Intueri waits to hear about A$6mn payment, future in Australia

Friday 2nd December 2016

Intueri Education Group will get an A$3.5 million payment from the Australian Department of Education and Training (DET) for 2015, but is still waiting to hear whether it will get a further A$6 million for 2016 and whether it can join that country's new student loan payment scheme.

A large percentage of students in Intueri's Australian businesses, Online Courses Australia (OCA) and Conwal & Associates, are funded through a scheme that helps either pay some or all of a student's fees, known as VET Fee-Help. The Australian government imposed a cap on the scheme this year, holding all providers to their 2015 revenue levels, and closed it to new students after the end of 2016. A new VET Student Loan (VSL) scheme has been launched.

When Intueri reported its first-half earnings in August, it posted a 43 percent decline in first-half profit to $3.5 million and gave full-year earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation guidance of about $15 million, dependent on an A$6 million lift in its government funding cap. It lowered that guidance in October, but still assumed the A$6 million uplift. DET is still assessing whether it will get that A$6 million lift, Intueri said in a statement today, while it expects to get the A$3.5 million payment "shortly."

The department is considering suspending new VFH student enrolments in Conwal for the rest of the year, "pending development of a rectification plan focused on student engagement and completions," Intueri said, adding that it had stopped enrolling students in November as the VFH scheme ends in December.

Conwal has applied for provisional approval to join the new VSL scheme in 2017, but that approval is uncertain, the company said.

This year, Intueri was audited by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), which found OCA and Conwal weren't compliant with its standards. Intueri responded to the audits by the Nov. 6 due date and has not heard from AQSA about its response, it said today. Possible outcomes range from a directive to correct areas of non-compliance through to the full cancellation of OCA and Conwal's registrations as registered training organisations (RTOs).

Last month, Intueri said it planned to delist its stock from the ASX, saying the shares are little traded and the move would reduce costs.

Its shares are the weakest performer on the S&P NZX All Capital Index this year, having shed 93 percent of their value to last trade at 5.6 cents following a raft of bad news.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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