BEIJING, Oct. 20, 2009 (Xinhua News Agency) -- Chinese leading education provider, the New Oriental Education & Technology Group (NYSE:EDU) (EDU.NYSE), said Tuesday that its net profits for the first quarter of the 2010 fiscal year ending August 31 of this year were up 27.1 percent year on year to 57.1 billion US dollars, boosted mainly by a healthy increase in customers, reported local web media Techsina.com.cn.
Efficiency was slightly down, and its operating income surged 26.3 percent to US149.4 million dollars for the quarter, lower than a 27.4 percent rise in operating costs and expenditures which was US88.4 million dollars, said the report citing New Oriental financial results.
Its operating margin was also down at 40.8 percent, compared to the 41.3 percent a year ago.
Dividends, correspondingly, were US3.7 million dollars, less than the 3.9 million dollars in Q1 fiscal 2009.
New Oriental's basic and diluted earnings per ADR were US1.52 dollars and US1.47 dollars, the report said.The company, however, has lifted its sales and marketing expenditure as much as 57.3 percent to promote new schemes and the corporate brand in order to win customers for Q1 in fiscal 2010.
