Private education is, by design, not a benevolent commodity. South Africa boasts some of the most prestigious and highly priced private schools in the world — some commanding annual fees as high as R350,000. Such education is elitist in nature and generally reserved for the upper echelons of society who can afford to pay for the exclusivity.
Certainly, when investment firm PSG took its private school brand Curro Holdings public in 2011, listing it on the JSE’s Alternative Exchange (AltX), it had a desire to make money. Founded with just 28 pupils inside a vestry church in 1998, Curro had in 2011 grown to 12 campuses with 5,500 pupils.
It was able to raise R318m through a rights offer, and another R476m the following year in 2012 through a similar rights offer. From then on, the company went on an aggressive school expansion campaign, and now its schools enrol 72,000 pupils in 81 campuses — 77 in South Africa, three in Namibia and one in Botswana.
The foundation has hinted at containing school fees at current levels, providing bursaries to the underprivileged and expanding school infrastructure
What Curro has successfully done over the years, however, is pitch its private schools in the affordable bracket for many middle-class parents, with monthly school fees averaging between R3,500 and R6,000 depending on the level of the academy and its amenities. Granted, that is not affordable for the majority, but its target market has never been the majority.
This week, its share price rallied on news that the Jannie Mouton Foundation has tabled a R7bn buyout offer to turn the institution nonprofit. It is offering a R13 a share buyout, a 60% premium on the closing price at the time of the announcement. Settlement will either be cash or shares in PSG-owned businesses, including its highly successful bank Capitec. Shareholders are likely to vote overwhelmingly in favour.
This is an extraordinary act of giving back by the billionaire founder of PSG and his family. The foundation has hinted at containing school fees at current levels, providing bursaries to the underprivileged and expanding school infrastructure. That is difficult to do as a public company when you are under constant pressure to return dividends to shareholders.
An overall enrolment of 72,000 might be viewed by some as a drop in the ocean in a country of 13.4-million school pupils. But instead of hoarding their money or expatriating it abroad, the Mouton Foundation is engaging in the highest act of philanthropy. This we can only applaud.
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