On 31 July 2018, Bojun Education Company Limited(”Bojun Education”; Stock Code: 1758.HK)was successfully listed in Hong Kong. First Capital Securities Limited (“First Capital Securities”), the wholly-owned subsidiary of China First Capital Group Limited (“CFCG”or the “Group”; Stock code: 1269.HK) acted as joint global coordinator, joint global bookkeeper and joint lead manager of the listing of Bojun Education in Hong Kong. Dr. Wilson Sea, Chairman and executive director of the Board of CFCG, Ms Sun Bo, deputy chief executive officer and Ms Li Minwen, chief operating officer, attended the listing ceremony to congratulate the successful listing of Bojun Education.
Dr. Wilson Sea (third from the right), Chairman and executive director of the Board of CFCG, congratulate the listing of Bojun Education in Hong Kong with his team.
During his speech in the listing ceremony, Mr. Xiong Tao, Chairman cum executive director of Bojun Education said: “Today is a very important day for Bojun Education and also marks an important international milestone. As a private educational service group in Chengdu Capital Management District, Tianfu New District, Sichuan, China, we are honored while deeply feel the heavy responsibility. With the geographical advantage of Bojun Education, we will continue to provide quality private education service, maintain and reinforce the market position of the Company in Chengdu, Sichuan. We will take the listing as an opportunity, strictly abide by the listing rules, seize development opportunities, and return investors with better business performance and quality education services to show a more vibrant Bojun Education to the society.”
Mr. Xiong Tao, Chairman cum executive director of Bojun Education delivers his speech at the listing ceremony
In the process of listing in Hong Kong, First Capital Securities mainly undertook the following: assist the Company to introduce cornerstone investors, strengthen market confidence; fully coordinate and arrange international roadshows of the Company, promote the issuance of new shares of the Company, including arranging large-scale promotional conferences, one-on-one reports and interviews of fund houses and media, assisting investors to quickly grasp the market dynamics, understand the development of the Company, explore demands, facilitate the liquidity of the stocks of the Company in the secondary market; organize the work of underwriting groups of investment banks and agencies to contribute to the successful listing of the Company.
The response to the subscription of Shares of Bojun Education was overwhelming, with the application for subscription being 237.71 times (of the total number of Shares initially available for subscription). The upper limit of issue price was HK$2.36, with public offering of 100 million shares and international placement of 100 million shares. The stock price on the first day of listing was good, opening at HK$2.75, with the highest at HK$3.03 and closed at HK$2.87, which was 21.6% higher than the listing price of HK$2.36, involving a total of HK$723 million.
Bojun Education is the leading private education service group in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. With 16 years of experience in private education services and solid source of students and quality education standards, in terms of revenue, Bojun Education ranks second in the private junior high school education sector in Chengdu and ranks fifth in the pre-school education sector in Chengdu, accounting for approximately 5.2% and 0.5% respectively in the 2016/2017 school year and approximately 6.6% and 0.4% respectively in the 2017/2018 school year. At present, Bojun Education operated one junior and senior high school in Chengdu, two junior high schools and six kindergartens, successfully realized the plan for private education and the expansion strategy towards K-12.
After the listing of Bojun Education, 95% of the proceeds will be used to develop 6 schools, 5% will be used as working capital and for general corporate purposes. A total of 4 schools from primary school to high school will be established. 28% of the proceeds will be used for establishing Nanjiang Bojun School (南江博駿公學), 28% for Wangcang Bojun School (旺蒼博駿公學), 9% for Chengdu Bojun School (成都博駿公學) and 5% for Lezhi School (樂至學校). Another 22% will be used to establish high school of Tianfu School (天府學校高中部), and 3% to establish a private international school from grade 7-12 in California, U.S. In the face of industry competition, Mr. Xiong Tao said that the Group has arrangements to run schools in the U.S., and also plans to expand outside the U.S., such as Europe, especially U.K.
Bojun Education has made great efforts to establish internationalized schools for the future, reflecting its foreseeable long-term growth potential. Bojun School is a showcase of this. The public school commonly known generally refers to British aristocratic schools, with Eton College and Harrow School being the most famous. Heavily drawing from the features of British public schools, with the Chinese traditional education as its essence, Bojun Public School is created as a high-end private school with the features of internationalization, refined quality and individuality.
At present, in addition to Chengdu, Bojun schools are established in Bazhong (巴中) and Guangyuan (廣元), and all three schools will open concurrently in September this year. Of which especially remarkable is team of “all-star principals” of the highest standards in Chengdu, including the renowned education experts Duan Bicong (段必聰) and He Ling (何靈). The curriculum system of Bojun school is characterized by “one curriculum, two strengths” (一生一課表,兩走兩擅長). Through the personalized curriculum design of “Integrating China and West, arts and sciences” (融貫中西、文理並蓄), each student can achieve independent and full development. Today's Bojun School is like a sapling which looks immature, but is full of limitless vitality and vigor.
In 2016, CFCG entered the education industry, undertaking investment, merger and acquisition of quality education projects under the development strategy of “education + finance”. Driven by the national policy of strongly creating a “talents highland” in recognition of Sichuan Province as a major education province and high consumption level of the education market in Chengdu of Sichuan, Wuxi Guolian First Capital Equity Investment Fund Centers (無錫國聯首控股權投資基金中心), with First Capital Fund Management Company Limited, the wholly-owned subsidiary of CFCG, as its manager, participated in the investment of Bojun Education, accounting for 25% of its pre-IPO share capital and 18.75% of its enlarged issued share capital after listing (assuming the over-allotment option was not exercised). After two years of careful cultivation, CFCG is more optimistic about the market position and future development of Bojun Education in Chengdu. Through its advantage in resources integration in the education industry, CFCG also provides support to Bojun Education in various areas such as financial support, management standards, consultation on listing and college cooperation.
In the future, fully capitalizing on its leading role in the education industry, CFCG will serve more educational institutions through more resources and capabilities, deeply explore opportunities under the education industry market, combine the advantages of Chinese and overseas education to promote the development of innovative business models, contributing to the development of private education in China.