Malvern upbeat on trading as market remains tough

Learning and skills development specialist Malvern International updated the market on its trading on Thursday, reporting that ‘University Pathways’ deposits for the September intake of the 2021-2022 academic year were currently ahead of the prior year.

The AIM-traded firm, which was holding its annual general meeting, said that in light of Covid-19, the UK government had extended concessions around student visa rules until April 2022, which allowed online studies to qualify for post-study work rights.

However, with the current restrictions in place for international travel, Malvern said it could reasonably expect some delays to student starts to January 2022.

The group said its first cohort of NCUK students were due to start in September, adding that it had appointed an academic manager, “setting the foundations for growth” in 2022.

In addition, to support recruitment for NCUK and other areas of the business, it reported progress establishing a China sales presence, developing a website and appointing its first regional sales manager, with a second to follow.

“Provisional bookings for English language training (ELT) are encouraging, notwithstanding the current climate, particularly from the Middle East, and should continue to build as travel restrictions are eased,” the board said in its statement.

“However, the timing of individual course start dates remains dependent on each nation's approach to the reopening of its borders.

“A number of students quarantining in the UK upon arrival have elected to commence their language course online.”

Malvern said its schools were currently running at an average 20% of pre-pandemic levels, in line with management expectations.

Its Brighton centre was relaunched earlier in July, leveraging existing agent relationships built-up over a number of years in its Manchester and London centres.

“This approach has generated immediate results through an increase in bookings and enquiries.

“We believe the easing of travel restrictions is likely to be followed by a period of strong demand from students who have either delayed course starts or resume their education.”

Malvern said that, due to anticipated international border issues, it did not budget for any summer camps in 2021, although smaller groups may be possible in August if quarantine requirements for amber countries were dropped.

“Pleasingly, before our plans for camps for this summer were put on hold, we received a significant number of bookings which points to a strong demand for our product.

“Our expectation is that this demand will return in the mid-to long-term when the border restrictions are relaxed.

“Financing activities in April, along with strong cost-control measures and the expected further relaxation of border restrictions in the short- to mid-term, should provide sufficient liquidity and flexibility to allow the company to manage through the period of any further disruption caused by Covid-19, and to contribute to planned growth initiatives.”

Malvern International said it would publish its interim results for the six months ended 30 June in August.

At 1308 BST, shares in Malvern International were up 3.88% at 0.26p.