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Sponsored – Impartial – Comprehensive
October 18, 2022
M. Marin
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EpicQuest Education
(EEIQ-NASDAQ)
EEIQ: Collaborations Further
Diversification Strategy; Rebounding
Attendance – Positive Implications
EEIQ continues to advance its strategy to diversify and boost revenue and expand its presence in key markets. Through its growing O&O initiative and other measures, the company provides a broad – and growing
Current Price (10/17/22)
$1.00
Valuation
$10.00
OUTLOOK
A recent corporate name change to EpicQuest Education Group International was implemented to better reflect EEIQ’s international expansion & other growth initiatives. Several collaborations signed with international organizations in recent months – and potentially additional ones in the near-term – advance EEIQ’s goals of further internationalization through cross-border academic partnerships to offer its students opportunities for global learning and to attract a geographically diverse student base and expand the company’s geographic reach.
SUMMARY DATA
52-Week High
$4.68
52-Week Low
$0.80
One-Year Return (%)
-17.92
Beta
N/A
Average Daily Volume (sh)
13,571
Shares Outstanding (mil)
10
Market Capitalization ($mil)
$10
Short Interest Ratio (days)
N/A
Institutional Ownership (%)
0
Insider Ownership (%) *
N/A
Annual Cash Dividend
N/A
Dividend Yield (%)
N/A
5-Yr. Historical Growth Rates
Sales (%)
N/A
Earnings Per Share (%)
N/A
Dividend (%)
N/A
P/E using TTM EPS
N/A
P/E using 2022 Estimate
N/A
P/E using 2023 Estimate
N/A
*Includes CEO’s corp. holdings
Risk Level
Above Avg.
Type of Stock
Small-Growth
Industry
Edu & Training Svcs
ZACKS ESTIMATES
Revenue
(in millions of $)
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Year
(Dec)
(Mar)
(Jun)
(Sep)
(Sep)
2019
$8.7 A
2020
$9.1 A
2021
$3.1 A
$5.3 A
2022
$4.1 A
$7.3 E
Per Share Data
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Year
(Mar)
(Jun)
(Sep)
(Dec)
(Dec)
2019
$0.26
A
2020
$0.13
A
2021
-$0.04 A
-$0.12
A
2022
-$0.23 A
$0.02
E
Quarters might not sum due to rounding & share counts Disclosures on page 13
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WHAT’S NEW? NEW NAME REFLECTS GROWTH & INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES
Providing broad-based educational programming options to a growing base of students …
EpicQuest Education Group International Limited (Nasdaq: EEIQ), formerly Elite Education Group International Limited, changed its corporate name recently to better reflect its international expansion, inclusiveness and growth initiatives. The company has launched several new growth initiatives over the past few quarters to diversify and boost revenue and expand its presence in key markets, particularly the U.S. and Canada. The company provides a broad range of educational solutions for domestic and international students who are interested in pursuing college, university and career training programs in the company’s key target markets.
The company enacted its corporate name change to EpicQuest Education to accurately reflect its focus on expanding its target market to include domestic and international students and to provide a broader spectrum of educational support to assist students to pursue academic and career training studies. The company expects to continue to expand its academic programming offerings over time. Through recent investments (see below) in Davis College and EduGlobal College, EpicQuest has become an owner and operator (O&O) of for-profit colleges and has expanded its offerings of pathway programs, including through collaborations with colleges and universities around the world. These collaborations reflect EpicQuest Education’s initiatives to develop cross-border relationships and make strategic acquisitions to establish itself as an international service provider of a broad variety of higher learning programs.
These goals were behind the company’s step to purchase 80% of the equity of EduGlobal College, based in British Columbia, Canada, which focuses on English proficiency educational programming for students pursuing academic degrees, and the right to a controlling equity ownership position in Davis College, a career training college located in Toledo, Ohio. The company believes this expansion of its strategy enhances its ten year recruiting relationship with the regional campuses of Miami University of Ohio where it maintains residential facilities, a full-service cafeteria, recreational facilities, shuttle buses and an office for the regional campuses that provides study abroad and post-study services for its students.
Reflecting its recent initiatives aimed at broadening its markets and businesses and adding to its legacy Miami University (MU) recruiting relationship, the company’s operating footprint has expanded and is significantly more diversified than it was pre-pandemic. Over time, EpicQuest expects that roughly half of its revenue will be generated from recently initiated operations such as Davis College and EduGlobal College. The company’s strategic diversification goals include owning the businesses that it operates.
Thus, Davis and EduGlobal are both effectively owned and operated (O&O) by EpicQuest, as well as becoming more global in terms of both the students it serves and the academic institutions with which it works. The company is seeking more opportunities for its expansion strategy, including additional acquisitions. As EpicQuest continues to add to its O&O footprint with additional M&A transactions, the company expects newer businesses are likely to comprise substantially more than half of total revenue.
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EpicQuest seeks to have its O&O colleges, Davis College and EduGlobal College, become more globally connected with students and other institutions in multiple international markets. Towards the goal of becoming a global provider of educational services, Davis College recently signed several non-binding MOUs (memoranda of understanding) with other institutions of higher education.
Recently signed MOUs & agreements
The many MOUs and agreements EpicQuest has signed in recent months further its goals of further internationalization through cross-border academic partnerships to offer its students opportunities for global learning and to attract a geographically diverse student base. Through its various agreements with other international education institutions, the company has expanded its reach into markets including Sri Lanka, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and within China. We anticipate additional announcements in the coming months that further diversify the company’s international expansion activities.
To address a few of these potential collaborations, Davis College and EduGlobal College recently signed an MOU with ICBT Campus of Sri Lanka, expanding the company’s reach into that market. Earlier the company signed MOUs with Holy Cross of Davao College (HCDC) in Davao City, Davao del Sur, Philippines and with China’s Anhui Business College. HCDC is a Catholic private college administered by the Archdiocese of Davao that offers undergraduate and graduate degrees. The two academic institutions plan to cooperate in academics, as well as to explore ways to set up exchange programs and collaborative research / study opportunities.
Anhui Business College is a state-runfull-timethree-year vocational college located in Wuhu, Anhui Province, China. The MOU is for the two companies to develop a framework to cooperate on higher education projects, student exchange programs, and enrollment in dual degree programs to obtain diplomas from both Davis College and Anhui Business College. The MOU is effective for five years and cancelable by either party with six-month notice.
Davis also signed an agreement for bilateral exchange operations and the development of a program in Interior Design with Chongqing Technology and Business Institute, which is located in Chongqing, China. The agreement will be in place for five years. Chongqing Technology and Business Institute is a full-time college approved by the Ministry of Education of China.
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EpicQuest’s Expanding Offerings
Source: presentation
EpicQuest’s goal is to expand its product and course offerings to include a broad and growing base of career training options. Earlier this year, Davis College added four new academic programs (see below) to expand the range of academic options it offers that conform to its goal to offer a broad and expanding range of academic paths to facilitate students’ career choices and options after graduating. These new programs, as well as existing programs offered by Davis, are designed to teach students marketable skills that enhance their ability to gain employment following graduation.
Davis added the following programs highlighted below. Given rapid changes in global logistics, healthcare and other trends, these sectors are likely to experience rising demand for skilled workers, we believe.
In addition, Davis College has also been approved by the Ohio Department of Higher Education to participate in SARA (the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement), which will enable Davis to provide online education to students in 49 member states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. This includes online delivery of a SARA approved AAB in Business Management delivered digitally.
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EpicQuest’s stake in Davis is consistent with its strategy to acquire academic institutions in order to have direct control over venues included in its program offerings to international students. This strategy has also enabled the company to expand into institutions that offer career-focused programs and services. In turn, this is expected to broaden the company’s target customer base and enhance revenue and accelerate its ability to attain operating scale.
The company also believes that many students enrolled in two-year career training and education venues might want to transfer into traditional universities through ‘transfer pathway’ programs following the completion of the two year programs.
EduGlobal College – focus on English educational proficiency:
Recent Kick-Off Event Launches Pathways Program
EduGlobal College has a partnership with Algoma University to facilitate transfer pathways for international students who want to complete post-secondary studies in Canada through its International Undergraduate Pathways Program (iUPP). The eight-month iUPP offers content-based English language courses and other courses to prepare international students for academic studies at Canadian universities.
In April 2022, EduGlobal launched the pathway program with Algoma University, hosting a kick-off event on its campus at New Westminster, British Columbia that was attended by more than 50 recruitment agents. At the event, industry participants in the education sector discussed recent trends in the international student recruitment space and were able to network.
International students at EduGlobal who have completed iUPP and its English for Academic Purposes (EAP) program, a 36-week intensive English program to enable students to achieve proficiency levels required for admission to Algoma University, are eligible to pursue baccalaureate degrees and graduate certificates at Algoma’s campuses in Brampton and Sault Ste. Marie. The EduGlobal – Algoma program for international students launched this month.
EpicQuest’s goal is to pursue additional expansion opportunities within the Canadian education market. The company believes that Algoma could form the basis for a model that the company can replicate at additional venues to broaden the options it offers international students. EpicQuest will assist with key necessary preparation for academic studies, as it does in its traditional business, including language proficiency.
Career-training education represents opportunity to broaden product & service offering
The Ameri-Can transaction of Davis College also reflects EpicQuest’s expansion of its marketing and service offerings to include students pursuing career training programs. EpicQuest expects the Davis College acquisition will help it to expand its offerings with complementary educational services.
EpicQuest believes it can provide value added services to help students apply for and succeed in career training programs. EpicQuest would be able to offer students from China and other Asian countries a broader set of academic and career-training options.
The acquisitions of the two colleges advance EpicQuest’s goal to provide practical academic programming to a diversified and growing student body to enable them to pursue higher education and fulfill career goals. The expanded services offerings are also expected to expand EpicQuest’s education services target market.
The company intends to develop a diversified student body, as it expands its recruitment and marketing efforts in new geographic markets (see below) and to maintain a hybrid model at both colleges that includes both in-person and online instruction, Moreover, EpicQuest also expects to continue growing this offering and intends to seek additional educational institutions in the US, Canada and the UK to evaluate for potential acquisition.
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Disclaimer
Elite Education Group International Ltd. published this content on 18 October 2022 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 19 October 2022 16:54:59 UTC.
