EduFocal has recently experienced phenomenal growth with revenues increasing from 26 million to 100 million, and CEO Gordon Swaby is confident that the company will maintain this growth in the short to medium term. 

“Due to the nature of our company, our balance sheet is full of mostly intangibles. That is not a negative in a broad way because if you think about the possibility for growth, we can stay in our current range of investment, push customer acquisition, business development, and sales, and far outpace the growth we had in the past,” Swaby explained during Mayberry Investments Limited’s Virtual Investor Forum on Wednesday (March 9). 

Swaby went on to explain that financing cost is the only element that could be considered a setback. However, the company’s recent decision to list on the Jamaica Stock Exchange will alleviate even this. 

To strengthen his point regarding the inevitable growth of EduFocal, Swaby said: “If you look at the P&L [Proift & Loss] and look at financing costs, and you take that out, our net income would be much larger. So just by virtue of listing on the stock exchange, we would have access to the ability to not pay income tax for 5 years, then another 5 years in which to pay half, and [then we would also be] benefitting from low financing costs.” 

According to Swaby, a listed EduFocal is an EduFocal with “next to no debt”, and a significant amount of cash on the balance sheet, which will allow the company to continue its operations at a much faster pace.

He said: “We will also have the ability and possibility to attract even more talent to grow the company both in the business division and the learning division. A lot of people have spoken about us a PEP company. But EduFocal is actually an Edtech company that facilitates the preparation for the PEP exam.”

POTENTIAL FOR GROWTH IN INTERNATIONAL MARKET

Swaby believes the possibilities are endless in terms of the breadth and scope of things that the company can facilitate. 

This advantage lends itself to EduFocal’s potential to tap into growth in an international market. Vocational development for instance is a significant undertaking which also happens to bear a lot of promise for the company.

“Many [local] nurses for example are looking to take exams that will lead them outside of Jamaica. But those exams aren’t limited to Jamaican nurses. Any nurse on earth that is looking to practise as a nurse will need to take those exams to enter the US,” Swaby explained.

“So you can understand the scope and scale for example of us [hypothetically] preparing nurses for an exam to enter into the United States. Not saying that we are doing that right now or that is something we are currently focused on,” he clarified.

Mayberry Investments Limited’s Virtual Investor Forum features some of the most influential business figures in Jamaica, offering insights on the local and global markets.

The weekly forum can be accessed via Mayberry’s official social media and YouTube pages.