Thai International School Worth Nearly $1.35 Billion Turns Singapore CEO Into Millionaire

SINGAPORE – A growing number of wealthy Chinese leaving their homeland has benefited a school operator listed on Thailand’s only stock exchange, making its chief executive a millionaire.

Demand for Chinese students attending SISB, originally called the Singapore International School of Bangkok, surged, with enrollments in March more than doubling year-on-year.

That boosted the school’s share price by 216% over the past 12 months, making it one of the best-performing global education services stocks this year with a market value of at least US$500 million (S$676.6 million), according to data. became one. Compiled by Bloomberg News.

SISB CEO Kelvin Coe owns about a 32% stake in the company, which has been valued at about $300 million by Bloomberg calculations.

Koh said Thailand has become a popular destination for Chinese parents because of its geographical proximity to home and the low cost of living compared to other places such as Singapore.

“What we’ve seen is that people are unhappy and leave the system,” Koh said of some Chinese students in a recent video interview from Bangkok. “We have a Singaporean brand and the leaders here have an Asian mindset. I think the culture itself is very close to the Chinese. one of the biggest beneficiaries of

SISB, which offers a Singaporean curriculum focused on mathematics and science, had 3,284 students on its four campuses in March, up about 25% year-on-year, according to the company’s financial report. Of these, 715 are international students, of whom 68% are Chinese.

The increase in enrollment of Chinese students comes amid the exodus of the wealthy. China lost the most billionaires in the world last year, with 10,800 emigrating out of the country last year, according to New World Wealth, a global data intelligence partner at investment migration consultancy Henley & Partners. An additional 13,500 are expected to retire this year.

Jitra Amorntham, an analyst at FSS International Investment Advisory Securities in Bangkok, said last month in a research report on SISB that China’s restrictions on the Western European school system have prevented children from receiving an international education. Chinese parents are looking abroad, he said.

SISB posted a profit of 159 million baht (S$6.15 million) in the first quarter, more than doubling from the same period last year. Two new campuses will open in August, bringing the total to six.

SBI Thai Online Securities analyst Apichat Lersakhonsiri expects a further significant increase in earnings, especially due to a significant increase in students from China.

“It is highly likely that the company will exceed its target of 3,700 total students in 2023,” Relzakhonsiri said.

SISB’s revenue is derived primarily from tuition fees and ranges from approximately US$12,400 to approximately US$20,800, depending on the age of the child and campus. Meanwhile, the median annual tuition fees for international schools last year were $21,386 in Singapore, $43,100 in New York and $21,758 in London, according to the International School Database.