National Learning Chairman says dividends reflect stable financial performance in 2021

Khaled bin Mohammed Al-Khudair, Chairman, NCLE

National Company for Learning and Education (NCLE) confirmed the quality and stability of its financial performance in terms of cash flows during 2021, through dividend distributions, Chairman Khaled bin Mohammed Al-Khudair said in the annual investor conference call attended by Argaam.

The company maintained the dividend distribution level despite the pandemic’s continuous impact and the steep decline in net earnings.

Read: NCLE board recommends 8% cash dividends for FY 2020/2021

The total number of students decreased by 8% to 13,300 in 2021, compared to 14,500 students a year earlier, Al-Khudair added, noting that 76% of the decrease resulted from a decline in enrollment of kindergarten and first-grade students.

Moreover, the model education schools in Buraydah, Qassim, are witnessing healthy growth, the Chairman stressed, adding that their lower profit was attributed to a decline in tuitions, compared to NCLE’s schools in other districts. NCLE has a long-term outlook for these schools.

Al-Khudair also pointed to the possibility of more mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in educational buildings, which offers more opportunities to high-quality education companies and schools for growth and attracting more students.

Elsewhere, Al-Khudair expected the private sector to have an opportunity for managing schools after privatization in the next couple of years, adding that more opportunities will be available for the private sector to participate in the operation of government schools, but there is no official data to date.

The market value of private schools in the Kingdom stands at $4.3 billion, Al-Khudair said, predicting this value to double over the next decade.

NCLE reported a net profit after Zakat and tax of SAR 24.5 million for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2021, a 58% decline compared to SAR 57.8 million in the previous year. It also recorded a net profit after Zakat and tax of nearly SAR 7 million for Q4 2020/2021, Argaam reported.