Preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2020

Malvern International plc (AIM: MLVN), the global learning and skills development partner, announces its preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2020.

Results

2020 was undoubtedly a very challenging year for Malvern with long periods of school closures, and social distancing and global travel restrictions impacting student numbers, bookings and course delivery. The unprecedented events had a profound impact on revenues and cash flow.

•  Revenues reduced 60% to £1.90m from continuing operations (2019 restated: £4.70m).*
•  Strong cost control measures were put in place to minimise losses and ensure the continuity of the business.
• Operating loss before impairments of £1.33m from continuing operations (2019 restated: Loss £1.18m) and a total operating loss of £1.33m (2019 restated: Loss £3.86m).
• The total loss for the year from continuing operations £1.66m (2019 restated: £4.33m). This resulted in a loss per share of 0.23 pence (2019 restated: Loss 1.69 pence).

*In August 2020, the Group announced closure of Singapore operations. This is reported in the current period as a discontinued operation. Financial information relating to the discontinued operation for the period to the date of the closure is set out in note 4(b) of the financial statements.

Operational highlights

•  Language schools closed for long periods in 2020 due to Covid-19 and international travel restrictions, affecting forward sales bookings.
• Courses for existing students delivered online through Malvern Online Academy.
• Grew and strengthened relationship with UEL, and doubled student numbers on previous year and added new courses.
• Awarded NCUK delivery centre status in December 2020.
• All Malvern Junior camps cancelled in 2020.

Commenting on the results and prospects, Richard Mace, Chief Executive Officer, said: 

“The results in 2020 were a product of unforeseen circumstances, and as stated in our trading update in March, there remains strong demand for our education products. The performance of the University Pathways division in the last quarter of 2020 gives us confidence in our ability to grow this area of the business, and we have continued to strengthen our relationships with our partners and develop new courses.  The continued rollout of the UK vaccination programme makes us hopeful that the UK will be greenlighted by other nations to allow international travel to the UK to reopen. On this basis, we expect the language business division to continue to build during the course of the year and return to pre-pandemic levels in 2022. For these reasons, combined with a significantly stronger and experienced management team in place, we remain positive about the outlook for the Company.”