Curro slows down new deal quest

Curro, which operates private schools and colleges, says it plans to slow down its quest for new ventures in order to focus on growing its existing campuses and those yet to be launched. CEO Andries Greyling said the company will shift its capital towards improving its basic education and tertiary institution campuses.

Curro, which operates private schools and colleges, says it plans to slow down its quest for new ventures in order to focus on growing its existing campuses and those yet to be launched.

CEO Andries Greyling said the company will shift its capital towards improving its basic education and tertiary institution campuses after investing R223m to launch five new schools in Gauteng, the Western Cape and Mpumalanga.

“We want to grow them to maturity and we still have a few greenfields that we are opening next year. We will always look for opportunities, but the bulk of our capital will be absorbed within the current campuses, so we need to go a bit slower on greenfields just to get the current schools to capacity,” he said.

Greyling said the new schools are part of the company’s strategy to introduce technology-driven and affordable education through its DigEd schools and academies.

“Our biggest growth the past year is specifically from the times, academy we ’market. re all being It’s tough challenged, but I believe that if you provide quality education and you put it down at the right price and at the right place, people will support you.”

Curro’s student base increased 13% to 57,173, pushing the group’s revenue up 19% to R1.4bn as the private education industry battles a tough operating environment.

“The biggest challenge is that we are losing about 3,000 learners a year. We have not seen a massive amount of emigration but it is there. The bulk of the problem for us is financial reasons, as people cannot afford to pay fees,” Greyling said.

A speciality finance analyst at Avior Capital Markets, David Talpert, said the results reflect the state of the private education sector, with high-fee private schools facing pressure from emigration, and parents taking their children out of lower-fee private schools due to financial constraints.

R223m the cost to launch five new schools in Gauteng, the Western Cape and Mpumalanga

13% the increase in Curro’s student base despite problems of affordability for some