Mumbai : Tree House Education and Accessories Limited (‘Tree House”), which runs quality pre-schools and also provides educational services to K-12 schools throughout India, posted a 31.54% growth in its net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2012 (Q3 FY13) amounting to Rs. 8.05 crore. The total revenue grew by 33.85% to Rs. 30.37 crore during Q3 FY13. The EBITDA for Q3 FY13 grew 42% to Rs. 17.61 crore. The EBITDA margin for Q3 FY13 was 57.98% and the net profit margin was 26.51%.

On a YTD FY2013 basis, Tree House posted total revenue of Rs. 90.27 crore, up y-o-y by 56.44% and a net profit of Rs. 26 crore, up y-o-y by 56.43%. The EBITDA was Rs. 53.01 crore up y-o-y by 57.11%.

Tree House had a net addition of 40 pre-schools in Q3 FY 2013 and the total number of centres as of December 31, 2012, was 349 across 38 cities. Out of this, the number of self-operated centres was 278 with the ratio of self-operated to total pre-schools standing at 79.6%. It provides school management services to 23 K-12 schools in 3 states. The total staff strength as of Q3 FY 2013 was 1,529, showing a net addition of 79 in the quarter. The total teacher strength was 1,453, representing a net addition of 74 teachers in the quarter. The teaching staff increased by 5.3% in the quarter due to higher student intake across centres.

The year-on-year (Q3 FY 2013 vs Q3 FY2012) revenue growth in same self-operated pre-school centres has been 31%. As announced in the previous quarters, preschools started in the last 9 months are performing as per expectations. The Tree House brand is now well accepted in the new geographies Tree House penetrated this calendar year. Tree House will soon be a significant player in the preschool segment in Ranchi, Patna, Nagpur and Guwahati. Admissions have started for the academic year 2013-14 and good traction in enrollments witnessed in the previous quarter continues to be seen in this quarter too.

Commenting on the Q3 FY13 performance, Mr. Rajesh Bhatia, Promoter and Managing Director, Tree House Education and Accessories Limited, said “Tree House has achieved 56.44% growth in net profit for the nine months ended December 31, 2012. This is in line with our guidance provided at the beginning of the year. With the general pickup in the overall economy, we are seeing good uptick in admissions for the next academic year 2013-14. The K-12 division is also performing in line with our internal projections and all the schools managed by us have shown good traction in new enrollments. The Tree House brand is getting more entrenched in the cities, we operate in and as a result we are seeing parents securing admissions earlier than before, which increases visibility in the business. We remain committed to our mission to build a truly unique Company, which will create value for our shareholders for years to come.”

MT Educare Limited’s pre-school division “Global Champs” comprising six self-operated centres located at Mumbai and Pune have been merged into Tree House in a seamless manner at the operational level as well as cultural integration, human resource engagement and academic excellence. All necessary approvals have been received and the transaction stands completed.

Tree House plans to launch pre-schools under the brand Global Champs. These pre-schools would be available at very affordable fees and will cater specifically to children of the urban lower income group, who aspire for quality pre-school education in safe environment for their children. Tree House plans to start 6 such pre-schools by June 2013. Under the Global Champs brand umbrella, Tree House will be launching teacher training courses specifically tailored towards creating teachers for the Global Champs pre-schools. These courses would be targeted specifically at the urban lower income group with focus on regional language proficiency as core basis of evaluation to the said program.