Expansion lifts Curro earnings

Curro’s rapid expansion will see the private education group lift its full-year headline earnings per share 52%-67%.

Curro, SA’s biggest private education group, invested R1bn in expansion in 2016.

The company said in a trading statement on Thursday it expected earnings per share and headline earnings per share for the year ended December 2016 to increase 43.1c-47.1c per share compared with the 27.8c and 28.3c, respectively in the same period in the previous year.

While it recently expanded into Botswana with a 50% stake in BA Isago University, the company’s main growth has come from its primary and secondary schools in SA.

In light of Curro Holdings’s aim of 200 schools by 2020, Anthony Clark from Vunani Securities is confident it is set to see exponential growth.

“The stock is expensive but the J-curve has kicked in and we will see ongoing growth every six months as they have utilised fixed assets and maximised profits,” said Clark.

The financial results are expected to be published on February 28.