Taaleem Holdings PJSC ($TAALEEM)

Hello, everyone. This is Mirna Maher from EFG Hermes, and welcome to Taaleem Holdings Second Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. I'm pleased to be joined today by Alan Williamson, CEO; Arnaud Prudhomme, CFO; and Nora Ghannam, Head of Investor Relations. We will first start the call with a presentation from management side and then we'll open the floor for Q&A session. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Mirna. [Foreign Language] Good afternoon, and thank you for joining our Q2 H1 investor call. We're really pleased with our results again. So the meeting will take -- will be twofold. Firstly, we will go over our results. And then secondly, I'm sure a lot of people joining the meeting today will be interested in an evaluation of business continuity for us at the present time, given the geopolitical situation in the GCC. So again, really strong results, 13 premium schools, which cover 86% of the operating revenues. Our enrollment, as we presented in Q1, is up 12% year-on-year. Our capacity has grown because of the addition of Dubai British School Mira and Dubai British School Island. Yet even with this growth of capacity because of the performance of the existing schools and the new schools, our utilization has actually closed and were up 1.4% year-on-year. So a very strong performance. 23 government partnership schools and increasing revenue contribution because of the growth of the Dubai schools' PPP, the additional students in these 3 Dubai schools. The loss of the Ajyal Schools, 3 of the [ 8 ] Ajyal Schools, 4 were given back. 1 was additional, which is why enrollment is slightly down. But again, because of the improved performance of the Dubai schools and the additional students in these, utilization is actually up. Thank you. I'll just cover the key facts of the financial indicators. Operational revenue is up 18% year-on-year. EBITDA is up almost 12% year-on-year and net profit up almost 3% year-on-year. CapEx is obviously in position because of the investment in the ongoing strategy. Harrow Dubai continues to be built. And I can give an update on later. No concerns at the moment in relation to delivering Harrow Dubai. Harrow Abu Dhabi is again being built and also the initial investment in the design of our U.K. curriculum school at Ghaf Woods. Arnaud will cover the balance sheet and the KPI on returns in a more detailed presentation that I'll hand over to him now in relation to the financial performance at the end of H1. Thank you, Arnaud.

Thank you, Alan. Good afternoon, everybody. So we will start with a focus on the income statement and the first thing being the revenues. So revenues are going first to -- so first, highlights of the income statement, sorry about that. So it's another, as mentioned by Alan, another strong performance H1 to H1. It's reflected in our growing revenues, growing gross profit, and EBITDA which is reaching to AED 180 million, growing by close to 12%, as mentioned. And the net profit after tax who is now close to AED 180 million, slightly below AED 177.6 million, an increase by 2.9% versus the same period last year. All of this is with or goes with a kind of moderation of our margins, EBITDA and net profit. This reflects the investments we have made during the last couple of years, and we are currently in the middle of the J curve. Obviously, these numbers will better as we go out of the J curve and the investment become more mature. We focus on the revenue. So operating revenues have grown dramatically, more than 18% versus last year, year-on-year, the total revenue have grown already always driven by the premium school segment. As you can see, it's close to 86%. The balance comes from the Dubai PPP and the rest of the PPP programs, it's 13.7%. And there is a small amount coming from the nonoperating revenue which have decreased from last year because you might remember that last year, during the same period, we benefited from a bargain gain related to the acquisition of the French -- of the Francophone Lycee. Enrollment is up by 2.8%. But if you look at only the premium segment, the increase is more than 15%, close to 16%, and the average tuition -- gross tuition fee is up as well by 2.7%. It's mainly driven by a increase that was allowed by the regulator from September '26, but as well the fact that students are moving upgrades. And as you know, when people come to or students come to secondary, the fees are higher, and it's explain why there is this increase during this period. What we try to do here is to keep a balance between being the leading educational provider in the UAE. So we increase -- and we make sure that we attract and retain the talent. We increased their salary as needed. We attract as well additional teachers because we open new grades and new schools. But at the same time, we try to maintain a disciplined cost structure, which support the growth, but make sure that we can leverage our operating platform. So fundamentally, this is reflected in the fact that the cost-to-income ratio, including all operating expenses and G&A expenses, is declining by 0.4% year-on-year. At the same time, if you focus only on the operating staff cost, it's declining by 0.2% year-on-year at 47.4%. The EBITDA, as we said, is reaching now AED 280 million. It's quite a strong growth versus last year. Let's focus now a couple of minutes on the balance sheet. We maintain a strong financial position. We have combined, and we continue to combine disciplined IPO fund deployment with targeting new funding to support the expansion. Reflect of this or the reflection of this is the fact that our total debt has increased by more than 8% to fund the growth and the new development ongoing. As a consequence, the net debt because we deploy the cash and we raise more debt, the net debt has increased close to 34% reaching over AED 1 billion, which is still very sound. Our CapEx has dramatically declined AED 188 million. A small part of it is coming from the maintenance CapEx at a rate which is similar to last year and to the usual historic pattern, close to AED 6 million. The balance is coming from purely the expansionary CapEx with new projects ongoing and campus improvement plan being deployed during the academic and financial year. Finally, the lease liabilities have marginally moved up. It's mainly due to the renegotiation of some lease. Just focus on the debt situation. So we are in -- with a LC debt profile. We manage the debt and the leverage prudently historically, and we will continue, obviously to do so. As you can see, with one of the metrics we monitor, the net debt to EBITDA, we will end up the financial year at 3.7x multiple. When I say financial year end of H1, 3.7x multiple, which is comfortable with our covenants. Another point to stress is we had a facility that was maturing in April this year, and we have agreed with the bank to prolong it for 1 year as part of the global review of our funding strategy, which is ongoing, on the back of the revised strategy, 10-year strategy that we are currently reviewing as well. Cash flow, so Taaleem is by construction by nature, a strong cash flow generating business. We have -- and this gives us a fundamental flexibility to address any challenges. I will just stress 2 positive points which are shown on this slide. The free cash flow to the firm has increased more than double, in fact, during the period versus last year at AED 62 million or close to AED 62 million and the free cash flow conversion, which is how an EBITDA produced by the business is translated into free cash flow from the operations. As you can see, it has doubled during H1 versus previous H1 which is a signal of the fact that the cash is really flowing through the business and will support any distribution or any further investment into the operations. Next slide, please. So we look at now Kids First Group. So what is important to know is -- but you know this, is that it's accounted through the equity method. So we recognize in the net profit the revenue or the income attributable to Taaleem corresponding to the 95% share we have in the profit adjusted with some noncash items. Here, you can see 2 columns for each of the metrics we follow. One is showing 100% of the revenue or the elements of the metric and the rest, the second one is showing 95%. As you can see, the operating revenue are quite strong, AED 134 million. The EBITDA has reached for 100%, close to AED 40 million. And the net profit after tax was after 6 months of operation during this financial year, close to AED 14 million. The net accounting gain during the first 6 months is AED 9.5 million. You might remember, it was negative during Q1. It has now reversed to a positive number and was on track until the change of the geopolitical situation to deliver what we suggested as a guidance during Q1.

Thank you, Arnaud. So the key headlines here in terms of business continuity are safety, safeguarding well-being leading to continuity of education. As many of the participants on today's call will understand, the government and the regulator immediately pivoted schools to online learning, and then called an early spring break, and we have been told that we are online at present until the 3rd of April. What you have to understand is because of COVID, our schools were very, very ready to pivot to distance learning with a proven track record of delivering distance learning. And indeed, under cover the Taaleem schools achieved the highest outcomes from the regulatory inspections. In addition to that, we have had, obviously, the advancement of AI since COVID. And therefore, our digital readiness is even stronger with even better digital infrastructure in place to deliver a strong curriculum. Safety and well-being are crucial to us. It's in our DNA. And we are obviously very, very strong in relation to safeguarding wellbeing not only of teachers, but most importantly, of students. More recently, Taaleem took the decision to submit applications to KHDA and ADEK and to the Ministry of Education to open our campuses when the regulator and the government decided it's safe to do so. We put all our operational planning, our emergency planning, our policy and procedure around that interplay such that like has happened in Qatar, that we will be ready to open. We have surveyed all our parents across Taaleem's K-12 platform and Kids First Group early years platform with -- exceeding 80% and in indeed in Kids First Group 85% preference among our parents, Emirati and expat to return to the classroom as soon as safe to do to so, An interesting point that many people might be asking our present teacher retention under the geopolitical situation is 99% plus. Less than 1% of our workforce have, for whatever reason that may be particular to how teachers, for example, have reacted to the geopolitical situation, we've lost less than 1% of our teacher workforce. So again, what I said its continuity is the key message from this slide for our students, whether they're in Kindergarten or whether they're in Grade 12 preparing for U.K. examinations, French examinations, American or IB examinations, we are fully supporting our students and indeed our parents in relation to distance learning. So key messages, academic continuity. We are closely monitoring slight changes in enrollment and as I'll go on to explain to you, we have a very, very minor delay at present in terms of fee collection on the back of term 1 and term 2 fees being already collected in terms of advanced payment and the majority of term 3. Thank you. So let's go into this in a bit more detail. Registration activity, again, shows no material change. There are some changes, but it's not material. There has been a very limited request for a small number of student withdrawals. However, believe it or not, we've actually had a number of term 3 enrollments. And we still have a pipeline of students coming through in a wait list and as you know, our capacity schools. In terms of Harrow, because I know there will be some interest in Harrow, Harrow Dubai, the building of Harrow Dubai remains on track. It is not without challenge. And indeed, we immediately pivoted to local suppliers. And we are aware that there's issues in the Straits with delivery. What we immediately did is we've ensured that, that delivery coming external will now be used for Harrow Abu Dhabi, whether it's fixed use fittings, furniture, and we are sourcing as much as possible from the local market. And again, our Chief Operating Officer today is still reporting that Harrow, more or less, will be absolutely on track with current time lines. In terms of enrollment, we are on track with our original business plan at the present time. And again, even in the last couple of weeks, we've seen some growth in Harrow enrollment. Parent behavior, as I said, across Kids First Group and Taaleem there is a demand over 80% of our parents want to go back to in-school learning when the regulator and the government decided it's safe to do so. There is a commitment and again, no material cause for concern for us at the present time in relation to reenrollment for the next academic year. As you're aware, education is a priority for the population. Today, in fact, universities opened in the UAE, which could perhaps be interpreted as a possible greenlight for schools, private schools who wish to do so. In terms of our defense -- our defensive capabilities in relation to our demographics, the pie chart is interesting. 20% of our students are expat Arabic, people like the Lebanese community, who we believe if anything, will grow, 25% are Emirati, 5% Indian. So across that portfolio alone, at least 50% of our student population is extremely defensive. We, again, are not seeing any material change. And if you look at the right-hand side of the diagram, historically, we have very, very strong retention over the last 3 years. Over 80% of our students stay with us. Of course, the change over those 3 years is the property ownership and increasing stickability of the population loyal to the UAE. Transition between kinder garden primary, primary secondary, secondary to graduation phase has been growing year-on-year. So again, in terms of parents and students who stay with us across the K-12 journey, it's extremely strong, which means as we assess the situation, again, stressing, we are seeing no material disruption to enrollment at the present time. Thank you. On top of that, we have disciplined financial management, a very strong management team, a calm management team who have seen and worked in the UAE and with Taaleem through, if not equal or more challenging situation. We had the overcapacity of the 2015 situation, we've had the COVID situation and now we're in a geopolitical situation. The management team and the Board are extremely experienced, extremely calm. And I cannot stress more of the stability and the sound fundamentals of the company. We are monitoring enrollment closely. We are safeguarding business operations. We have a minor delay in term 3 fees, though I stress the majority of term 1, term 2 and term 3 fees have been paid. That is leading to strong cash flow position and a strong liquidity position. However, the management team with their experience are doing scenario planning, and we have taken a very disciplined approach at the present time to spending, to staffing as we see how the present situation flows. Again, on the right-hand side, stressing the academic term fees are paid in advance in relation to the geopolitical situation, which came with the onset of the change in spring break. We believe that we are in an extremely sound fundamental situation with strong financial stability. Thank you. So just to reflect for a second on the underlying fundamentals of both the UAE economy and the UAE education sector, continued population growth even if there is a slight change in the 2026 figures that are being presented, whether that's population growth or economic GDP or inflation, we believe there are very, very strong fundamental drivers that favor Taaleem, whether that's the expanding student base, the disciplined fee environment, the ongoing government investment in education or the increasing female participation in the workforce. There are strong macroeconomic conditions that are favorable demographic trends, and that underpins a resilient demand for high-quality premium education. And even if there is a slight change, we firmly believe that the UAE is in a strong position to bounce back. Thank you. So to take a more focused look on Kids First Group, in all honesty, the position not too different from Taaleem in terms of the types of things that I have been discussing. There is an agile delivery model that was an immediate pivot to distance learning and a strong track record in Kids First Group under COVID, but again, enhanced even more by even better digital infrastructure and AI in order to engage younger learners. There is a flexible operating model, educational expertise, of course, has been added to the Kids First Group story by the support of Taaleem. So like Taaleem, Kids First Group bounced back from COVID, and that will now be turbocharged by the support of Taaleem's financial positioning, our operational structures and our education expertise. There is quality and trust in the brand, whether it's Odyssey, whether it's Redwood, whether it's Redwood Center of Excellence. Real-time monitoring of engagement by the Kids First Group using AI. parent engagement, again, even more parents in Kids First Group 85% in our regulatory survey wanted to return to face-to-face learning even within the geopolitical situation. Again, centralized governance strengthened by Taaleem, safety compliance and operations strengthened by Taaleem, structured workforce modeling strengthened by Taaleem. So within Kids First Group, just the same as the K-12 component of Taaleem, we are looking at efficiency, possible efficiency levers that can be pulled, should they need to be pulled as we monitor the ongoing situation. So positioned for recovery, positioned for growth, defensive and forward looking. It's giving us a chance within Kids First Group to upgrade our campuses while the children are on distance learning. Our marketing continued, so that there's visibility of the brands. There are alternative delivery models for the return to campus. We are fully expecting that before May or June, we will be back in schools, back in early learning centers, allowing the high revenue and high profitability of the summer camps to run. Again, like Taaleem fees within Kids First Group have largely been paid in advance. So there is strong liquidity, strong cash flow. Forward-looking, we are closely monitoring as we are at K-12 opportunities that may come from the present situation where, for example, other operators do not have a strong positioning as Taaleem for Kids First Group for M&A opportunities. We've been working on partnerships within Kids First Group whether that's in relation to our camps, in relation to our catering, in relation to using at ed tech, AI, gaming, to increase possibilities for value proposition. And again, remember that Kids First Group is a diversified product with different brands from Odyssey through to the Redwood Center of Excellence. So to conclude our presentation. You have seen very, very strong outcomes from H1. You hopefully heard that we are very quick to pivot to distance learning. We are ready to return to face-to-face learning when the government and the regulator deem it safe to do so. We have very strong fundamental business models, operational models, safety and emergency planning and risk mitigation models in place. And we want to leave you with these 5 -- 6, sorry, key messages. Firstly, that our strategy is very much on track despite the geopolitical situation, whether it's enrollment or whether it's operational delivery of the new schools. The Harrow Dubai is on track for September, Harrow Abu Dhabi for on track September 2027. And we now have regulatory approval for our U.K. curriculum school at Ghaf Woods, which has been announced to the market. We are ready for a transition back to physical learning when it's right to do so, but in the interim, a very strong record of delivering high-quality distance learning. At the same time, an experienced and calm management team are looking at scenario planning, both within Kids First Group and Taaleem K-12 should we need to pull levers in order to deliver the most efficient model that we can. Growth opportunities may come from the present situation as stated as other operators perhaps to be confirmed, don't deal with the geopolitical situation or the debt situation as Taaleem are presently dealing with, and there might be opportunities for us. We have strong fundamentals, both in the UAE economy, but also in the education sector and also in the Taaleem model. And do remember that Taaleem's price point of, say, around AED 56,000 as an average price point is a resilient price point, that as I was saying to Arnaud and Nora this morning, there are only 21 outstanding schools and 39 very good schools. And all -- the majority of our portfolio sits within those, that price point and those outcomes. And we believe that as we saw in previous difficult times, whether it was COVID or oversupply, that parents chose Taaleem's quality even in difficult times. So with Harrow on track, with Dubai school's performance improving and growth of students in that area, and with, as I said, T3, term 3 joining pipelines waiting less, we believe we're in a very strong position. That stated, the position is fluid, and we believe that we need to see through the next weeks and months before we give further guidance to the market. but it's based on the 6 fundamentals that we believe are in place. On that, I'll hand back to you, Mirna, and Arnaud and I are very happy to take questions.

[Operator Instructions] We will take the first question from Bilal.

We can't hear you, Bilal. Can you unmute? I still can't hear you. So do you want to put your question in the chat and then Mirna can pick up.

Bilal, yes, you can type your question in the Q&A chat. We will take the next question from.

Yes, is my voice audible?

Yes, we can hear you.

May I ask regarding the premium school student enrollment demograph if you could go to the slide. Yes. I believe -- I would like to know how is the value calculated because maybe I'm mistaken, but this percentage doesn't add to 100. So maybe I'm missing something. If you could clarify about it?

My apologies if it doesn't.

it's a sample of the majority. And it doesn't include the Dubai schools.

Okay. What are the other percentage of nationalities?

Comes from others, different others.

Sorry. We could come back with an accurate data on that. My apologies.

[Operator Instructions] We have a question from Nitin Gorak.

I just want to clarify on term 3 fee collection. Can you hear me?

Yes, yes.

So just a clarification on term 3 fee collection. Since I think that term 3 will start from 1st April. So have you already collected the fee? If I remember, you said there is some delay. So if you can please clarify how much is the delay and how much fee has been collected for term 3?

Yes. Thanks, Nitin. Look, we collect our fees in advance, as you know. So term 1 fees are almost all collected. Obviously, sometimes there's 1 or 2 parents we will allow them to go on payment plans, maybe they've lost their job or something. So term 1 almost completely collected, term 2 almost completely collected, term 3, because the government changed the spring holiday, we had actually collected quite a lot of our fees. And then we pivoted because the term didn't actually start on the 1st of April. So a good proportion of our parents have also paid term 3. But in comparison to, for example, where we are in a normal year, there is slightly less parents who have paid than normal, and it's as much to do with the change in the spring break as the geopolitical situation. Don't get me wrong, Nitin, you will understand, there are a few parents who, for example, mainly in the kinder garden of the Taaleem schools have taken a decision that, for example, until we go back to face-to-face learning, they have not been sending their children to school and not paid the term 3 fees yet. But at the moment, as we stressed in our presentation, we don't believe at the present time that it's material, not only due to the fact that it's just term 3, but also due to overall when you take term 1, term 2 and term 3 fees together, we're in a very strong position.

Okay. So this delay is applicable only for the kindergarten, right? I mean the parents who have taken the decision not to pay is only for kindergarten, the normal year 1, year 2 and all they are all fine. I mean it's collected?

No. exclusively, Nitin. I think across the entire portfolio, there are some parents who, at the moment, have paid their term 1 have paid their term 2 but are in a wait-and-see position in relation to face-to-face learning. Of course, we're following regulation. And after 10 days, if they are accessing distance learning, then they have to pay the term 3 fees. At the moment, we have taken a very empathetic and sympathetic line with these parents in relation to the comfort that we have almost all of the term 1, almost all of the term 2 and a large part of term 2 fees secured. Again, to stress we're in a good position and our cash flows are in a good position.

Okay. Just 1 more follow-up on the same topic. So let's say, a parent, I mean, they don't pay a fee for the term 3 and they take out the children. I mean they don't like online schooling and they decide not to go ahead in term 3? And what happens in that case? I mean, when they come for the next year, in June -- in July, August, how will you treat that case? Will you admit them for the next year or no?

To be honest, the numbers are so small at the moment that we're dealing with it on a case-by-case basis. It may well be that a parent wants to do as you say and choose not to come for term 3 and want to rejoin us in term 1. If there's a transparent agreement on a school-by-school basis with the principal of the school determining that that is in the best interest of the school, then that's fine. As I said, if they stay with us for 10 days, and we're almost at that position now, then they have to pay their term 3 fees in order to get the end of year graduation in order to come back into term 1. In the majority of our schools, Nitin, as you know, we are full and at capacity, either the entire school or where the school is in relation to its ramp-up, and we then hold the cards and the keys because we can then say to the parent, unless you pay your term 3 fee, we will put you to the bottom of the waiting list for reengaging with that school in term 1. As I stressed in the presentation, at the moment, these numbers are not material. And therefore, we're still in a position to deal with this on a case-by-case basis.

Thank you. We have some questions on the chart, 2 from The first one -- both are on KFG. The first one is net income for the second quarter of around AED 12 million is below the run rate for the amended guidance of AED 33 million to AED 37 million for the year. Any comment? Is this likely to be revised lower? This is the first question.

Look, I don't think you can reason by taking a run rate for this specific business because as you might remember during Q1, what we explained is that they were starting the academic year a bit low versus their target. They have caught up at the beginning of '26 when the start of the term 2 happened. And there is a big chunk of the revenue, which is not directly related to school, which is coming from external activities after school hours activities and summer camp. Summer camp are a big driver of the revenue for the full year, especially during summer, but not only summer, during any break. Summer camp this year, for instance, to give you a rough idea, it was planned to generate more than AED 20 million of revenue, and the margin on this are quite significant. So before the change of the geopolitical situation, I can assure you that KFG was on track to deliver the guidance we shared during Q1, both at the level of the EBITDA and the level of the net profit and for its contribution to the Taaleem net profit. at the end of the financial year.

Thank you. The next question is, how should we think about enrollments in KFG after the conflict began? Obviously, remote learning is more difficult for nursery students? Have you seen enrollment cancellations?

Yes. I think under normal circumstances, anyway, the stickiness of enrollment in nurseries is different from the stickiness of enrollment in K-12 schools. It's more volatile by nature because you have parents who can make the choice to register their child for a week, a month, a couple of days, a day here and there depending on what they want for their child. So this happens all the time. So the spot image we have for the enrollment, it's like Taaleem. Since the start of the geopolitical events, obviously, there has been some -- and it's a minor number of some students not confirming they want to come back to school. But what is very important, and Alan stress it rightly, is that for KFG, at least 85% are expecting to come back to school as soon as the physical schooling will start again. So there is a demand which is there, a strong demand, which is there, and it will impact the enrollment. Currently, we cannot say so much about enrollment just because the schools are closed. And as you say rightly, the fact that it is distance learning is not that strong apart from FS1 and Grade 1. For the lower grades, obviously, it's more difficult, and there are some parents to be very transparent who are not necessarily interested in pursuing that more than a couple of days or a couple of weeks.

I think the key thing to stress, and it's the same in relation to Taaleem and the small number of term 3 parents who are in a wait-and-see position should -- whether it's the 6th of October or whether it's the 13th -- sorry, 6th of April, or whether it's the 13th of April, these parents will come back to the Kids First Group, the quality of things like the Redwood brand. So these parents are not leaving, leaving. They're just in a wait-and-see position. However, as Arnaud stressed, obviously, 0 to 3 age group distance learning is extremely difficult. But with improved technology, AI, et cetera, actually, our kindergarten distance learning is of a high quality.

Thank you. The next question in the chart. Can you please give us an update on the enrollment trends at Dubai Harrow School? Is the target of 300 students in the first year achievable? Have you seen any cancellations in the last month?

No. Yes, one, yes. I think if the questions were right. The business plan is on track. It was slightly higher than 300. And at the present time, we are on track to meet that business plan. The situation is that even in the last 2 weeks, we've had 15 to 20 additional students joining and that's in the middle, right in the middle of this geopolitical situation. Since the onset of the geopolitical situation, we've had the grand total of 2 students say that they may be withdrawing from Harrow School. So I believe we're in a strong position to meet the business plan. And we have phoned individually every single parent. Interestingly, 80% of those students are coming from within the UAE, 20% are coming exclusively from England. And even the 20% of the current enrollment who are coming from England, we have phoned them, and they have said they still intend to come in September. So at the present time, we have confidence in meeting our business plan for Harrow Dubai.

We'll take the next question from Moosa.

I have 2 questions regarding -- the first, in the current regional situation, are you seeing any early signs of pressure on tuition fee collections or discount requests that could impact margins in the second half?

Yes. Thank you, Moosa. Again, the key word that we're using is material. We are not seeing any material impact of that. I'll be transparent with you. Across the 13 to 14 schools have a small number of parents asked the principal for a discount, yes, they have. However, parents are still paying the fees day in -- on a daily basis. And it is not a huge swell of parents that are demanding a discount. And at the present time, we have no plans to give a discount mainly centered around 2 things: firstly, the quality of our distance learning, it's high quality; and secondly, the fact that over the next week or 2 weeks or 3 weeks, we expect the government to move as it has today with universities when it is safe to do so to allow us to go back to face-to-face learning.

Okay. And my second question is, have you observed any change in teacher sentiment or behavior in the last 4 to 6 weeks. Is there any early impact on teacher retention?

Yes. Again, that was in the presentation. 99% of our teachers are still with us today. It's actually over 99%. We've got...

Yes, yes, it's clear, but I'm asking about the last 4 to 6 weeks.

Yes. Look, we've got -- we have a very small number of teachers who are saying that they do not want to be at the present time in the UAE. However, that's actually okay. Because we're on distance learning, the teachers, for example, have went some -- a small number of teachers have went to back to America, back to New Zealand, back to England and they are getting up, changing their day 3 hours early and getting up to meet their students when school opens in the UAE. We are very comfortable with that. Unlike other schools groups, we've really focused on the well-being of our teachers, and we've said while the schools are on distance learning, you can teach from wherever you want in the world. And the teachers have really saw that as a positive. In addition, of course, we've put in assistance programs through our insurance. We put in counseling, well-being meetings. The principals have been very active in engaging, as they did during COVID, their teachers. And to be honest, I am both quite surprised actually and proud of the figure you're seeing on the board. I believe the actual figure for the workforce with 4,000 employees, of course, around 1,000 of them are admin staff. We've only lost 36 out of 4,000 which really, given what's happened, is incredible.

Clear. One last question, if I may. Regarding the registration, you mentioned it's in line with expectation, but what are you seeing in conversion rate from new inquiries over the last -- again, over the last 4 to 6 weeks, Any change in parent behavior?

Yes. Again, not material. Where we usually, well, it's quite hard to say because we have more schools. We've got Harrow coming online. We're going Mira, we're growing Jumeira, If you take Mira, for example, I had a conversation with the principal. And at Mira, we're presently sitting on around 700 children and that principal is targeting 1,000 children next year. And I was discussing the likelihood of that happening in the last 4 to 6 weeks. She's absolutely confident from the inquiries that we're getting from the marketing feedback, from the reregistration, from the sign-up that, that target is doable. What I would like to stress is how I ended the presentation. Remember that there are 21 outstanding schools and 39 very good schools. Within Dubai, there's 220 schools. So even if we lose and we have lost some students, I think our term 3 new joiners were 93. So even in the middle of this geopolitical crisis where some students did leave, we had 93 additional students join us in the middle of this situation. So -- but I believe firmly, and we've seen this through COVID and through the 2015 oversupply, there will be a move to quality. And when seats become available, which they will, and outstanding and very good schools, we believe we will be resilient.

[Operator Instructions] We have a question from.

I just have 1 question. I'm wondering that the numbers that you -- the number of students that you've lost recently in this ongoing conflict, what nationalities do they belong to?

Yes. To be honest, there is not a clear nationality loss. Obviously, as I pointed out, and apologies again for the pie chart, the Emirati students, like almost no loss, 0 loss, actually, the expat Arabic students, again, very very few students leaving that nationality, Indian, very few students leaving. So it would be the European or American students who we have lost, but again, stressing no real at this stage, materiality in that loss. And as I pointed out, we've actually had 93 new students join us since the beginning of term 3 right in the middle of the geopolitical crisis. So again, actually, some of the losses that we have experienced have been from the British schools, which you could say is worrying, but actually, it's not worrying because these are the schools where we have a waiting list and a pipeline. And again, that's why at the present time, stressing at the present time, we are not overly concerned. We are not complacent. As I said, an experienced calm management team looking at levers that we can pull, if required, looking at additional strategies if required. But as I keep saying, no material concern at the present time.

We'll take the next question from.

Just a quick question, if I may. Regarding the teachers teaching from abroad. Once you get back to school, do you expect them to come back as well or teach -- or continue to teach virtually? And how would you see that affecting acquiring talent in the teaching department going forward? Would you expect that to increase the cost just to attract talent?

Yes. Thank you, Ebrahim. I think 2 good questions. Firstly, it will actually depend school by school. On the whole, my answer would be that when we reopen face-to-face and hopefully, we will have at least 1 week's notice of that, we will expect our staff to come back to teach in the UAE because we will go to what's called hybrid learning. We have some students out at home, but some students are in class and it's a live lesson. However, we do understand that just the same as some students and some parents, a small number are experiencing some anxiety around the situation, Take the figures of our actual regulatory survey over 80% of parents and students wanting to come back, but that obviously means there is a small number that don't want to come back. It will actually be possible to do both. For example, if you have 2 physics classes, 1 class, the teacher could be present, the other class in terms of the timetable could be covered in the live lesson by another science teacher while the physics teacher provides it online. However, we will expect the majority of our teachers to come back and from the staff well being survey, we don't think we're going to be in a difficult position. If a school has 100 teachers and say, 4 or 5 from a well-being position would like to be online, we can cover that, no problem. Second, are we concerned about recruitment? Again, very pleased to report that we're not seeing any real impact. The numbers ironically are quite similar to the Harrow enrollment. So at this stage in the year, where recruitment is closing, we have 312 letters of intention out where a contract has been issued to teachers. And I believe from a partner that only 6 teachers from 312 are seeing they have reneged on their signed intention to come. So again, credit to the UAE, credit to the reputation of Taaleem, these teachers at the present time are still saying they intend to come and join us in September. Mirna?

There are no more questions in the queue. So back to you if you have any concluding remark.

Yes. Thank you, Mirna, and thanks again to EFG Hermes for hosting our quarterly calls. We do appreciate the role that you play. I would also like to thank everybody who has joined us on the call today. We believe that we are operationally resilient, calm and confident in the business and in the UAE. Repeating these 6 key factors, the strategy is on track. We have transitioned to distance learning and are ready for face-to-face learning when it's safe to do so. an experienced management team who have seen challenges before and came out of those challenges even stronger. We have, as I said, plans in place should they be needed for focused efficiency, which protects academics and academic outcomes and protect teachers. Who knows spot will come from the situation. And again, we are a strong company who might actually benefit from some of the opportunities, whether they're in the nursery sector or the K-12 sector. Strong fundamentals. As we've stressed on the call today, Arnaud and I, cash flow is strong, fee collections in a strong position and even if the situation gets more concerning, which we don't believe it will, but if it does, our price point whether it's the Dubai schools or whether it's our average fee point of our premium schools, the quality of inspection outcomes and academic outcomes, we believe that these strong fundamentals will put us in a position where there's not a material outcome for us. And therefore, we believe we're in a strong position. And on that note, I thank you for joining us today.

Thank you very much for joining, and thank you, everyone, for your time. This concludes today's call.

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