National Learning prioritizes financial stability; bullish outlook for private education: chairman

Khaled Al Khudair, Board Chairman of NCLE

National Learning and Education Co. (NCLE) gives top priority to maintain its current financial stability in the second academic term, board chairman Khaled Al Khudair told Argaam in a telephone interview.

This aims to maintain education quality and focuses on continuing quality services for all students to enhance the company’s solid investment base.

NCLE has a positive outlook for private education in the Kingdom and the sector’s strong growth potentials on the levels of education quality, investment growth and shareholders’ returns.

Based on the Kingdom’s population growth model, 2 million additional seats will be offered in public education, Al Khudair noted, pointing to increased opportunities of the private education’s contribution to public education, as it is still below 16% of the total number of students in the Kingdom.

Moreover, revenues from the Human Resources Development Fund’s (HRDF) support contribute a marginal 3.5% to the company’s total revenues, the chairman added, noting that NCLE took various measures to ensure no negative impact from the support suspension over the next couple of years.

For potential acquisitions in H1 2021, the company is studying appropriate opportunities, as major companies account for only 10% of the Saudi private education sector, which represents a good opportunity for mergers and acquisitions going forward, Al Khudair added.

NCLE posted a 68% slump in net profit in Q1 2020/21 to SAR 3.8 million, compared to a net profit of SAR 11.6 million a year earlier.