Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited (NYSE: BEDU) reported Q1 EPS of $0.25, $0.02 worse than the analyst estimate of $0.27. Revenue for the quarter came in at $156.16 million versus the consensus estimate of $154.01 million.

"We are very pleased with the tremendous progress we continue to make as we transform and scale Bright Scholar to better serve the evolving needs of our students in a fast-changing education industry," said Jerry He, Executive Vice Chairman of Bright Scholar. "The strategic investments we made across our business segments in the past years have given us a strong start in the 2020 fiscal year. We scaled our business significantly with acquired business contributed to over RMB315 million in revenue and RMB46 million in adjusted EBITDA in the first fiscal quarter of 2020. Revenue from domestic K-12 schools only accounted for less than 61% of our total revenue in the first fiscal quarter of 2020. The impact is transformational as these acquisitions also served as catalysts to expand our geographic footprint, portfolio, and organization, as well as business opportunities."

"In the 2020 fiscal year, we remain firmly focused on 3 fronts. First, capitalize on synergistic opportunities from our domestic and overseas acquired business. Second, continue our organic growth initiatives in optimizing operational efficiency, accelerating ramp up to improve utilization and broadening our service offerings. Third, continue to pursue strategic investments domestically and overseas. We are fully committed to delivering sustainable long-term value for our students, employees, shareholders and stakeholders."

"We are off to a very strong start in the first fiscal quarter. Our overall revenue grew by 69.0% and operating income grew by 46.7% year over year," said Derek Feng, Chief Executive Officer of Bright Scholar. "More importantly, the revenue and operating income of our China based operations, including domestic K-12 schools and complementary education services grew 29.1% and 39.3% year over year respectively. The adjusted SG&A of headquarter(7) as % of total revenue declined by 2.6% year over year. These are the early results from the operational improvement initiatives that we started last year. Meanwhile, as we expand our business to reduce risk exposure to domestic K-12 related regulations as well as enhance competitive advantages, our overall margin profile is also changing in the near term driven by the different cost structure of the acquired overseas business. However, we have a number of operating initiatives underway including setting up shared-service centre in the UK to achieve both revenue and cost synergies among all our business segments that will enhance the overall margin over time."

GUIDANCE FOR FISCAL YEAR ENDING AUGUST 31, 2020

The Company reaffirms its guidance for the 2020 fiscal year and expects its revenue to be in a range of RMB4.0 billion and RMB4.1 billion for the 2020 fiscal year, representing a year-over-year growth of 56% to 60%, and its average student enrollment to be between approximately 53,200 and 53,600, representing a year-over-year increase of 14% to 15%. The Company also expects to open seven new kindergartens for the 2020 fiscal year.

This guidance is based on the current market and operating conditions and reflects the Company\'s current and preliminary estimates of such market and operating conditions and market demand, which are all subject to change.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Bright Scholar Education Holdings Limited (BEDU) click here.