in education and training. According to Yu Minhong, New Oriental Education & Technology Group will withdraw the lease of more than 1500 teaching sites newly renovated in the past two years, and the decoration cost of these teaching sites is six or seven billion yuan. now he has to surrender the lease, and he needs to pay liquidated damages, plus a refund of tuition fees, salaries for outgoing employees, and so on. it's a huge expense.
In addition, Onli Education announced on September 29th that the company intends to transfer more than 7900 shares held by Jiaotong University, accounting for 10.2% of the total share capital of Jiaotong University, and the recoverable funds are expected to be 302 million yuan. After the completion of this transfer, the proportion of Onli shares held by Anli Education has been changed to 3.33%. At the same time, it is proposed to sell 54.11% of the shares in Shanghai Xuhua Education Development Co., Ltd., which is expected to recover 40.6 million yuan of funds and clean up debts of more than 3000 million yuan, equivalent to more than 7000 million yuan of recovered funds.
It is reported that since the double reduction policy was issued, Onli Education has disposed of idle assets in a planned way and concentrated resources to carry out the transformation of vocational education and quality education. In recent months, Onli Education has successively launched quality products such as child growth centers and quality creation camps, and has made great efforts to transform to quality education. At the same time, through the streamlining of offline stores and non-teaching staff, the use of online and other ways to carry out discipline training to reduce costs.
In addition to quality education, vocational education is also one of the races actively arranged by education and training listed companies. Cod Education disclosed that the company will accelerate the pace of M & An integration and investment in vocational education in the layout of the education industry chain. Sansheng Education also said on the investor interaction platform that the company is concerned about investment opportunities in the direction of vocational education. Chen Xiangdong, chairman and CEO of Gaotu Techedu Inc., said that next, Gaotu Techedu Inc. will focus on developing adult education and quality education, and further explore intelligent digital products and vocational education.
Exploration and transformation is still in a transitional period.
What is worth paying attention to is that the listed companies that turn around in time still have a long way to go. After the implementation of the double reduction policy, education and training in subjects such as big Chinese, as the most important source of revenue for Doushen education, was suspended, and the company announced that it would transform through the layout of Doushen aesthetic education and wisdom education business. In the third quarter of this year, Doushen Education launched two To C-end AI companion products.
"you can say that it is a discipline, but in fact it can also be understood as a quality category, so we will upgrade the previous content and integrate it, and now the main direction is aesthetic education." Doushen Education Securities Department staff told the Securities Times e company reporter that the company has also tried live broadcast, sales and promotion of company-related products and so on. "We have made these attempts, parents, including market recognition, but we still feel that it still needs a process, and it will take time for the new business as a whole to reach a certain volume." The above staff said.
"for listed companies, there is a transition period for new courses or business, including the class hours that students bought before or have to continue to spend. It is impossible to change all the original business in a short time. " In an interview with reporters, people related to education at the University of Hong Kong also hold similar views.
In terms of trying to make a transition, there have been many layouts of education at the University of Hong Kong. On September 21, the education announcement of the University announced that Beijing University Information Technology Group Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary, planned to set up a joint venture company with Wuling Technology to set up a physical painting museum to sell intelligent hardware and books. On October 21, the University Education announcement signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Darnay Education. The two sides will carry out joint venture promotion and market development cooperation on various types of business, including adult vocational education, children's programming education, intelligent robot courses, competition cooperation, science and technology topics at home and abroad, winter and summer camps, and so on.
For the current heated discussion of vocational education, relevant people of listed companies told reporters that it must be difficult to do independently, but do not rule out cooperation, the company is also very concerned about this area. Speaking of transformation, the person said frankly, "the most positive result is that we explore outward and then find a good model, but we are still groping."
Institutions bargain at every bargain, teach and build stocks.
Recently, education and training stocks, which have been depressed for a while, have been sought after by funds. U. S. Securities Regulatory Commission (SEC) disclosure institutions reported three quarters position data show that Goldman Sachs Group, Jinglin assets and other institutions are bucking the trend to increase positions in education stocks.
Among them, Goldman Sachs Group increased his holdings of 28.37 million shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group in the third quarter, an increase of 352%; Goldman Sachs Group increased his holdings of 21.38 million shares of TAL Education Group, an increase of 729%, and his holdings of 15.1 million shares of OneSmart International Education Group Ltd, an increase of 89% over the previous month. In addition, Jinglin assets increased its positions in 7.882 million shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group and 137000 shares of TAL Education Group in the third quarter, and continued to hold Gaotu Techedu Inc. Education.
Jinglin assets said that real estate, education and other industries related to people's livelihood are expected to maintain strong regulation, but the main purpose of government regulation is to create a more level playing field. As a result, the agency is concerned about the medium-and long-term opportunities for good companies that marginal improvement brings.
New Oriental Education & Technology Group online's share price has doubled in nearly half a month, from HK $4.36 on November 10 to HK $9.72 on November 25. Yu Minhong increased his stake in New Oriental Education & Technology Group online for two consecutive days on November 17 and 18, totaling about 3.56 million shares, involving a total capital of nearly HK $25 million, according to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The research institution pointed out that the double reduction policy landed in July 2021, which made clear restrictions on the examination and approval, capitalization path and training time of discipline training institutions. After the release of the policy, the extracurricular training institutions of head disciplines have begun to transform, mainly focusing on the field of vocational education and quality education. Among them, there are many subcategories of quality education, with a market space of more than 500 billion yuan in 2021, while the previous R & D and brand advantages of discipline training leaders are expected to continue.
Guosheng Securities said that with the frequent emergence of important policies in the education industry in 2021, the policy guidance of each segment is gradually clear, and it is suggested that we should pay attention to the transformation process of training institutions and the evolution of quality education and training pattern.
However, it should be noted that the transformation of listed companies is also facing operational pressure. On the one hand, according to the three-quarter report, the performance of listed companies is generally under pressure, with a number of companies saying that the decline in performance in the third quarter is related to the impact of the double reduction policy. On the other hand, the third-quarter results of listed companies in the field of vocational education are not satisfactory. Take Zhonggong Education as an example, the company's net profit changed from profit to loss in the third quarter. The company said that it was mainly affected by the regulatory policies of the education industry, and the decline in the number of civil servants and institutions directly led to a reduction in the number of participants in the training. and the impact of the epidemic repeatedly disrupting market enrollment. For education and training listed companies, how to find the right direction and smoothly through the transition period is a topic worth thinking about.