China Education Sector: Shares Deeply Undervalued as For-Profit Classification Remains an Overhang

Share prices of the higher education names under our coverage, China Education Group, or CEG; China New Higher Education, or CNHE; China YuHua Education; and Edvantage, are trading near historical lows, with investors staying sidelined due to for-profit classification overhang. It's been two years since some schools received preliminary approval, but none have been officially classified as for-profit schools. Nonetheless, our base case remains that for-profit classification will proceed. We do not think China will make all higher education schools nonprofit as funding more education adds to the already stretched finances of local governments.