Create a new integrated ecosystem of "education + technology + medical care"
HONG KONG, April 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Neusoft Education Technology Co. Limited ("Neusoft Education" or the "Group", stock code: 9616.HK) is pleased to announce the annual results of the Group for the year ended 31 December 2023 (the "Reporting Period").
In 2023, in line with the development trend of China's education informatisation, digitalisation and intelligentisation, Neusoft Education kept on track of connotative development subject to high-quality school operation, strived to build and carry out the 4S characteristic service model, in order to enable client colleges and universities to improve their quality and thus providing diversified services for the lifelong learning, and to provide professional capacity improvement of other institutions and individual learners in the meantime. The group's various businesses maintained steady development, with annual revenue of approximately RMB 1.806 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16.6%; gross profit of approximately RMB 865 million, a year-on-year increase of 29.7%; adjusted net profit attributable to the company's owners was approximately RMB 429 million, a year-on-year increase 12.6%; basic earnings per share were RMB 0.66, a year-on-year increase of 11.9%. The dividend payout ratio was significantly increased in 2023, with the dividend per share increasing by 121.8% year-on-year to 36.6 Hong Kong cents.
Continue to optimize the integration of industry and education and innovate, theformal education business developed steadily. In 2023, the comprehensive strength and brand influence of the three universities operated by Neusoft Education in Dalian, Chengdu and Guangdong had been further improved, attracting more high-quality students while maintaining a high registration rate. The total number of student enrolment in three universities reached nearly 57,000 after the competition of their enrolment, hitting a record high in size. Dalian University received the first prize of national-level teaching achievement award, which is the only national- level teaching achievement that was received in vocational education in Liaoning Province this time. In addition, public data from the employment management system of the education administration department, as of 31 December 2023, the implementation rate of their destination after graduation of the 2023 graduates of Dalian University and Chengdu University both exceeded 95%, and that of Guangdong University reached 90%. This once again demonstrated Neusoft Education's continued high-quality connotative development and innovative integration of industry and education.
Technology empowerment provides strong support and further provide support for the expansion of Two Strategic Businesses. In 2023, following the digital transformation trend of education and the main line of technology empowering education, based on our practice and school-running accumulation of over 20 years in the IT field. The group had researched and developed a series of digital education products and accordingly built comprehensive product portfolio covering platforms, content, software and hardware, which provided a strong support for the expansion of Two Strategic Businesses.
In 2023, Neusoft Education launched the first Meta-Universe Intelligent Healthcare Future Education Platform (元宇宙智慧康养未来教育平台) in China. The company also launched a series of software of Neusoft Education Intelligence Training Systems (东软智汇训练系统) and received widely attention from dozens of universities across the country. Based on the integration and upgrading of original practical training laboratories, Neusoft Education newly launched several practical training laboratories including Driverless Training Laboratory, E-commerce Big Data Training Laboratory and Traffic Big Data Training Laboratory, forming 23 practical training laboratories for ten academic majors. Neusoft Education provided a well-developed integrated solution for practical training of academic majors. To give full play to the advantages of OMO education model, the Group has developed and launched several online education platforms mainly based on Neusoft Education Online around the core or our self-developed products, forming an online and offline education ecology of "online courses + practical training + employment and entrepreneurship". As of 31 December 2023, the number of registered users and course learning users on Neusoft Education Online were over 1.7 million and over 150,000, respectively.
Through cooperation relying on Neusoft Education characteristic 4S product service system, during the Reporting Period, the company sold 112 sets of education platforms and 19 sets of training laboratories to 104 colleges and universities; also, company has deepened the joint establishment cooperation on academic majors of larger scale and higher profit. Neusoft Education has been in cooperation with 62 colleges and universities on joint establishment of industrial colleges and academic majors, with a total of 280 cooperation projects, covering approximately 24,000 students.
In 2023, the Group deepened and expanded the continuing education service business. The 2B training business has obtained more than 70 national, provincial, and municipal training base qualifications, and implemented 166 2B training programmes for 70 institutions in 20 provincial regions across the country, covering approximately 25,000 trainees, more than three times of the number of trainees in 2022. The Group continued to expand the brand radiation of 2C training business and the mode of OMO delivery, which provided training services for approximately 25,000 trainees. In addition, the Group has successfully been approved as one of the first batch of pilot units for the construction of a national-level university for the elderly and co-construction units of National Elderly University.
Policy support has been stepped up, and the future of the industry is promising. Driven by the country's vigorous implementation of the educational digitalisation strategy, vocational education has ushered in multiple favorable policies. The growing rapidly "silver economy" is giving birth to a broad market space for health care and elderly education. Facing the future, the Group will build a new integrated ecosystem of "education + technology + medical care" and is committed to becoming China's leading education and health technology innovation service provider. The Group will strengthen the main business, the formal education business, establishing a cluster of advantageous majors focusing on "IT + Digital Media + Smart Elderly Care" to cultivate high-quality digital talents who possess a sense of social responsibility, innovative spirit, international vision and strong practical ability. Expand Two Strategic Businesses, the output of educational resources and continuing education services, build an intelligent education platform, a digital creative platform and an intelligent health care platform that integrates both 2B and 2C training services, innovate and improve product and service solutions based on the 4S service model, develop and optimise various educational resources, aiming to drive the scale development of Two Strategic Businesses. Actively expand the fields of elderly education and elderly health care, closely integrate the personalized needs of the elderly in the fields of learning, socialization and health, and create a new model of elderly education with the characteristic "LIFECARES", forming an innovative ecosystem in which education, medical care and elderly care are highly interactive, shared and integrated.
