{"id":631411,"date":"2026-04-27T07:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/631411\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T07:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:27:12","slug":"esf-reserves-reach-hk3-75-billion-even-as-government-subsidies-shrink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/631411\/","title":{"rendered":"ESF reserves reach HK$3.75 billion, even as government subsidies shrink"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The reserves of Hong Kong\u2019s largest international school group have more than tripled to HK$3.75 billion (US$480.8 million) in over a decade, even as it taps different income sources to offset shrinking government subsidies, the South China Morning Post has found by reviewing the organisation\u2019s annual reports.<\/p>\n<p>The <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/esf-english-schools-foundation?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">English Schools Foundation<\/a> (ESF) also said in its annual report for the 2024-25 academic year that it expected increased competition for students and it would modernise its marketing strategies to attract the children of talent and investors settling in the city.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The report showed that its net assets, which matched its reserves, reached a record HK$3.75 billion, surpassing Lingnan University\u2019s HK$2.65 billion and the Education University of Hong Kong\u2019s HK$2.04 billion for their 2024-25 financial year ending last June.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The SCMP review of the ESF\u2019s financial reports found that its reserves were more than three times the HK$1.18 billion recorded in 2012-13 and had grown continually for more than 10 years.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The reserves came from the group\u2019s operational surplus, which comprised tuition fee income and capital funds from nomination rights.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">In a reply to the SCMP, an ESF spokesman said: \u201cWe have to accumulate financial reserves that will allow us to renew, refresh and rebuild our schools when they require it. The overwhelming majority of our reserves are ring-fenced for this purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The reserves of Hong Kong\u2019s largest international school group have more than tripled to HK$3.75 billion (US$480.8 million)&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,49,48,46,236345,166664,236353,236346,236350,236348,15674,236352,90948,236351,236347,34687,236349],"class_list":{"0":"post-631411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-education-in-hong-kong","13":"tag-education-university-of-hong-kong","14":"tag-english-schools-foundation","15":"tag-esf","16":"tag-esf-centre","17":"tag-esf-explore","18":"tag-hong-kong","19":"tag-international-baccalaureate","20":"tag-lingnan-university","21":"tag-nomination-rights-schemes","22":"tag-north-point","23":"tag-tai-po","24":"tag-tuen-mun"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}