PSG war chest to be deployed

INDUSTRIES. Curro aims to have 200 schools in the group by 2020 and 500 by 2030. NEXT TWO BIG GROWTH

On the education front, management’s quietly convinced Chris van der Merwe, who founded Curro 20 years ago, can repeat his success with Stadio. This is the new tertiary education provider PSG plans to list later this year.

At listing, Stadio will comprise four brands (teacher training college Embury; CA Connect; film, performance, business innovation and computer tech school AFDA; and Southern Business School) which collectively offer 27 accredited programmes (diplomas to masters) and if all goes well, a PhD programme.

“There are great brands in this country that play in the private space, but are isolated from each other. If we can craft them together and centralise some processes we think we can build a successful multi-versity,” said Van der Merwe.

All eyes will be on Stadio at listing, with investors hoping it can mimic Curro’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42% since listing in June 2011.

Van der Merwe retires as Curro’s CEO to head Stadio on July 1. COO Andries Greyling succeeds him at Curro.

Now a sizeable company, there’s no sign that SA’s schools market is saturated, thus there are no plans to steady Curro’s growth trajectory.

Curro management aims to have 200 schools in the group by 2020 and 500 by 2030.

In SA, 4.1% of primary school children are enrolled in independent institutions, compared with 19% in developing countries and 10% in developed countries. In high school almost 30% of children in developing countries are enrolled in independent schools versus 18% in developed countries and 4.2% in SA. “We think we have a solid chance to reach our targets,” Van der Merwe adds.

Curro and Stadio are complemented by investments in two companies that provide digital education solutions and are housed in PSG’s business accelerator PSG Alpha: FutureLearn, previously Impaq, which provides education solutions to schools, tutors, parents and pupils; and ITSI, an e-learning company providing digital teaching solutions.

However, it appears energy is the sector currently occupying management’s minds. PSG has R1.7 billion in its subsidiary PSG Alpha for new investments. If it goes to plan, it’ll spend the bulk of this on new energy investments in the next couple of months, says PSG CEO Piet Mouton.

Energy Partners, in which PSG alpha has a 63% stake, could be the vehicle for this growth. “Our vision is to turn this company into the leading independent energy provider in Africa,” he says.