Mumbai: Looking at the robust business environment in which all its segments are growing at triple digits, Educomp Solutions, India’s largest e-education service provider for kindergarten to class 12, has upped its net profit guidance for the current fiscal to Rs65-70 crore, against Rs60-65 crore earlier. Revenue target is maintained at Rs 240 crore.

Educomp has three main revenue streams - Smartclass, its digital classroom education content, ICT solutions, under which it manages computer labs in government schools, and professional development (teacher training). It has recently entered into e-learning and school management.

The company has upped its flagship Smartclass target to 825 schools by March, from 750 earlier. Last quarter Educomp had raised guidance for taking its ICT (information communication technology) practice to 8,000 schools by March, against 7,000 announced earlier (up 14%).

Educomp on Monday announced its October-December quarter results. Its revenues rose 159% to Rs71.52 crore from the same quarter last year. Net profit rose 132% on-year to Rs 19crore. Operating profit margin stood at 46.7%.

Smartclass is the flagship brand of the company, accounting for almost 60% of the revenues. Smartclass revenues rose 139% on-year to Rs25 crore. “Our Smartclass orderbook is at Rs383 crore, which will accrue to us over the next 3-5 years,” chief executive officer Shantanu Prakash told analysts. Margins in the business are about 55%.

Educomp’s ICT revenues trebled to Rs24 crore. It manages computer labs of over 6,000 schools now and is in the fray for another 7,200. “We are in the race for Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka government order which would add about 7,200 schools to our list. Our ICT order book stands at Rs 190 crore,” Prakash said. ICT accounts for about a quarter of revenues.

Educomp, through its 69% subsidiary, Edu Infra, has entered the physical school infrastructure segment and hopes to have five schools operational by March. The target for 2011 and 2012 is 100 and 150 schools respectively. It recently signed an agreement with Ansal group under which it would get fully built structures. It has a similar deal with DLF.

“Between Ansal & DLF, we currently have visibility of about 60 schools. We are working on more tie-ups,” he said.

Educomp’s other retail face is e-learning, where it sells education package for math, christened Mathsguru. It added 14,000 subscribers during the quarter, taking the number to about 30,000 paying students. Its earlier target of 35,000 by March is also certain to be exceeded. It plans to launch similar package for science - called scienceguru. The division’s revenues rose a 225% on-year to Rs 6.4 crore.

 

Source : Dna