Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited (Bright Scholar) is a global premier education service company.
The company conducts its business primarily through its subsidiaries and affiliated entities in China, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
As of August 31, 2024, the company had a network of a number of learning centers for after-school programs through certain contractual arrangements with the VIEs, which in turn control and hold these learning centers. As of August 31, 2024, the c...
Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited (Bright Scholar) is a global premier education service company.
The company conducts its business primarily through its subsidiaries and affiliated entities in China, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
As of August 31, 2024, the company had a network of a number of learning centers for after-school programs through certain contractual arrangements with the VIEs, which in turn control and hold these learning centers. As of August 31, 2024, the company operated eight overseas schools, which the company may also refer to as international language schools, through Bright Scholar (UK) Holdings Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the company.
The company primarily provides quality international education service to global students and equip them with the critical academic foundation and skillsets necessary to succeed in the pursuit of higher education. As part of the company’s global expansion plan, the company has been actively exploring mergers and acquisition opportunities abroad to expand the company’s global school network, targeting quality private education providers and reputable schools in the company’s targeted overseas countries and jurisdictions. As of August 31, 2024, the company had eight overseas school located in the United Kingdom and the United States. During the 2024 school year, the company had an average of 2,652 students enrolled at the company’s schools for the company’s continuing operations. Bright Scholar Holdings is not a Chinese operating company but a Cayman Islands holding company with no equity ownership in the VIEs. Bright Scholar Holdings has contractual arrangements with the VIEs, which control and hold the company’s domestic learning centers and complementary services, and indirectly holds Bright Scholar (UK) Holdings Limited, through which the company operates its overseas schools.
The company’s continuing business primarily includes overseas schools and complementary education services. As a global premier education service provider, the company has built its global presence primarily through acquiring established overseas schools and language training institutions in countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States. The company also offers a range of complementary education services, primarily including camp programs, after-school programs, through the company’s network of learning centers in China, as well as international education consulting services.
Overseas Schools
As of August 31, 2024, the company had an overseas school network of eight schools, including seven schools in the United Kingdom and one in the United States, with an average of 2,652 enrolled students for the 2024 school year. As a global premier education provider, the company has built its global presence primarily through overseas acquisition of schools and education services in countries, such as the United Kingdom and the United States.
In December 2018, the company acquired BCS, an established independent school located in the United Kingdom. BCS offers day and boarding education from two to 18 years of age, and has a strong global inclusive philosophy based on a traditional U.K. education. In July 2019, the company acquired CATS, which operates five overseas schools and three language training institutions across the United Kingdom and the United States as of August 31, 2024. In addition, the company granted a third party the right to use the brands ‘CATS’ and ‘Cambridge School of Visual & Performing Arts’ for the operation of two campuses in Shanghai, China. In September 2019, the company acquired St. Michael’s School and BIC located in the United Kingdom. St. Michael’s School offers day and boarding education from three to 18 years of age, comprising predominantly day students and boarders from more than 15 countries. BIC provides independent boarding education to pupils from the United Kingdom and other countries from 13 to 19 years of age.
Bournemouth Collegiate School (BCS)
Bournemouth Collegiate School is an established independent school located in Bournemouth, Dorset, England. It offers day and boarding education from age 2—18 on two campuses. It has a strong global inclusive philosophy based on a traditional U.K. education. Bournemouth Collegiate School has an average of 630 students enrolled for the 2024 school year, including local students and international boarders from 29 countries.
CATS Colleges
CATS Colleges is an international school network focused primarily on the provision of enrichment education services to international students with a globally integrated platform of campuses located across the United Kingdom and the United States. As of August 31, 2024, CATS Colleges comprised five schools in Cambridge, London, Canterbury and Boston, as well as three language training institutions in the United Kingdom. It has a diverse mix of over 1,300 students from around 90 nationalities in the 2024 school year.
In July 2020, the company decided to permanently cease the operation of the four language training institutions in the United States as a resource conserving measure in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2021, the company sold one language training institutions in the United Kingdom and two institutions in Canada to focus on the operation of the remaining three language training institutions in the United Kingdom.
St. Michael’s School
St. Michael’s School is an established independent school in the United Kingdom. Located in Llanelli, Wales. It offers day and boarding education from age three to 18. Established in 1923, the school has an inclusive philosophy for all its students based on a traditional U.K. education, and was named Welsh Independent Secondary School of the Year 2019 in The Sunday Times Parent Power rankings and regularly ranking in the United Kingdom’s top 30 Independent Schools for A level results. The school has an average of 421 students enrolled for the 2024 school year, predominantly consisting of day students, as well as boarding students from more than five countries.
Bosworth Independent College (BIC)
BIC is a leading independent boarding college in the United Kingdom. Located in Northampton, England, it provides independent boarding education to pupils from the United Kingdom and abroad from 13 to 19 years of age. The school has an average of 209 students enrolled for the 2024 school year, including boarding students from 29 countries.
Complementary Education Services
The company provides complementary education services to students from its schools and others. These complementary education services further enhance students’ overall learning experience and generate synergies with the company’s school operations.
Camp Programs
The company has organized summer and winter camp programs in certain countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. The company also offers summer school programs, which are more rigorous and allow the company’s participants to study for specific courses or prepare for standardized tests.
As of August 31, 2024, the company had developed business collaborations with a number of overseas universities and high schools as the local hosts of the company’s camps or summer school programs. The company works together with its partners to design programs and activities to improve the participants’ English communication skills, expand their knowledge and develop a familiarity with college environments and international cultures.
The company’s overseas camp programs typically take place on university campuses and include various activities, such as classes and excursions. For high school students, the company offers tours to different universities during its programs. These visits allow participants to become familiar with the overseas campuses, talk with admissions officers and spend time with the company’s alumni studying at each university. Some of the company’s camp programs include a homestay, which allows the participants to get an inside look at Western family dynamics and form supportive friendships in an immersive English-speaking environment. The company sends its teachers to escort the students during their tours. By participating in the summer and winter camps, the company’s students not only broaden their horizons and improve their English proficiency, but also clarify their academic goals and enhance their motivation to pursue overseas studies after graduating from the company’s schools.
The company’s overseas camp programs were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic due to the global travel freeze resulted therefrom. In response, the company developed domestic travel study programs, which are complementary to the company’s students’ classroom education and allow students to study and explore humanities, history, technology, nature, etc., depending on the theme of each program.
After-School Programs
The company offers a wide range of extracurricular programs primarily to children. The company’s programs encompass popular subjects, such as art, soccer, and programmable robotics. The company’s programs supplement in-classroom learning and promote the well-balanced development of children. The company’s programs also help children tap into their interests and potential that benefit their study or career goals. The company works with its partners on these programs.
The company has also strategically invested in the acquisition of equity interest in Hangzhou Impression Arts Training Co., Ltd. (‘Hangzhou Impression’), a Zhejiang-based art training institution, to supplement the extracurricular programs the company offers.
Overseas Study Consulting Services
The company offers overseas study education consulting services to better serve its students in and outside of the company’s network of schools. As of August 31, 2024, the company had strategically invested in the acquisitions of equity interests in several providers of education consulting services, including Can-achieve (Beijing) Education Consulting Co., Ltd. (‘Can-achieve’) and FGE Holdings Limited and its subsidiaries (‘FGE’). Through these strategic acquisitions, the company is able to provide a comprehensive range of services covering K-12 education, as well as consulting services from application to overseas universities, which will drive the company’s future growth.
Discontinued Operations
Discontinued Domestic Kindergartens
Due to the effectiveness of the Implementation Rules, the company has concluded that it has lost control of 68 domestic kindergartens since August 31, 2021 and that such VIE contractual arrangements with them has become invalid since then. On August 31, 2024, an agreement supplementary to the 2017 contractual arrangements and 2021 supplemental agreements was entered into by and among Zhuhai Bright Scholar and Foshan Meiliang Education Technology Co., Ltd, which provides that upon execution of this supplementary agreement, Foshan Meiliang Education Technology Co., Ltd., and its affiliated entities (including nine domestic kindergartens) shall no longer be bound by the 2017 contractual arrangements and 2021 supplemental agreements. As of August 31, 2024, Foshan Meiliang Education Technology Co., Ltd., and its affiliated entities (including nine domestic kindergartens) were no longer bound by the 2017 contractual arrangements and 2021 supplemental agreements. In the 2024 fiscal year, these nine kindergartens provided an active and healthy learning environment to help students develop their potential and personality, appreciate diverse cultures and lay the foundation to drive future success.
English Proficiency Training
Prior to August 2024, the company offered English proficiency development courses to children aged from five to 15 through a network of 18 learning centers located in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province under the brand of ‘elan.’ However, aligned with the company’s strategy to focus its resources on the company’s high-growth core business while optimizing organizational structure to improve the company’s operational and management efficiency, the company divested its noncore English proficiency training business from the company’s complementary education services segment in August 2024.
Career Counselling and International Contest Training Services
Prior to May 2024 and June 2024, the company offered international contest training and career counselling services to students, respectively. However, aligned with the company’s strategy to focus its resources on the company’s high-growth core business while optimizing organizational structure to improve the company’s operational and management efficiency, the company divested its noncore international contest training business and career counseling business from the company’s complementary education services segment in May and June 2024.
Centralized Management
The company has provided services of a centralized management system for the company’s school network, through which the company manages and oversees certain aspects of its kindergartens across the company’s network, including school administration, supply procurement and sharing and development of teaching resources, to support and facilitate management of the company’s schools, as well as to ensure consistency in the quality of the company’s education. For the company’s overseas operations, the company has established a center of excellence to centralize certain functions of management, including finance, IT, human resources, procurement, marketing and admissions.
Sharing and Development of Teaching Resources
In order to maintain and improve the company’s teaching quality, some of the company’s schools share their teaching resources with each other and jointly hold teacher development workshops. The company also operates a centralized teaching staff recruitment program through which the company hires and deploys teachers and educational staff within the company’s school network based on each school’s needs and teacher preferences. The company intends to continue to leverage the availability of the company’s teaching resources at different schools within the company’s network to ensure consistency in teaching quality.
Education Material and Equipment Procurement
The company makes procurement decisions regarding teaching materials and equipment and other education supplies for the company’s schools in the same geographical areas to improve the company’s operating efficiency, maximize economies of scale and enhance the company’s overall bargaining power with suppliers. Such procurement choices include those for catering, textbooks, school uniforms, classroom furniture, computers, kitchen equipment, tableware and office appliances.
School Administration
To improve the company’s service efficiency, the company has centralized its finance, marketing, human resources, legal and information technology functions. The company has adopted a series of policies and procedures relating to general corporate governance matters, which are aimed at strengthening the management and government of the company and the company’s schools. For example, in the 2018 fiscal year, the company implemented an ERP system where the company centralizes the collection and analysis of budgeting, procurement and financial information and data, which enhanced the efficiency of the company’s data management processes, adding value to the overall operation of the company’s business.
Students
Student Admission
The company’s overseas schools recruit students from around the world, with a student body comprising around 95 different nationalities for the 2024 school year. The majority of the students in the company’s overseas schools are from 14 to 18 years old.
Student and Parent Support Services
The company generally has small class sizes across its school network in order to provide each student with close and frequent teacher interactions and individual attention and support. The company’s teachers assist students through academic difficulties with personalized remedial measures, including additional practice materials and instructive sessions.
The company also maintains regular communication with the parents of the company’s students and provide them with complementary seminars and training on education programs, university applications and parenting.
Teachers
Teacher Qualifications
The company has assembled a team of teachers with extensive experience in education. The company’s schools are staffed with different levels of teachers and educational staff. Certain senior teachers have managerial responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities as instructors. Educational staff include teaching assistants, librarians and medical staff. The company seeks to employ teachers that have a passion for teaching, mastery of their subject areas, strong communication skills and proficiency in employing innovative and effective teaching methods. In the 2024 fiscal year, the company had an average of 542 teachers and instructors globally.
Teacher Recruitment
The company’s teachers are critical to maintaining the quality of its programs and services and in promoting the company’s brand and reputation. The company places particular importance on recruiting teachers who are appropriately qualified and experienced. For the company’s overseas schools, the company also expects teachers to have a wealth of international experience across the world of academia. The company implements a centralized recruitment program that seeks to hire teachers and educational staff and deploy them across the company’s school network based on each kindergarten’s needs and teacher preferences. The company screens candidates for strong academic credentials, dedication and knowledge in the relevant teaching subjects, and commitment to serving students’ needs. The company requires its teachers to possess the appropriate qualifications required by PRC regulatory authorities, including the foreign expert certificate in the case of foreign teachers. Teacher candidates are attracted to the company’s schools because of its reputation, commitment to quality education, financial strength and competitive compensation package. To enhance the company’s retention rate, the company also allows its teachers to laterally transfer within the company’s school network.
Teacher Training
The company is committed to providing ongoing professional development for the company’s teachers and principals, in the form of online, on-campus or one-on-one training and support sessions. From time to time, the company organizes seminars on professional training in cooperation with prestigious institutions. The company also invites veteran teachers to participate in school administration by offering them management training with the possibility of promotion to principal positions. The opportunity for ongoing professional training and career advancement is not always available at private schools in China and is a key differentiator in the company’s ability to attract, develop and retain talented teachers.
Teachers in the company’s overseas schools are continuously assessed under Continues Development, a program that measure the effectiveness and quality of their teaching and provide them with the right learning environment that enables them to adapt teaching methods and use innovative tools to delivery academic excellence.
Tuition
The company charges its students tuition, boarding and other applicable fees generally prior to the beginning of each cycle. Tuition and fees being paid in arrears is subject to special approval. The company offers a partial refund if a student withdraws in the predetermined period. Tuition refund or discounts did not materially and adversely affect the company’s business, results of operations or financial position. The company has limited discretion in determining the types and amounts of fees the company charges under the current PRC regulatory regime. In determining the amount of tuition the company charges, the company considers factors, including the demand for the company’s education programs, the cost of the company’s operations, and general economic conditions. The company’s tuition and fees charged for internationally accredited programs are typically higher than that for government-mandated curricula, which reflects the additional educational and operational resources associated with administering the former.
Research and Curriculum Development
The company has devoted significant resources to its research and curriculum development efforts which are reflected in the course materials and effective teaching methods. The company works with school teachers to develop, update and improve school curricula and course materials based upon students’ needs and the latest official government curricula or course outlines issued by the relevant international programs. As students’ academic ability levels vary, the company’s curricula are designed with the flexibility to address a particular student’s strengths and weaknesses. The company’s teaching and research department works with school teachers to prepare or update such course curricula, and revises the curricula based on feedback from the classroom. To ensure the company’s education quality can be upheld across schools, the company has dedicated a professional team to designing curricula for the programs implemented in its schools and to keep the company’s teaching materials updated with reference to the latest educational trends. The company’s overseas schools are continuously developing curriculum and academic extension activities to prepare students for admission to top universities. For example, preparation for students applying to Oxbridge has included preparation for admissions tests, workshops with a drama specialist to prepare students for interview, and mock interviews with academics from the University of Cambridge. Additionally, the company’s overseas schools develop curricula in specific subject areas, which focus on the skills needed for interested students’ success at university.
Marketing
The company takes measures to increase word-of-mouth referrals which have been instrumental to attracting new students and building the company’s brand. The company has also strengthened the company’s marketing strategy to drive student recruitment, and built up the company’s marketing teams at both headquarters and regional levels to assist student’s recruitment, while allocating more marketing and promotional budgets for schools in the ramp-up stage.
Referrals. Word-of-mouth referrals by former and current students and their families have been a significant source of the company’s student enrollment. The company actively works with its alumni and current students to encourage them to recommend the company’s programs to prospective students.
Promotional Events. From time to time, the company organizes promotional and recruiting events to provide real-time, on-site opportunities for its prospective students to learn more about the company’s services and programs, as well as to meet its teachers and staff.
Media Advertising. From time to time, the company may publish articles on popular local newspapers to promote its brand awareness and advocate for the company’s education philosophy. The company has also placed advertisements on searching engines and internet portals.
The company’s overseas schools depend on advertisements on related websites, such as university targeted websites, generic campaigns on platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, and educational agencies to market themselves and recruit students. The company has also assembled a team of specialists to offer support, training and guidance to the educational agencies and assist them in student recruitment.
Competition
The company’s overseas schools compete against large operators, such as Nord Anglia and Alpha Plus in the United Kingdom.
Intellectual Property
The company has obtained a license to use certain trademarks, including ‘Country Garden’ from Country Garden free of charge for a term expiring in 2028 and 2030. The company has applied for or registered trademarks relating to the company’s logos and names, including ‘Bright Scholar’ and ‘Bo Shi Le’ in China. As of August 31, 2024, the company had registered 164 trademarks with the PRC Trademark Office and major domain names used for the company’s operation with the China Internet Network Information Center, including www.brightscholar.com, brightscholar.net, and www.bgyedu.cn.
Regulations
The company operates its business in China under a legal regime consisting of the National People’s Congress, which is the country’s highest legislative body, the State Council, which is the highest authority of the executive branch of the PRC central government, and several ministries and agencies under its authority, including the MOE, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the State Administration of Press and Publication (National Copyright Bureau) under the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and their respective local offices.
History
Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited was founded in 1994. The company was incorporated under the laws of Cayman Islands in 2016.
The Analyst Price Target shows the analysts’ low, high, and average target at a glance.
