Elite Education Group International Ltd. Announces Operations Update and Business Outlook

Rhea-AI Summary

Elite Education Group International Limited (Nasdaq: EEIQ) provided an operations update and business outlook on February 10, 2022. The company is executing a strategic plan to expand its ownership of specialized colleges in the US and Canada. Significant acquisitions include 80% of EduGlobal College in Vancouver and a controlling interest in Davis College in Ohio. Recruitment metrics at Miami University Regional Campuses show improvement despite pandemic challenges. The company anticipates growth as travel restrictions ease, enabling more students to attend in-person classes.

Positive

• Acquired 80% of EduGlobal College and a controlling interest in Davis College, enhancing educational offerings.
• Recruitment metrics improved, with a conversion rate from application to enrollment of 36.4% compared to 25.7% the previous year.
• Plans to upgrade residential facilities, improving student accommodations and potential revenue.

Negative

• Ongoing challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic continue to disrupt normal operations.
• Economic challenges persist in the higher education sector due to the pandemic.

MIDDLETOWN, Ohio, Feb. 10, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Elite Education Group International Limited (Nasdaq: EEIQ), (the "Company" or "Elite Education Group International"), a provider of comprehensive education solutions for domestic and international students interested in college and university programs in the US, Canada and the UK, today announced an operations update and a current business outlook.

"We are excited about our progress in executing upon our strategic plan to own and operate specialized colleges that offer students opportunities for academic enrichment to that they can pursue their educational and career pursuits. The expansion of our business now includes US and Canadian colleges where we plan to create superior educational outcomes for our students. We believe in our mission to provide cost-effective and high value-added academic experiences for our students and are optimistic that a more normalized learning environment will ultimately return and lead to stronger educational outcomes. We are pleased with our newly enhanced scale and capabilities and are committed to create value for our shareholders," stated Jianbo Zhang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Elite Education Group International.

Operations Update

We have made significant steps to execute on our strategic plan to own and operate specialized colleges in the US and Canada. In January 2021, we acquired 80% of the equity of EduGlobal College, located in Vancouver, Canada. EduGlobal College provides English language programs for international students to help them to achieve baccalaureate and graduate programs at Canadian universities. In addition, in November 2021, we closed on the acquisition of 70% of Ameri-Can Education Group Corp. ("Ameri-Can"), with 77.78% voting rights, where Ameri-Can has the right to the underlying equity of Davis College, a two-year career-training college located in Toledo, Ohio.

Our overall mission is to focus on students with practical academic programming to enable them to pursue higher education and develop life-enriching, fulfilling careers. EduGlobal College provides international students with high quality English proficiency courses and educational programming to prepare students for their academic pursuits. As testimony as to the effectiveness of its programs, EduGlobal College recently entered into an agreement with Algoma University, located in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, that establishes a seamless pathway for our students to complete their baccalaureate degrees and graduate certificates at Algoma University's Brampton and Sault Ste. Marie campuses.

Davis College offers career-training educational courses in business management, data science, nursing, electrical engineering, and other areas that most often lead to careers that are in high demand. Davis College designs these courses to be practical and cost-effective in order to reach students who might not otherwise have the opportunity to develop fulfilling careers, and continuously expands its academic course work programming to be current in terms of market demand.

In addition to our strategic initiative to own and operate specialized colleges, our recruiting activities are of high importance to the Company. In particular, we value our relationship with the regional campuses of Miami University ("the MU Regional Campuses") located in Oxford, Ohio, where we offer an array of services for Chinese students to study abroad. These include residential facilities, a full-service cafeteria, recreational facilities, shuttle buses and an office on campus that provides advisory services for our students; these facilities are not owned, maintained, operated or are a part of Miami University. 

As of September 30, 2021, our indicators of recruitment and enrollment for the English Language Program at the MU Regional Campuses improved as compared to those for the period ended September 30, 2020 as some students deferred attendance to the program due to travel restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic. As of September 30, 2021, 136 students who had been admitted to the English Language Program at the MU Regional Campuses paid full tuition fees as compared to 134 students for the same period in the previous year, and the conversion rate from application to enrollment was 36.4% as compared to 25.7% during the same period in 2020.

This is significant since this was a challenging year in terms of student recruitment due to the continued impact of Covid-19, but our strong marketing efforts were successful in producing our highest conversion rate since 2015. These results are also due to our ongoing efforts to offer remote learning through online courses during the pandemic as well as the further development of our foundational programs in China to deepen our applicant pool. Under such circumstances, we believe that our recruitment metrics are highly competitive with individual universities and to other entities engaged in this space. We recently announced plans to upgrade and expand our residential facilities adjacent to the MU Regional Campuses in order to provide the best living accommodations, security and support services possible for our study abroad students.

Business Outlook

In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 outbreak a global pandemic. This resulted in extensive travel restrictions, related public health orders and a global economic downturn which continue to disrupt the normal operations of many educational companies from time to time, including ours.

In terms of EduGlobal College and Davis College, our two newly owned and operated colleges, we plan to pay close attention to such metrics as enrollment, revenue per student and costs of services to monitor our progress in developing these colleges. We plan to expand our student enrollment at both colleges as well as focus our recruitment to develop a diversified student body. We currently employ a hybrid model at both colleges that encompass in-class instruction and remote learning, largely attributable to the Covid pandemic, to optimize our students' academic progress. A key element of our strategic growth plan is to continue to opportunistically target educational institutions that meet our acquisition criteria in the US, Canada and the UK to create high-value educational experiences for domestic and international students.

For the MU Regional Campuses, we anticipate that our financial results will improve in the periods ahead since travel restrictions have eased and students have begun to physically attend the English Language Program at MU rather than attend a local university in China where we provided such courses, which represented an incremental cost for the Company. As of September 30, 2021, 52 students were present for in-person classes at the MU Regional Campuses and an additional 40 students were present beginning in January 2022. It is beneficial for the Company to have its students on-campus due to the receipt of residential fees and other fees. The remainder of the 136 students who had been admitted to the English Language Program at the MU Regional Campuses as of September 30, 2021 are taking online classes.

As with other colleges and universities, we have adapted to the challenges that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on higher education. While we believe that in-person instruction and a campus learning and social experience is best for our students, we believe that the new hybrid system of remote and in-person learning that has been adopted by many colleges and universities will continue to evolve. While this has resulted in economic challenges for the higher education sector, we believe that our approach in being both thoughtful and pragmatic in optimizing our resources to best serve our students' academic and social needs in order to prioritize educational outcomes will ultimately work to our benefit as well.

As indicated, we will carefully monitor our enrollment metrics and costs of providing services, and we are intent upon being quick to adapt to any changes which might negatively impact our mission since we have yet to return to a normalized educational environment. We believe that our current operations provide a diversified income stream that balances both our owned and operated colleges and our extensive recruiting activities. We also believe that our serving a niche market that meaningfully connects to students who may not ordinarily pursue higher education and that enables them to reach their aspirational goals is a positive and effective business model, and that we will be successful in providing solid returns to all of our constituents.

About Elite Education Group International Limited

Elite Education Group International Limited ("Elite Education" or the "Company"), through its subsidiaries Quest Holding International LLC and Highrim Holding International Limited, provides comprehensive education solutions for domestic and international students interested in university and college degree programs in the US, Canada and the UK. The Company recently acquired 80% of the equity of EduGlobal College, based in British Columbia, Canada, which focuses on English proficiency educational programming for students pursuing academic degrees. The Company also recently acquired the right to a controlling equity ownership position in Davis College, a career training college located in Toledo, Ohio. In addition, the Company has a recruiting relationship with the regional campuses of Miami University located in Oxford, Ohio ("the MU Regional Campuses"), where it maintains residential facilities, a full-service cafeteria, recreational facilities, shuttle buses and an office for the regional campuses that provides study abroad and post-study services for its students; these facilities are not owned, maintained, operated or are a part of Miami University. The Company also acts as a recruiting agent for the University of the West of Scotland (through The Education Group (London) Ltd) and Coventry University, both of which are located in the United Kingdom. For more information, please visit www.eei-global.net.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain of the statements made in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning and protections of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements include statements with respect to our beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, expectations, anticipations, assumptions, estimates, intentions, and future performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond our control, and which may cause the actual results, performance, capital, ownership or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, the Company's ability to successfully integrate the acquisition with its existing services. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be forward-looking statements. You can identify these forward-looking statements through our use of words such as "may," "will," "anticipate," "assume," "should," "indicate," "would," "believe," "contemplate," "expect," "estimate," "continue," "plan," "point to," "project," "could," "intend," "target" and other similar words and expressions of the future.

All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice, including, without limitation, those risks and uncertainties described in our most recent Form 20-F and otherwise in our SEC reports and filings. Such reports are available upon request from the Company, or from the Securities and Exchange Commission, including through the SEC's Internet website at http://www.sec.gov. We have no obligation and do not undertake to update, revise or correct any of the forward-looking statements after the date hereof, or after the respective dates on which any such statements otherwise are made.

Contacts:

Elite Education Group International Limited
+1 513-649-8350
ir@eei-global.net

Investor Relations:

Precept Investor Relations LLC
David Rudnick
+1 646-694-8538
david.rudnick@preceptir.com

Source: Elite Education Group International Limited

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SOURCE Elite Education Group International Limited

FAQ

What did Elite Education Group International announce on February 10, 2022?

Elite Education Group International announced an operations update and business outlook, detailing its strategic expansion plans.

What acquisitions did Elite Education Group International make recently?

The company acquired 80% of EduGlobal College in Vancouver and a controlling interest in Davis College in Ohio.

How are the recruitment metrics at Miami University Regional Campuses performing?

Recruitment metrics improved, with 136 students enrolled in the English Language Program, up from 134 the previous year.

What are the future plans for Elite Education Group International?

The company plans to continue expanding its ownership of specialized colleges, upgrade facilities, and monitor enrollment and revenue metrics.