Today (24th ) 9:00am, MindChamps (stock code: CNE.SI), the largest operator and franchisor of premium-range preschool centres in Singapore, has officially been listed on the SGX mainboard. As the cornerstone investor and strategic partner of MindChamps, Dr. Wilson SEA, the Chairman and Executive Director of China First Capital Group Limited (‘CFCG’, stock code: 1269.hk), was invited to attend the listing ceremony to celebrate.

Celebrating MindChamps' listing on the SGX mainboard

A total of 30,449,600 shares were offered for MindChamps' IPO at a price of S$0.83 per share, of which 28.4496 million shares were placed to institutional investors and qualified investors. This part of the placement was 21.4 times over-subscribed. Another 200 shares were subscribed by public investors and the portion of the offering was 83 times over-subscribed. The total proceeds of this public offering of about 25.27 million Singapore dollars (about 124 million yuan) will be used for business expansions, mainly on acquisitions of kindergartens in China and Australia.

MindChamps, the largest operator and franchisor of premium-range preschool centres in Singapore, offers learning and enrichment programmes for children from 18 months to 6 years old, in the playgroup, nursery and kindergarten levels. In Singapore's high-end private preschool market, MindChamps ranked first with 37.1% market share.

Since its founding in 1998, MindChamps has owned 10 direct centres (6 in Singapore and 4 in Australia) and 42 franchisees (36 in Singapore, 3 in the Philippines, 2 in Australia and 1 in the UAE). In addition, the company also sold 104 franchises to many countries and regions in the world.

In the past few years, the company has achieved scale expansion and revenue growth by exporting brands and franchises. Since 2008, the total number of direct and franchise centres has achieved a compound growth of 51.5%. The average price of licenses to join has also risen to S $150,000 from S$55,000 in the same period. For the past three years (2014-2016), the revenue and net income of the company have achieved a compound annual growth rate of 30.7% and 42.7% respectively.

(From left) David Chiem, founder CEO and executive chairman of MindChamps Preschool Ltd is presenting souvenir to Chew Sutat, executive vice president and head of equities and fixed income, Singapore Exchange

In the future, MindChamps will vigorously expand its franchise business. Apart from Singapore and Australia, China, the United States and the United Kingdom will be their major target markets for global expansion and will actively expand markets in New Zealand, Malaysia, South Korea and Vietnam. David Chiem, founder CEO and executive chairman of MindChamps, said that with a large preschool market in China, MindChamps plans to start a business in Beijing and acquire a number of mid-market kindergartens. It is expected that the company's business growth in China will be very strong. In addition, the company will also expand its business scale through mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures, and will expand its infant care services to launch the ACA Kids series of courses.

Picture of Dr. Wilson Sea (right), Mr. Chew Sutat (middle), Mr. David Chiem (left)

26 October 2017, CFCG, has announced its wholly-owned subsidiary CFCG Investment Partners International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (“CFCG Singapore”) has signed a Cornerstone Subscription Agreement with MindChamps PreSchool (Worldwide) Pte. Limited (“MindChamps PreSchool”) to subscribe 4.99% issued shares of MindChamps PreSchool. The offer price is to be determined by MindChamps PreSchool and CFCG’s related financial commitment shall not exceed SGD11 million (approximately HK$63 million).
According to the Agreement, CFCG Singapore and Hillhouse Capital Management, Ltd. will become exclusive partners of MindChamps PreSchool and will invest in, acquire, build or manage preschools, kindergartens or otherwise engage in any early childhood care or early childhood education businesses under the “MindChamps” brand in Mainland China for a period of no less than 10 years.