CEU posts 16.6% profit drop

Centro Escolar University, a leading provider of tertiary education in the country, has reported a 16.6-percent year-on-year drop in net profit for the nine months ending December 2015 to P251.37 million, as expenses outpaced the growth in revenue.

For the quarter ending December, net profit fell by about a third to P78.16 million compared to the previous year’s level, based on CEU’s regulatory filing in the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Return on equity was lower at 9.66 percent compared to 11.97 percent in the previous year.

For the three-month period, revenue—mostly from tuition fees—rose by 3.3 percent to P491.74 million. However, three-month expenses—mostly for general and administrative expenses—went up by 14.6 percent year-on-year to P401.66 million.

The nine-month revenue improved by 2.5 percent year-on-year to P1.21 billion. However, expenses for the same period went up by 8.5 percent to P987.43 million.

CEU, which is led by the Yap family, operates in three geographical segments—Manila, Malolos and Makati. It is valued by the stock market at around P3.72 billion.

For school year 2015-2016, CEU has approved the renovation, improvement of various laboratories, repainting of hallways, construction of two case study rooms in School of Accountancy and Management in CEU Mendiola.

It also agreed to spend for the following: renovation and retrofitting of Centrodome Gym and construction of covered walkway in CEU Malolos; construction of three-storey building to house School of Dentistry and Pharmacy in CEU Malolos; renovation of rooms, tiling of Gil Puyat building ground floor and repainting of exterior walls in CEU Makati; waterproofing of rooftop of Gil Puyat building, renovation, tiling of board room in CEU Legaspi, Makati.

Tertiary college education providers in the country are facing a challenging environment as a result of the shift to the K to 12 program, resulted in the decline in college freshmen enrollments as the program required two additional years of senior high school. The K-12 law will be in full swing nationwide effective schoolyear 2016-2017.