During this period, we delivered more than 5 million student hours and 1+ million tutor hours of online training across all brands in the domestic market. We counselled 1,25,000+ prospects through the online channels and had a 20%+ success rate in converting them to enrolments.
I am extremely pleased to share your Company’s Annual Report for the financial year 2021-22. This has been a landmark year, where despite being affected for nearly 4 – 5 months by multiple waves of the COVID-19 pandemic your Company has delivered record profits. Our financial performance, balance sheet quality and financial ratios have seen strong improvements after a heavy impact from the pandemic in FY2020-21. In the reported financial year, we’ve also achieved some major operational milestones. In addition to financial and operational updates, this annual report also showcases the Soul of Aptech and all its different elements. It also highlights how we have reinvented the elements of our offerings to make them contemporary through unique innovations and latest technologies, in addition to actively reaching out to our Target Group in their space and their 'lingo'. These have helped us secure a major competitive edge in the market.
We started the reinvention journey six years ago with a fundamental change in our perspective – that our competition is with 'Unemployability'. Hence, we are focusing on addressing verticals that have mass employment potential with career development potential. Also, it has driven us to add many differentiated elements to our student value proposition. We endeavour to keep delivering a much superior ROI and faster payback for the students as compared to the formal sector and maintain our competitive edge in the skilling space. ARenabled courseware, Creosouls - the career-oriented social media platform, 100-hr free employability training capsule focused on soft and personal skills, and multiple university tie-ups that offer a pathway to international degrees are some of the key components of our differentiated value proposition. The multitude of events, competitions, seminars, masterclasses, and workshops give them exposure to the latest industry trends, simulate the experience of working under deadlines and help them develop as a wellrounded professional with desirable personality attributes. As a result, the Company has managed to become or retain its leadership position in its industry for many verticals and in many geographical markets.
Two years ago, as a response to the pandemic restrictions, your Company was agile in moving its complete operations online, including all the student lifecycle processes. This Digital Pivot was key to protecting our business and to survive during the tough COVID-19 related restrictions. During this period, we delivered more than 5 million student hours and 1+ million tutor hours of online training across all brands in the domestic market. We counselled 1,25,000+ prospects through the online channels and had a 20%+ success rate in converting them to enrolments.
The Company’s ICAP team made us proud by placing 6,000+ students through completely digital placement activities including online job fairs. One of the most significant milestones in our Digital Pivot was the first ever virtual edition of the 24FPS International Animation Awards where we had over 9,000 concurrent viewers against offline participation of under 2,600.
These were not only achievements but also learning experiences that have enabled us to bring about long-term changes in our business model that will boost network profitability and open new growth avenues. From the earlier 100% classroom-based course delivery, we have now moved to a “Phygital” model of course delivery for the courses offered through our learning centres. In addition, we have also launched a completely online learning platform, ProAlley, to target the re-skilling and upskilling market for working professionals based on our learnings from the Digital Pivot. While ProAlley is our entry into the high-growth EdTech sector, we intend to pursue sustainable and profitable growth against the norm of cash burn and valuation pursuit in the sector.
The total of Cash, Cash Equivalents, Short-term Investments and Financial Instruments balance in summation as of March 31, 2022 jumped to 11,817 Lakhs from 8,082 Lakhs exactly one year ago.
While both the divisions, Domestic Retail and International Retail, saw growth on a YOY-basis in enrolments, booking and student collections, the pronounced impact of COVID-19 in FY2021-22 for the international markets vis-à-vis FY2020-21 meant the Domestic Retail division grew at a faster rate. The number of new centres signed up during the year went up to 99 from 82 in the previous year. This performance in our Retail segment has set us up well for the coming financial year when we will not have any significant overhang of the pandemic. One of the key growth initiatives for us in the Media & Entertainment vertical will be the purposeful launch of courses focused on the Gaming segment in time for the start of enrolment season in Q1 of FY2022-23 for which we have partnered with top gaming companies in the world.
After delivering the best-ever performance in the segment’s history, the Company’s Enterprise Business team has proven its capabilities to deliver the growth and potential in this business. The business has not only delivered the highest-ever top-line and profits but also generated record operating cash, which was enough to convince the Board to reinstate it as a “Continuing” business and call off the sale. This turnaround performance was delivered by adapting the Company’s customer acquisition strategy to eschew risk and focus on mid to small-sized projects. The Company has successfully bagged many new customers to create a strong base for future growth and completed deliveries without any problems for the last four years. Another key reason for this success was the effort put in by the Company to upgrade its exam software to incorporate many state-of-the-art safety features and other additional features such as support for 10 unique question types.
As the Company nearly doubled its operating revenue, it more than quadrupled the net profit because of the operating leverage. Our operating margin has jumped from 2% in FY2020-21 to 14% in FY2021- 22 and the net profit margin from 10% to 21%. The total of Cash, Cash Equivalents, Short-term Investments and Financial Instruments balance in summation as of March 31, 2022 jumped to 11,817 Lakhs from 8,082 Lakhs exactly one year ago. Our ROE and ROCE recovered from 6% each in the previous year to 26% and 21% respectively. With our top brands geared toward growth, we are confident of sustaining the financial ratios at this level and optimistic about further improvements.
While it is very encouraging to deliver this kind of financial performance and give good returns to our shareholders, what gives each one of us at Aptech immense satisfaction is the role we are playing in making a difference in the lives of not only our students but their families. We are helping build the future of our country one family at a time. We rejoice when the Company receives recognitions as the ‘Skill Development Company of The Year’ or the ‘Best Franchisor of The Year – Education’ but what makes us most proud is to see the names of our alumni feature in the credits for all ten movies nominated in the Animation & Visual Effects categories at Oscar 2022. And this is exactly what the Soul of Aptech is all about – giving our students a platform to shine by making them employable.
In the end, I would like to thank all our stakeholders including the students, business partners, recruiters, shareholders, vendors, bankers and finally our employees for their continued support and confidence in the Company over the years.
Best wishes,
Dr. Anil Pant
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