STI to raise up to P5B to fund campus expansions

MANILA, Philippines – STI Education Systems Holdings, a holding company owned by businessman Eusebio Tanco, said its education unit plans to raise up to P5 billion from the issuance of fixed-rate bonds to finance campus expansions.

STI said in a disclosure to the local bourse on Thursday, January 12, that STI Education Services Group (STI-ESG) filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday, January 10, for the shelf registration of P5-billion bonds to be offered in one or several tranches. 

The first tranche worth P3 billion will have tenors of 7 and 10 years.

“The net proceeds of the bonds shall be used to finance STI-ESG’s campus expansion projects and for other general corporate requirements,” STI said.

STI-ESG owns and operates one of the biggest networks of private schools in the Philippines. It currently operates 77 schools, with 66 of these STI-branded colleges and 11 STI-branded education centers.

Last September, it opened a new 7-storey campus in Zapote, Alabang worth P500 million.

It is currently planning the construction of campuses in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan and in Davao.

Driven by K to 12

For school year 2016-2017, students enrolled in schools under STI Holdings numbered 103,727, which represents a 22% increase when compared to 84,730 enrollees in the previous school year.

Driving the growth in enrollment is the K to 12 program, where a total of 39,206 senior high school students enrolled in educational institutions operated by STI-ESG, the Information and Communications Technology Academy, and STI West Negros University.

For the first 6 months of its fiscal year ending September 2016, STI on Thursday reported a net income of P542.9 million, a 60% jump compared to the P338.7 million it posted during the same period in 2015.

The company also generated about P1.29 billion in revenues, an improvement of 15% or P171.9 million, compared to the same 6-month period in 2015.

STI-ESG’s college campuses offer associate or baccalaureate degrees and technical or vocational programs in ICT, arts and sciences, business and management, education, engineering, hospitality and tourism management, as well as healthcare. 

Its education centers, meanwhile, offer technical or vocational diplomas, certificates, and short-term courses for computer programming, computer technology, software applications, as well as office administration, among others. – Rappler.com