By AKANI CHAUKE
JOHANNESBURG – STADIO Holdings Limited, the newly-listed investment holding company, believes South Africa needs to accommodate another 1 million students in higher education to compete with global trends.
In that regard, the company believes it can grow over time from the current 13 000 students to more than 100 000 students.
Speaking at the company’s listing at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) main board on Tuesday, Stadio CEO, Dr Chris van der Merwe, said Stadio would thus provide South Africa with well-qualified and equipped citizens to help the country achieve acceptable economic growth levels.
“This aim aligns with the National Development Plan of South Africa, which seeks to achieve 1,6 million students in the higher education space by 2030,” van der Merwe said.
Stadio listed in the Specialised Consumer Services sector on the JSE, becoming the 15th company to list on the JSE this year.
It brings the number of companies listed in the Specialised Consumer Services sector to four. The sector has a total market capitalisation of over R25 billion (US$1,83 billion).
Stadio is a subsidiary of private education group, Curro, and comes to market after Curro’s decision to unbundle its tertiary education businesses. It intends to acquire and grow existing registered higher
education brands, fund further expansions of existing brands and oversee the greenfield development of new campuses.
Donna Nemer, Director of Capital Markets at the JSE, welcome Stadio to the market.
She said education, and especially accessible tertiary education, was crucial to ensuring South Africa had the skills necessary to foster economic growth and reduce inequality.
“The JSE is honoured to be able to contribute to the growth of this sector by providing a company like Stadio with access to a secure, transparent and highly liquid platform for capital raising,” Nemer said.
– Guardian