STI July-Dec profit surges by almost 300%

Businessman Eusebio Tanco’s STI Education Systems Holdings, one of the country’s biggest private school chains, saw profits surge by nearly 300 percent in the first half of fiscal year 2022 as student enrolments bounced back in the postpandemic period.

In a stock exchange filing on Thursday, the company said net income from July to December last year reached P223.4 million from P56 million in 2021.

Like other school operators, STI’s fiscal year starts on July 1 of every calendar year and ends on June 30 of the following year.

Revenues during the period also rose 28 percent to P1.2 billion, said the company.

STI said it earned more during the year because students choose higher margin education programs.

“The improvement in enrollment mix also contributed to the profitability because more students enrolled in programs regulated by Commission on Higher Education,” STI said.

The enrollment in these programs showed “a robust 18 percent increase from 56,342 students last SY [school year] to 66,309 this SY which is notably higher than pre-pandemic levels.”

The total number of students reached 94,312 during the school year, or an increase of 14 percent.

STI also recorded earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of P607.2 million, up 45 percent from the P419.1 million registered during the same period last year.

STI was established in 1983 mainly to train Filipinos with computer programming and other information technology-related skills. A decade later, it obtained a license from CHED to operate colleges, which allowed the group to diversify and offer programs such as business and management, engineering, healthcare, hospitality management, tourism management, arts and sciences, and education.

The group has 63 operating schools across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, its latest annual report showed.

These are composed of 60 STI-branded colleges and three STI-branded education centers.

It said 34 college campuses and one education center are wholly-owned, while 26 campuses and two education centers are operated by franchisees.