Early Childhood Education in China: Explosive Growth, Increasing Challenges

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Demand for early child education in China has been growing steadily. By 2018, there were more than 100 million children age 0 - 6 in China, and close to 300,000 kindergartens, up from 240,000 in 2016 and about half of which are private (both for-profit and not-for-profit). The fast-increasing demand/shortage of supply has spurred huge investment, with top kindergarten chains growing from a few hundred locations each to a few thousand.

In November 2018, China's State Council published guidelines to restrict private kindergartens from going public; it also restricted already-listed companies from buying kindergartens. In addition, the Council pledged more government investment in public preschool education to make kindergartens safer, cheaper, more convenient and simply more available.

The policy shift has had tremendous impact on domestic and foreign investors in private early education, in some cases driving down market caps of leading players by tens of millions of dollars. How should the market better understand and better respond to the government's measures on early childhood education reform? Please join us on 15 March, from 12:00 - 13:45, to learn from leading experts discussing this question from the operational, investment and legal perspectives.

Agenda:

12pm-12:15pm: Registration

12:15pm-12:20pm: Opening Remarks

12:20pm-1pm: Presentations

1pm-1:30pm: Panel Discussion

1:30pm-1:45pm: Audience Q & A

Speakers

Richard YUAN
COO at Noah Education Holdings
Since early 2015, Mr. Yuan has served as the COO of Noah Education (ex-NYSE: NED, and now a Morgan Stanley portfolio company), a Chinese education services provider that owns and operates 5 private schools, 99 kindergartens, 17 kids’ training centers/schools and manages over 1000 training franchisees in the country.

Before joining Noah Education, Mr. Yuan held various executive roles including Country Manager, Greater China for the 140-year languages training provider, Berlitz (ex-NYSE: BTZ); Learning Development Competency Leader for IBM Global Services ( NYSE: IBM); Country Manager, China for General Physics Corporation (NYSE: GPX). Mr Yuan is highly experienced in operations management and corporate consulting, especially in education and training industry.

After acquiring his BA in English Literature from East China Normal University in 1994, Mr. Yuan graduated with distinction from Thunderbird School of Global Management with MBA in International Management in 2002.
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Hui Zhao
Executive Director of Fosun Education Group
Hui Zhao has more than 10 years of experiences in post-merge integration and management for educational programs. She holds global EMBA from China Europe International Business School .
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Stewart Wang
Partner at DLA Piper
Stewart is a partner in DLA Piper’s Shanghai office, and a leading lawyer in DLA Piper’s education practice group with deep knowledge and broad experience in China’s education sector. Stewart advised numerous clients in their investments in various players in China’s education sector, including early education start-ups, English teaching schools, professional skills training providers, and overseas study service providers.

DLA Piper recently advised China Ping An Insurance Overseas (Holdings) Limited on its private equity investment in international education service provider Whittle School & Studios. Other representations in the education sector include Pearson’s investment in Namibox (an online early education provider), Wiz Korea's pre-school/kindergarten franchise deals in China, Actis' pre-IPO investment in Guangdong Qide Education, Kaplan's joint venture with Citic Press, and a pre-school education company's proposed US IPO.
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