Business Update Highlights（Unaudited relevant data for the three months ended 30 November 2022） Revenue increased by 19.9% YoY to approximately RMB471.8 million; Gross profit rose by 20.9% YoY to approximately RMB238.0 million; Number of student enrolments increased 19.3% against the same period last year to approximately 84,400.

 
(22 February 2023, Hong Kong) Edvantage Group Holdings Limited (“Edvantage Group” or the “Group”, stock code: 0382.HK), the largest private business higher and vocational education group in the Greater Bay Area, has announced its unaudited financial data and business update for the three months ended 30 November 2022 (“Period under Review”).
 
Stable organic growth and increased number of student enrolments
During the Period under Review, the Group realized stable growth in both revenue and gross profit, with the former increasing 19.9% year-on-year to approximately RMB471.8 million and the latter up by 20.9% year-on-year to approximately RMB238.0 million. The significant increase was mainly attributable to the increase in number of student enrolments at Guangzhou Huashang College, Guangzhou Huashang Vocational College, Urban Vocational College of Sichuan, and Urban Technician College of Sichuan as well as the revenue and gross profit generated from the acquisition of Guangdong Huashang Technical School in the financial year ended 31 August 2022.
 
The Group has been widely recognized for its quality school operations. The number of enrolled students of schools in and outside China of the Group recorded different extents of year-on-year growths. For the three months ended 30 November 2022, the number of enrollments of the Group amounted to 84,404, a year-on-year increase of 13,667 students. There are mainly two sources of growth: First, the number of enrolled students of all schools in China recorded a growth, among all, the number of enrollments in Urban Technician College of Sichuan grew by about 2,200 or 20.2% as compared with that for the corresponding period of last year; Second, the number of enrollments of Guangdong Huashang Technical School (“Huashang Technical School”) acquired in the financial year ended 31 August 2022 was approximately 6,700 (for the three months ended 30 November 2021: nil). In addition, the Group has been actively planning to expand its campuses to accommodate an increasing number of students.
 
Promoted industry-education integration and explored school-enterprise cooperation
The key to promoting the in-depth development of vocational education lies in the deepening of industry-education integration and school-enterprise cooperation. The Group has actively echoing national policies that are focused on improving the quality of education service and connotation construction by forming partnerships with industry leaders such as Zen7 Digital under CMGE, Kingdee, and Lansee. During the Period under Review, the Group’s Guangzhou Huashang College cooperated with Zen7 Digital under CMGE in founding a gaming and animation workshop, aiming to promote digital culture, innovative and creative development, and train talents for segments in the digital industry. The Group’s Guangzhou Huashang Vocational College also co-founded several industry-education colleges with Kingdee and Lansee to strengthen the combination of theory and practice as well as to explore new areas and approaches for school-enterprise cooperation.
 
Substantially improved school quality and practical training facilities
The Group considerably reinforced the strengths of its schools during the Period under Review. President Albert Sun-Chi Chan of Guangzhou Huashang College, who was included in Stanford University’s list of the world’s top 2% of scientists in 2022. Besides, the College received approval for setting up a provincial doctoral workstation in Guangdong, which will help it to attract and gather talent. In addition, it added three provincial first-class undergraduate majors, such as advertising, and six provincial first-class courses. Furthermore, Urban Technician College of Sichuan has been named a Three-Star College under the province’s “Sanming Project” (i.e. construction of Famous Colleges, Famous Majors and Famous Training Bases).
 
The Group has also continued to optimize construction of practical training facilities and has sought to cultivate talent by building hands-on real-world skills and application knowledge. the Group has set up a total of 18 e-commerce livestreaming studios for the project named “Huashang Buy” by far with an aggregate area of 2,000 m². The laboratory building of Medicine & Health Science College of Guangzhou Huashang College and Huashang Simulation Hospital have been officially put into use, occupying an area of over 18,000 m², covering a variety of clinical simulation teaching scenarios such as basic nursing, wards, operating theatres, midwifery rooms, etc.
 
Outstanding ESG contributions bring several awards
The Group has shouldered corporate social responsibilities bravely and actively contributes to social development, mainly by offering learning, exchange, internship, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities to young people from Hong Kong and Macau. With its contributions to the promotion of youth employment and entrepreneurship in the Greater Bay Area, the Group has received the “Mid-to-Small Market Value Corporate Social Responsibility Award of the Year" at the 7th Gelonghui Greater China Best Listed Company Awards, organized by Gelonghui, and “Best CSR Listed Company" award at the 7th Zhitong Caijing Listed Company Award.
 
Looking ahead, the national policy will enhance support for vocational education, which will in turn provide favorable support for the development of the Group’s formal and non-formal vocational education business. Moreover, the newly revised Vocational Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, which came into force in May 2022, made it clear by way of legislation that vocational education is of equal importance to general education. Also, in December 2022, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Deepening the Reform and Construction of Modern Vocational Education System, which pointed out the path forward for optimizing the types and positioning of vocational education.
 
The schools under the Group will, as always, adhere to the national policy in relation to school operation, and will continue to focus on connotation construction and explore diversified development, leveraging its 20 years of high-quality school-operation experience. In addition to improving education quality and school-operation capabilities, the Group will explore the synergy of “Industry-Teaching-Research” to train application-oriented and practical talents with theoretical and practical training in accordance with the national policy, market trends, and needs of industries and enterprises so as to contribute to the cultivation of talents in China.