iPeople allocates P2.5B for Mapua Makati campus

Date: February 13, 2019

THE education arm of the Yuchengco group will be investing P2.5 billion to develop a new Mapua campus in Makati City.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange last week, iPeople, Inc. said its subsidiary Malayan Education Systems, Inc. (MESI) has acquired a 5,114-square meter property along P. Ocampo, Sr. Ave., Makati City. The company said this will be funded through internal and external sources.

MESI operates under the name of Mapua University, considered a leading private engineering and technical university in the country. It currently has a campus in Intramuros, Manila and another in Makati.

iPeople delivered an attributable profit of P57.16 million in the third quarter of 2018, 58% lower than the P136.63 million it generated in the same period a year ago. The company attributed the decline to the lower number of enrollees due to the K-12 transition period. Revenues for the quarter slipped 10% to P479.63 million.

In the nine months ending September, iPeople’s attributable profit fell by 60% to P122.59 million, against P305.35 million in the same period a year ago. This followed a 12% drop in revenues to P1.31 billion.

“Revenues from school operations dropped by 10% due to the continuing effect of the K-12 transition, as well as the transition to a new school calendar for academic year 2018-2019,” the company said.

It added that the number of freshman and sophomore enrollees also went down, but was offset by more students in the Senior High School program.

iPeople expects the K-12 program to continue affecting its bottom line until enrollments normalize by academic year 2021 to 2022.

The company is currently being merged with Ayala Corp. (AC)’s education unit, AC Education, Inc. The P15.5-billion merger will bring iPeople’s combined student population to almost 60,000 students.

Aside from Mapua University, MESI also operates Malayan Colleges Laguna and Malayan Colleges Mindanao. Meanwhile, AC Education owns University of Nueva Caceres and APEC Schools, the largest stand-alone chain of private high schools in the country.

The merger will still have to undergo regulatory approval. Once approved, 51.3% of iPeople will be owned by Yuchengco-led House of Investments, Inc., while AC will have a 33.5% stake.

Shares in iPeople dropped by 3.62% or 38 centavos to close at P10.12 each at the stock exchange on Monday. — Arra B. Francia