Cibt Education Group (MBA) research, news, and more from GeoInvesting

Company description

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT

CIBT is an education management and investment company with a special focus on the global education market. Its subsidiaries, CIBT School of Business & Technology Corp., Tourism Training Institute and Sprott-Shaw Degree College Corp., which is comprised of Sprott-Shaw Degree College, Sprott-Shaw Community College, Sprott-Shaw International Language College, possess a combined operating history of over 118 years in China and Canada's education sectors. CIBT owns and operates a network of 45 business and language colleges with a presence in Canada, China, Vietnam, Jordan and the Philippines. CIBT delivers North American and Chinese accredited business and management degree programs, automotive, and diesel maintenance programs, IT programs, travel and tourism programs and career/vocational programs through its network of campuses across China and Canada. In 2006, CIBT initiated plans to aggressively expand its business presence to over 50 CIBT teaching locations in China by 2010 and to establish schools in other parts of Asia including South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia and India.

Acquisition Activity

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CIBT Education Group Inc. announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of Linkman International Language Institute (�Linkman�). The agreement provides for the purchase funds to be paid into a wholly owned subsidiary of CIBT in Beijing so that the purchase funds may be used by Linkman for working capital purposes while allowing CIBT to have full control of the funds.

Linkman is a language institution in China specializing in English language training for students in primary and secondary school, and professional English for adults. Linkman will become CIBTs launching platform for its language subsidiary, KGIC International College. Linkman will change its name to KGIC English Academy, part of KGICs branding strategy in China, which will provide KGIC with existing brand, business, infrastructure and local and experienced management to cost-effectively springboard its strategy of adding more English training schools in China.

�As CIBT Group�s new division, Global Education Alliance (GEA), is gaining excellent traction in its referral business by sending Chinese students to elite North American kindergarten to grade 12 schools, the acquisition of Linkman is timely, commented by Toby Chu, Vice Chairman President and CEO of CIBT Education Group. �Due to the decades old One-Child Policy in China, many Chinese parents contribute significantly to their only child�s education, with a strong preference to sending their child to study abroad in North America. In recent months, GEA has referred over 50 students to its partner elite schools in Canada and the United States, with ages ranging from 5 to 15 years old, and these students and their parents pay over $25,000 a year in tuition fees and contribute another $25,000 to $30,000 in capital bonds to our partner schools. We are seeing an increasing and significant demand for this sector and the enrollment age is becoming younger. In view of the increasing volume of primary and secondary school enrollment, the need to establish a youth bridging program to overcome the language and culture barriers also increases. For these reasons, a Youth Bridging Program was developed by KGIC, our language school subsidiary with 15 years of experience in this sector. Linkman and other CIBT subsidiaries in China will become the launching platform for the YBP. Since the introduction of our YBP program in March, we have been receiving significant interest from language schools all over China and other parts of Asia. These language schools are interested to offer our YBP to their existing students with a view to sending their young students to our network of elite primary and secondary schools in Canada and the United States. Linkman has an extensive track record in educating young children and its client base consists of many tier one consumer families who are interested in sending their child abroad to our network of academic partners in North America.�

Acquisition Activity

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 05:00:00 GMT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CIBT Education Group Inc. (NYSE MKT: MBA and TSX: MBA) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Letter of Intent with Linkman International Language Institute to acquire shares from treasury representing 95% of all issued and outstanding shares of Linkman at closing. Subject to due diligence, the receipt of all necessary approvals and the satisfaction of other conditions, this acquisition is expected to close within the next eight weeks. Details of the transaction will be announced after closing.

Linkman is a language training institution in China that operates two campuses in the province of Zhejiang, within the cities of Hangzhou and Xiaoshan. They specialize in English language training for students in elementary and middle school, but also train students in high school as well as adults.

CIBT Group plans to utilize Linkman International Language Institute as a launching platform to expand our market from post secondary and career education to younger students enrolled in elementary and middle school English programs, commented Toby Chu, Vice Chairman, President, and CEO of CIBT Education Group Inc. Linkman International Language Institute will change its name to KGIC Linkman English School as part of our Chinese marketing brand strategy. They will serve as our base in our revised strategy for the China market, as we plan on adding more English training schools using the KGIC Linkman brand in China after the acquisition. KGIC has over 17 years of experience in providing adult and children's English training programs, and has educated over 40,000 students since 1996. KGIC Linkman English School will offer KGIC�s proven and well accepted programs to the China market with a special focus on three major areas, namely the TESOL program for English teacher certifications, Children�s English for students from Grades 1 to 12 and the EPE program for improving post-secondary student's English skills to meet and exceed the entry standard of North American colleges and universities. To differentiate ourselves from our competition, CIBT Group has established and will continue to expand its extensive network of partner schools and subsidiary schools around the world to receive our EPE graduates from China. The English training market for younger students in China has shown phenomenal growth over the past few years, which is expected to continue. CIBT Group is planning to expand the services it offers to this market and the acquisition of Linkman is the first step in this strategy that we plan to complete in 2013.

Notable Share Transactions

Tue, 15 May 2012 04:00:00 GMT

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--CIBT Education Group Inc. (NYSE AMEX: MBA) (TSX: MBA) (“CIBT”) reports that the normal course issuer bid (“NCIB”) announced in its news release dated February 15, 2012 has been amended with the approval of the Toronto Stock Exchange. The maximum number of common shares that CIBT intends to purchase under the NCIB has been increased to 3,000,000, representing approximately 4.2% of the 71,571,844 common shares which were outstanding as at the commencement of the NCIB, subject to a maximum aggregate acquisition cost of $1,000,000. In addition, the maximum number of common shares that CIBT may purchase per day has been increased to 4,566 common shares, representing 25% of the average daily trading volume of 18,264 common shares during the six months ending on April 30, 2012. This limitation does not apply to “block trade purchases”, which are purchases of (1) shares having a purchase price of at least $200,000, (2) at least 5,000 shares having a purchase price of at least $50,000, or (3) at least 27,396 shares.

As at April 30, 2012, 446,500 common shares have been purchased under the NCIB. The NCIB expires on February 20, 2013.

Investor Alert

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Red Flag from August 2010 20F:

However, we estimate that we will need significant additional financing of approximately $10.5 million to carry out our proposed expansion plans for fiscal 2011, as described above. We plan to obtain the necessary funds from equity or debt financings, as required. However, there can be no assurance that we will obtain the financing required, or any at all. If we are not able to obtain the necessary additional financing, we may be forced to scale back our expansion plans or eliminate them altogether.

Liquidity Requirements

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Our operations have been financed through internal cash flows, debenture financing, and equity financing in the form of private placements, warrant exercises, and option exercises.