China’s education heat continues to sweep across the Pacific. On November 8, 2017, Shanghai Four Seasons Education Inc. (“Four Seasons Education”, stock code: FEDU) announces its IPO and was listed on NYSE to raise US$ 101 million. Morgan Stanley, Citi Group and China Renaissance are joint bookkeepers for the issuance, and Jingtian & Gongcheng (the Firm) is the PRC legal counsel for Four Seasons Education.
Compared with other comprehensive education organizations, the positioning of Four Seasons Education is just mathematics. It was founded in 2007, and entered Shanghai’s education market formally in 2010 to provide extracurricular mathematical education to elementary school students. It has now 33 teaching centers in 5 cities other than Shanghai. According to Frost & Sullivan’s report, in 2016 and the first 6 months of 2017, Four Seasons Education is already the largest extracurricular math education provider for elementary school students in Shanghai. The proceeds from the IPO will be mainly used to expand its teaching network, improve its current infrastructure, develop education content and courses, as well as operating capital for general purposes.
Besides strong financial performance, the social welfare activities by Four Seasons Education also impressed the Firm’s team for the project. Before listing in the States, at the beginning of the year, Four Seasons Education donated 100 million yuan to East China Normal University, alma mater of founder Mr. Tian Peiqing, who said that alma mater and alumni gave the company much help during its development, and the founding team consisted of alumni of East China Normal University, so that it’s natural to give something back to the alma mater.
The Firm is the PRC legal counsel for the issuer to provide comprehensive legal services for Four Seasons Education. The Firm provided constructive ideas and advices concerning legal compliance, especially in the areas such as business license, teaching permits, fire protection certification/filing, cross-region branch setup, etc, and ensured the successful IPO of Four Seasons Education.
Recently, another wave for education organizations to list abroad is coming. Following RYB Education and Rise, Four Seasons Education is the third education organization to be listed in USA in the past two months. Similarly, China Education Group and 21st Century Education have filed for IPO to HKEX. According to the latest data from Deloitte, there have been 17 domestic private educational organizations listed overseas up till now, with a total market capitalization of around US$ 40 billion.
