Course development, franchising to drive HELP’s growth
KUALA LUMPUR: HELP International Corp Bhd expects the development of its own educational courses and expansion of its licensing and franchising activities to drive growth, said president and co-founder Dr Paul Chan.
En-route to second board listing, these will be the main contributors to the company’s forecast of 10.5% growth in net profit to RM8.9mil on revenue of RM61.2mil for the financial year ending Oct 31, 2007.
“With our own intellectual property (in educational courses), we would be eligible for the full dollar (of royalty fees),” Chan told reporters at the launch of HELP’s prospectus yesterday.
The initial public offering by HELP comprises an issue of 14.8 million new ordinary 50 sen shares, of which six million will be offered to the public, while the remaining 8.8 million will be offered to eligible employees, directors and business associates.
At an issue price of 80 sen per share, the exercise is expected to raise RM11.8mil.
With more of its own education courses, including degree programmes, HELP plans to further expand its franchising activities overseas.
“This is consistent with our low-risk expansion strategy, as it would require less investment in infrastructure and facilities,” Chan said.
At present, HELP already has franchising arrangements in Indonesia, Vietnam and China.
HELP also aims to increase its foreign student population, which currently stands at 18% of its total of more than 8,000.
The university college expects the number of students from Africa to double to 400 in 2007 and students from Vietnam to increase to 200 or 300 from 100 at present.
Of the expected listing proceeds, RM4mil will be used for improvement of existing facilities, RM2.7mil for development of new educational courses and intellectual property, RM1.2mil for international expansion, RM2mil for working capital and the remaining for expenses.
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