Education

Chinese online tutor gets lesson in multiplication

29 May 2020

GSX Techedu deflected one sloppy short-seller attack and a second sensational one. A third from Muddy Waters calling the $7 bln company a fraud hit as Luckin buckled and Congress moved on U.S.-listed Chinese stocks. Growing scepticism will require targets to have strong defences.

The Exchange: Vaccine optimist

26 May 2020

Lloyd Minor, the dean of Stanford’s school of medicine, tells Rob Cox that research into the coronavirus shows promising signs for the discovery of a vaccine. Just the same, the world needs to better prepare for pandemics, and medicine is at the cusp of extraordinary change.

M&A bankers should consider going back to college

8 May 2020

Not for the frat parties. Even before the pandemic, demographics were working against the economics of higher education. Crunched finances make it worse, and online learning has exposed absurd tuition costs. Colleges seeking size, scale and stability will need strategic advice.

Corona Capital: Corporate debt

3 April 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Despite uncertainty, investors have big appetites for investment-grade bonds.

Corona Capital: Dining bonds

20 March 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Restaurant industry cooks up a unique form of funding to help alleviate revenue wipeout.

Holding: Governance brawl a boon for stakeholders

10 March 2020

Attorney Martin Lipton and Harvard’s Lucian Bebchuk are at it again, with the latter saying company pledges to serve the greater good are illusory. Lipton counters that firms really are moving past shareholder primacy. At least the debate could benefit all corporate constituents.

Blackstone bets big on Boris British housing hedge

26 February 2020

The private equity giant is buying iQ Student Accommodation for $6 bln from Goldman Sachs in what it calls the biggest private UK real estate deal ever. It’s a play not on whether Brexit is a boom or a bust – but rather the continuing global allure of a proper English education.

M&A bird in hand not always better than nothing

14 February 2020

Education software company Instructure’s board recommended a $1.8 bln buyout shareholders are unlikely to support, after initially backing a lower one. The board now looks hasty and out of touch. It shows why some bid targets, like printer-maker HP, prefer to play hard-to-get.

Pearson’s excuses are running thin

16 January 2020

The publisher’s shares hit a 12-year low after it said 2019 operating profit would miss forecasts. CEO John Fallon and his finance chief, who are both leaving, switched focus from paper textbooks to digital ones. Their replacements will have to work out how to make that succeed.

Gojek founder can re-route Indonesia’s rough ride

12 November 2019

Growth slipped to a disappointing 5% and the outlook is glum, with 55% of students ending school barely literate. That’s a bigger challenge for new education minister Nadiem Makarim than Jakarta traffic. This long haul would benefit from entrepreneurial and pragmatic direction.

MAGA mindset proves toxic for U.S. soft power

24 October 2019

The latest index of countries’ persuasiveness ranks Trump’s America fifth, down from top three years ago and pipped for fourth by Sweden. Washington’s image is so poor it outweighs the halo around U.S. tech, education and the like. Military might and economic heft only go so far.

Tech riches bypass San Francisco African-Americans

22 October 2019

The city is bursting with billionaires and boasts a jobless rate of just 2.3%. Yet black residents’ median annual incomes are only a quarter of what whites take home. Many factors are to blame, but Silicon Valley could do much more to reduce the inequities.

College football learns to play by market rules

3 October 2019

Young U.S. athletes generate $1 bln in revenue for their governing body – yet their rewards are tightly capped. When demand is high and the supply of elite talent low, as in football, something has to give. A new California law is a nod to what other industries realized long ago.

Abolishing UK private schools would be export blow

27 September 2019

Britain’s Labour Party will clamp down on non-state education if it wins power. That would scare off overseas students who add 1.7 bln pounds a year to UK GDP. With exports of financial services and cars under threat from Brexit, it’s income the country can ill afford to lose.

Indian learning startup is envy of its class

11 July 2019

Byju’s fundraise values it at $5.7 bln, a 50% jump in seven months. A sturdy business model is why new backers include A-grade investors like Qatar. U.S. and British parents may spend proportionately less on education but that need not slow growth as the group expands overseas.

U.S. curb on China research runs technology risk

8 July 2019

The Trump administration is putting more Chinese universities on blacklists, making it risky for American entities to work with them. Concern about academic spying for Beijing is valid, but discouraging ties with a leader in fields like AI and biotech can hurt U.S. capabilities.

Canada’s student flat deal hedges its UK bets

3 July 2019

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has sold university housing player Liberty Living to Unite Group for 1.4 billion pounds. The seller’s small premium is offset by the buyer’s synergies. CPPIB gets to cash out, but a 20% stake creates upside if student inflows endure.

Schwarzman’s Oxford gift widens UK university gulf

19 June 2019

The Blackstone founder is giving 150 mln pounds to the 900-year-old institution for a humanities centre bearing his name. Oxford and other top universities already outspend less prestigious peers. Weaker players will have to borrow more to keep up, increasing their vulnerability.

Chinese vocational school IPO taps job anxiety

5 June 2019

China East Education has raised $625 mln in Hong Kong, valuing it at $3.1 bln. Beijing’s push to retrain millions of laid-off workers could boost its bottom line, but the market is fragmented, and earnings are volatile. This price implies very optimistic growth expectations.

Online tutor puts U.S. love of China IPOs to test

31 May 2019

Chinese companies have pitched themselves in New York as a bet on rising consumption, insulated from trade ructions. But poor performances of Luckin Coffee and others have tempered enthusiasm. That means even profitable ones like education upstart GSX may fail to make the grade.