Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuy asked investors to reduce old interest and stop new interest in the next 3-5 years - the time when Egroup and Apax Leaders can pay off their debts.
At yesterday's investor meeting, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuy - Chairman of Egroup, apologized for not being able to restore the group as expected. The Apax Leaders/Apax English English center chain - the backbone of Egroup's business - although recovering, is still facing financial difficulties and needs to focus all resources to revive.
Therefore, according to him, the most optimistic time to pay off debt to investors is from 3-5 years from now. In the immediate future, this enterprise prioritizes fulfilling financial obligations to investors who are elderly or have illnesses or accidents. As for the rest, Egroup "cannot handle small debt collection cases", all of which must wait for the same time.
Currently, Mr. Thuy said that he is in the debt settlement stage. During this time, Egroup will ask for a reduction in past interest and stop calculating interest until the debt is paid, which is 3-5 years from now.
"My point of view is to eat and drink, but the most important thing for Egroup right now is to survive. Therefore, we need money to restore business operations, only that way can we create cash flow to return to investors," Mr. Thuy added.
To date, this enterprise has received support from 80 investors to waive interest on loans, with a total interest waiver of about 500 billion VND. This group agreed to postpone the debt and not incur any additional interest until the principal is returned.
In addition, Egroup also offers debt swap measures including real estate, investment packages in English centers, English learning packages and household appliances.
With the debt restructuring package using real estate, Egroup did not disclose the quantity but only said that it had completed the implementation for many people with projects in Hanoi, Thanh Hoa, Bac Giang. This enterprise will continue to look for projects with full legal documents, reasonable prices and potential for future growth.
However, many people believe that the value of debt swap products being offered by Egroup is unreasonable, especially real estate and household appliances. Responding to VnExpress about this, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuy said that debt swap products are valued by an independent appraisal unit. In addition, the group also requires partners to support customers in borrowing capital from banks if needed.
"We are committed to not raising prices. All debt restructuring products have reference prices equal to or lower than market prices," said Mr. Thuy.
An Apax Leaders class in Da Nang, April 2023. Photo: IBC
In the coming time, Egroup and its core business Apax Leaders/Apax English will focus on recovery and development plans. To date, Apax Leaders General Director Nguyen Anh Tuan said that 34 centers with more than 12,000 students have reopened. The occupancy rate is still low, less than 50%, but the number of new students has brought the chain about one billion VND, in May alone. From now until July, Apax Leaders plans to reopen 14 centers, mainly in Ho Chi Minh City.
In total, in 2023, this chain of English teaching for children will regain its scale of 44-48 centers, record more than 16,700 students and generate more than 60 billion VND in revenue. According to Mr. Tuan, this year's goal is to "revive". Then, by 2024, Apax Leaders will enter the development stage and from 2025 will explode strongly.
At the same time, this company also focused on rebuilding the English program, and has now resumed operations at Chungdamn. This is the curriculum that helped Apax grow from a single English center into a large system with 130 teaching locations during its heyday.
In addition, the company has dismissed 7 deputy general directors and other unnecessary positions to make the structure leaner and more economical. Mr. Tuan said that the academic sector alone used to have a salary cost of 4 billion, but after being streamlined, it was only 100 million VND. Following the above trend, if Apax develops 130 centers as before, according to him, it only needs 65% of the staff and 40% of the salary fund, thereby helping to increase profits.
"I believe that a business that goes through a crisis without 'dying' will certainly be many times stronger than a business that has never stumbled," Mr. Thuy added.
Siddhartha
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