English-training ?school? to? list? on ?Wall? Street

China's largest English-training school is seeking to raise funds by listing on the New York Stock Exchange Big Board.

Beijing-based New Oriental Education and Technology Group Inc registered on August 22 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise US$112 million through an initial public offering (IPO) under the symbol "EDU."

The company has helped hundreds of thousands of Chinese students get into US universities,

According to its website, the company expects to price its IPO around next Wednesday. It plans to offer 7.5 million American depositary shares foreign company shares traded in the United States at an estimated price of US$11 to US$13 per share.

With the money raised, the company plans to use US$18.5 million to pay off its debts and some US$20 million to expand its teaching network in China, according to its SEC prospectus.

Yu Minhong (also known as Michael Yu), the company's board chairman, told China Daily in an email yesterday that he is currently "on business in the United States." He did not disclose any other details.

Founded in 1993 by Yu, New Oriental has grown from a class of only 30 students to China's largest private education service provider. It has a network of 25 schools and 111 learning centres in 24 cities as well as an online network that has attracted 2 million registered users.

Before setting up the school, Yu was an English teacher at Peking University for seven years with a monthly salary of just US$12.

Denied a visa to study in the United States, Yu started his own test-preparation classes to coach others to pass the Test of English as a Foreign Language, known as TOEFL, and the Graduate Record Examinations, or GRE, the two tests required for foreign students to gain admission to US graduate schools.

The school has benefited from Chinese students' increasing desire to study overseas. Figures from the school show that it had about 872,000 students enrolled for the 2006 fiscal year that ended May 31. Since its establishment, the school has taught more than 3 million students.

詞匯：
1. Securities and Exchange Commission：[SEC] 證券管理委員會(huì)（證管會(huì)）
2. initial public offering (IPO) ：首次公開募股
3. pay off：v. 還清(債務(wù)等)付清,
4. disclose：vt. 透露
5. enrol：vt.登記, 入學(xué)

相關(guān)鏈接：

上海東方早報(bào)記者昨日獲悉，中國(guó)最大的私立教育服務(wù)機(jī)構(gòu)新東方教育技術(shù)集團(tuán)已于8月22日向美國(guó)證券交易委員會(huì)提交了上市申請(qǐng)，計(jì)劃發(fā)行750萬股美國(guó)存托憑證，融資規(guī)模在9000萬美元左右。

上海東方早報(bào)記者在昨天拿到的一份新東方IPO申請(qǐng)材料中看到，新東方此次計(jì)劃發(fā)行750萬股美國(guó)存托憑證，預(yù)計(jì)募集資金規(guī)模在9000萬美元左右。目前，新東方已聘請(qǐng)高盛、瑞士信貸及PiperJaffray作為主承銷商。承銷商還可選擇購買除配額之外的112.5萬股新東方美國(guó)存托憑證(每股美國(guó)存托憑證相當(dāng)于四股普通股)。

材料顯示，在截至5月31日的過去三個(gè)財(cái)政年內(nèi)，新東方營(yíng)收分別為4.418億、6.433億和7.703億元人民幣。教育項(xiàng)目是新東方收入的主要來源，分別占97.4%、94.3%、93.7%。此外，新東方還有圖書出版等其他收入來源。截至今年5月底，新東方有3300萬美元現(xiàn)金儲(chǔ)備和1280萬美元長(zhǎng)期債務(wù)。在募集資金投向方面，新東方將用1850萬美元來償還債務(wù)，用2000萬美元來擴(kuò)大學(xué)校的網(wǎng)絡(luò)，其余的資金則支付其他一般性的運(yùn)營(yíng)費(fèi)用。

另據(jù)外電報(bào)道，新東方計(jì)劃在9月初于紐約證交所上市，交易代碼為“EDU”?？紤]到9月8日起，中國(guó)政府針對(duì)外國(guó)投資者投資境內(nèi)企業(yè)的新政策將開始實(shí)施，新東方此次IPO預(yù)計(jì)在9月4日進(jìn)行。

新東方創(chuàng)建于1993年，號(hào)稱是中國(guó)最大私立教育服務(wù)機(jī)構(gòu)。自創(chuàng)辦以來，累計(jì)已有300萬名學(xué)生參與新東方培訓(xùn)，僅今年就有87.2萬名。截至2006年5月31日，新東方擁有25所學(xué)校、111個(gè)學(xué)習(xí)中心和13個(gè)書店，大約有1700名教師分布在24個(gè)城市。與此同時(shí)，新東方還擁有網(wǎng)絡(luò)虛擬社區(qū)，大約有200萬注冊(cè)用戶。

目前，新東方CEO俞敏洪擁有公司31.18%的股權(quán)，作為投資者的老虎環(huán)球基金占14.91%，此外，還有15%的股份分給CapitalRiverGroup、PeakIdeaInterna-tional和ForthrightTraining三個(gè)投資方。