China New Higher Education was initiated covered by Essence International Securities with “Buy” Rating and a Target Price of HKD8.00

(20 October 2017, Hong Kong) China New Higher Education Group Limited (“China New Higher Education”, together with its subsidiaries, “the Group”, stock code: 2001.HK) was initiated covered by Essence International Securities with “Buy” rating and a target price of HKD8.00. Essence International Securities suggested that, accumulating nearly two decades experience on education, China New Higher Education has become the leading company in the private applied science higher education group.
 
Essence International Securities mentioned that, the graduate employment rate of the group was more than 98% in 2014 to 2016, and far higher than the industry average. The total number of students in the school has reached 54,000, with year-on-year growth of 17%. Under the industry's optimistic outlook, the future profit growth of the Group will come from the increase in tuition fees while the overall scale will be enhanced through mergers and acquisitions, as well as self-built. Essence International Securities expected the Group's net profit growth from FY2017 to FY2019 to be RMB240 million, RMB340 million and RMB410 million respectively.
 
Based on the factors including gradual liberalization of policies, the development of private capital investment, the upward trend of the future industry tuition, the stable performance, the high company transparency, Essence International Securities was optimistic in the long-run of higher education and the future development of China New Higher Education, and initiated a "Buy" rating with a target price of HKD8.00, up 66% from current prices.