'Shark' Thuy Than faces difficulties due to parents demanding tuition fees

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuy said he encountered "special difficulties" when English centers in Ho Chi Minh City had to stop operating because parents came to "besiege" them to demand tuition fees.

In the announcement released on the afternoon of January 9, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuy, Chairman of Egroup and General Director of Apax Leaders, stated "special difficulties" when some centers in Ho Chi Minh City had to temporarily close due to a group of parents coming to surround and demand their tuition fees back.

"This puts pressure on the company's business operations and revenue. Employees are afraid of quitting, increasing the number of withdrawals because the operating centers cannot teach students directly," the announcement said.

This has made Apax Leaders unable to refund the next installments to parents. Currently, Shark Thuy Company has stopped teaching directly at centers in Ho Chi Minh City to "ensure the safety of students and teachers".

In response to the information Mr. Thuy provided, parents said that their gathering to demand money was understandable, because Apax Leaders had previously delayed the refund as promised.

A parent in Ho Chi Minh City said that the way parents approach Apax Leaders centers is to talk directly and shout commands to demand money, not to the extent of "surrounding" as Mr. Thuy described.

"Mr. Thuy is deliberately turning us from victims into vandals," this parent expressed his indignation.

Parents come to Apax Leaders center in Phan Xich Long, Ho Chi Minh City to claim tuition refund, March 2023. Photo: HN

According to them, Mr. Thuy's company has repeatedly missed the deadline to refund tuition fees. Apax Leaders has only refunded 20-60% of tuition fees to parents in two installments in June and August 2023. After that, the company repeatedly missed the deadline. By November 2023, the center had proposed a roadmap to refund the remaining amount in stages, starting with 5% on December 31, 2023.

However, a day before the refund was due, Mr. Thuy sent a letter of apology to parents and students at the centers for not being able to follow the payment schedule. The reason was that many unexpected difficulties arose, causing the centers to be unable to operate. The company promised to come up with a new refund plan by January 9 (today).

Another parent said she no longer believed in what Mr. Thuy had promised. "Do dozens of other Apax Leaders centers in the North not generate any money for the company to refund parents?" she asked.

Shark Thuy believes that tuition refunds must be based on mutual agreement and Apax's ability to execute. The company also plans to hold dialogues with parents in January to find appropriate solutions to fulfill tuition refund obligations.

Apax Leaders is a chain of English teaching centers for children belonging to the Egroup ecosystem of Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Thuy. Since the end of last year, the chain has been complained by many parents in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Dak Lak, and Da Nang because the teaching quality is not as committed, "taking the money and abandoning the customers" and demanding a refund of tuition fees. Egroup also owes employees salaries and insurance, and is slow to pay interest to investors.

Egroup then made a restructuring plan. To date, the chain has 38 centers, mainly in the North. The management board has said that the revenue of the teaching locations is still low, mainly from receiving back old students who have paid fees in advance, while new sources of money are still limited.

In Ho Chi Minh City, Apax Leaders has just opened two centers, Him Lam (District 6) and Phan Xich Long (Phu Nhuan) and is preparing to open more in Thu Duc and Go Vap.

At the investor meeting in November 2023, Mr. Thuy said that Ho Chi Minh City is an extremely challenging market, the reopening of centers is slow, but Egroup is determined to restore business operations here. In its heyday in 2019, Apax Leaders had reached a scale of 50 centers with 22,000 students in this city.

Siddhartha

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