Despite the travel restrictions that have limited international student enrollments in Australia, domestic students have used the opportunity to hone their skill sets with education provider iCollege (ASX: ICT) recording record revenue for the March quarter.
Revenue for the quarter was up 52% to $4.55 million compared to the previous corresponding quarter ($2.99m) when the pandemic was still in its infancy. The company attributed the growth driven by domestic student enrollments while internationals still accounted for $1.5m in enrollments.
Interest in domestic courses was driven by iCollege’s new campus in Perth which is fully equipped for commercial kitchen training and aged care training. The latter was of particular educational need in response to pandemic conditions where iCollege secured a contract from Western Australia’s largest aged care provider Aegis Aged Care Group to train their 3,400 staff on infection control.
“Q3 2021 has been another successful quarter for iCollege and our record financial results reflect this. The domestic training operations continue to perform well and are growing favourably,” said iCollege Managing Director, Ashish Katta.
“Obviously, with international borders remaining closed, our international student business is limited to onshore international recruitment activities which remain stable month-on-month.
“We expect the final quarter of FY 2021 to provide a strong finish to the year. Through the efforts of the Company’s leadership team and all of our staff across the country, iCollege is thriving through this challenging time and I am very proud to be at the helm of the Company given our numerous exciting growth prospects.”
In the coming months, iCollege is hoping to realise some of the efficiencies that can be brought to the Company following their $50.3m takeover bid for Redhill Education (ASX: RDH) in February 2021.
Should the unsolicited takeover be successful, iCollege will become one of Australia’s leading education providers where they are also in discussions to acquire new campuses in New South Wales and Victoria as part of an aggressive expansion strategy.
Of the $4.55m generated in the March quarter with no Government assistance from the JobKeeper program, iCollege generated $1.01m (unaudited) operating EBITDA which brings their FY21 total to $3.02m from $13.37m revenue in the financial year to date.
ICT shares responded well to news of the strong performance in the domestic education market to open at $0.145, an 11% rise on their previous $0.13 close.
Alfred Chan is an Analyst at Emerald Financial, specialising in ASX-listed small cap companies.
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