News | 03 February 2023
Several new schools and stable finances
Four new schools and continued good finances define an extended fiscal year for Internationella Engelska Skolan (IES) in 2021-2022. Despite a turbulent period in the world, characterised by pandemic and war, IES continued to grow and opened schools with an international profile in four new locations in Sweden during 2021.
Anna Sörelius Nordenborg
The financial year began in the middle of the ongoing pandemic, which meant a great strain on both students and staff, with adjustments in teaching to minimise the risk of infection spreading. In August 2021, IES opened new schools in Sigtuna, Solna, Kungsbacka and Värmdö, offering almost 3,000 school places.
IES’ CEO, Anna Sörelius Nordenborg, said: “We are happy and proud to be able to give even more families the opportunity to choose a school with an international profile, high academic goals and a focus on a safe and calm school environment.”
The most recent financial year covers 18 months, from the first of January 2021 to the end of June 2022. This extended financial year is the result of delisting from the stock exchange at the end of 2020, when there was a transition from a school year to a calendar year. All companies in a group need to have the same accounting year, and the company that bought IES out of the stock exchange used the calendar year as its accounting year.
Ms Sörelius Nordenborg explained: “Now we have changed this so that the financial year will run from July 1 to June 31, so it follows the school year again, because this better reflects our work.”
The turnover for the Swedish company Internationella Engelska Skolan i Sverige AB, during the 18 months of the financial year, amounted to 5,162 MSEK, while the number of students increased from 28,000 to 31,000 during the period. Operating profit amounted to 313 MSEK and the operating margin was 6.1%. The period's result after tax was - 110 MSEK, which was affected by group contribution (a transfer between companies in the group) of 509 MSEK. The group contribution was made to collect the taxable profit within the group in the same place. No dividend has been paid, but the cash flow has been used to reinvest in the business, to pay interest in the holding companies and to pay taxes. All the companies are Swedish and pay tax in Sweden.
The transfer was made to collect the taxable profit within the group in the same place. All the companies are Swedish and pay tax in Sweden. No dividend has been paid, but the cash flow has been used to reinvest in the business, to pay interest in the holding companies and to pay taxes.
Ms Sörelius Nordenborg added: “This year we have invested over 150 million crowns in new schools and our existing operations. That's our highest level ever, even if you adjust for a longer fiscal year. This is partially due to the fact that we opened four new schools, but also because we made major investments in our existing school operations.”
A change that took place during the period is that the Spanish operations were separated from those in Sweden, through an internal sale within the company structure. This is as a result of a strategic decision aimed at giving the management of IES the opportunity to focus entirely on the operations in Sweden.
