Nord Anglia Education Updates FY2015 Outlook

HONG KONG, Feb. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Nord Anglia Education, Inc. (NYSE: NORD), the world's leading premium schools organization, today announced that it is revising its full year fiscal 2015 guidance to reflect the impact of the British International Schools Group, Vietnam, which is expected to join Nord Anglia Education's network of schools in March 2015.

The British International Schools Group, Vietnam

The British International Schools Group, Vietnam ("BIS Vietnam") comprises four premium schools, two in Ho Chi Minh City and two in Hanoi. The addition of these four schools provides Nord Anglia Education with a market leading position in Vietnam and will expand the group's global network to a total of 35 international schools, providing outstanding education to over 23,600 students across 14 countries.

In connection with the transaction and for general corporate purposes, Nord Anglia Education expects to incur an additional US$125 million of incremental loans under its senior secured term loan facility. Nord Anglia Education's pro forma net leverage at November 30, 2014 including BIS Vietnam and the US$125 million incremental term loans would have been 3.6x Adjusted EBITDA.

Additional information can be found in a separate press release issued February 13, 2015 announcing the transaction, as well as a supplemental lender presentation which can be found on our website, ir.nordanglia.com.

Updated Fiscal 2015 Outlook

Nord Anglia Education is updating its previously issued full year fiscal 2015 guidance to reflect the impact of the BIS Vietnam transaction. Nord Anglia Education expects BIS Vietnam to be accretive to earnings in fiscal 2015.

Nord Anglia Education's prior and revised full year fiscal 2015 guidance for Revenue, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Diluted EPS is set out in the table below:

The Company expects diluted weighted average shares for fiscal 2015 of approximately 98 million shares.

The updated guidance set out above does not include the impact of any further unannounced acquisitions in fiscal 2015. However, Nord Anglia Education may complete further acquisitions during fiscal 2015.

Nord Anglia Education notes that the BIS Vietnam transaction is subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions. There is no assurance that the closing conditions will be satisfied.

Receipt of SEC Comment on Form 20-F 

Nord Anglia Education has received a comment from the SEC in respect of the company's annual report on form 20-F for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2014 requesting the company to revise its presentation of cost of sales to include property-related costs, depreciation and amortization rather than classifying such items as expenses. This change, if adopted, would not affect revenue, operating profit, profit for the period, earnings per share, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income or adjusted earnings per share and would not affect the financial covenants under the company's senior secured term loan facility. The company intends to respond to the SEC's comment and will provide additional information following the completion of the SEC's review.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes statements that express our current opinions, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or projections regarding future events or future results and therefore are, or may be deemed to be, "forward looking statements". These forward looking statements can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "believe," "expect," "may," "will," "should," "seek," "project," "approximately," "intend," "plan," "estimate" or "anticipate," or, in each case, their negatives or other variations or comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements include all matters that are not historical facts. They appear in a number of places throughout this press release and include statements regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning among other things, our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the industry in which we operate.

By their nature, forward-looking statements relate to events that involve risks and uncertainties or that depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. We believe that these risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those under "Risk Factors" in our most recent annual report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC.

Although we base these forward-looking statements on assumptions that we believe are reasonable when made, we caution you that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and that our actual results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth, strategies and the development of the industry in which we operate may differ materially from those made in or suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. In addition, even if our results of operations, financial condition, liquidity, prospects, growth strategies and the development of the industry in which we operate, are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this report, those results or developments may not be indicative of results or developments in subsequent periods. Given these risks and uncertainties, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement that we make in this press release speaks only as of the date of such statement, and we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any of those statements to reflect future events or developments.

Non-GAAP Supplemental Financial Measures

We use EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Ordinary Share as supplemental financial measures of our operating performance. These measures are not standard measures under IFRS and should not be considered in isolation or construed as alternatives to cash flows, profit, earnings per share or any other measure of financial performance or as indicators of our operating performance, liquidity, profitability or cash flows generated by operating, investing or financing activities. We define EBITDA as (loss)/profit for the period plus income tax expense, net financing (expense)/income, exceptional items, impairment of goodwill, amortization and depreciation, and we define Adjusted EBITDA as EBITDA plus any loss/(gain) on disposal of PP&E, management fees paid to our sponsor, foreign exchange (gains)/losses and share based payments. We consider this a more directly comparable supplemental financial measure for evaluating the performance of our business. We define Adjusted Net Income as Adjusted EBITDA less depreciation, net financing expense, income tax expense and tax adjustments for the impact of the exclusion of exceptional items and amortization in calculating Adjusted Net Income. We define Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Ordinary Share as Adjusted Net Income for the period divided by the weighted average diluted ordinary shares outstanding for the period. Nord Anglia Education is not able to provide a reconciliation of projected non-GAAP financial measures to expected reported results due to the uncertainty of the reported line items referred to above. For further information regarding Nord Anglia Education's non-GAAP financial measures, please refer to the company's report on form 6-K filed with the SEC on January 14, 2015.   

EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Ordinary Share presented herein may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies. 

About Nord Anglia Education, Inc.

Nord Anglia Education is the world's leading international operator of premium schools, serving students from kindergarten through the end of secondary school (K-12). We teach over 20,200 FTEs at our 31 premium schools in China, Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia and North America. We primarily operate in geographic markets with high foreign direct investment, large expatriate populations and rising disposable income. We believe that these factors contribute to high demand for premium schools and strong growth in our business. Nord Anglia Education is headquartered in Hong Kong SAR, China. Our website is www.nordanglia.com.

For further information, please contact:
Investors:
Vanessa Cardonnel
Corporate Finance and Investor Relations Director - Nord Anglia Education
Tel: +852 3951 1130
Email: [email protected]
Kevin Doherty
Managing Director, Investor Relations - Solebury Communications Group LLC
Tel: +1 203 428 3233
Email: [email protected]
Media:
Sarah Doyle
Head of Brand – Nord Anglia Education
Tel: +852 3951 1144
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Nord Anglia Education, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.nordangliaeducation.com