This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on May 11, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: Asiamet Education Group Bhd, formerly Masterskill Education Group Bhd, expects to see the efforts of its rebranding, cost-cutting and aggressive programme promotions, undertaken since nine months ago, to bear fruit in another three to nine months.

The group, which saw its net loss for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016 (1QFY16) narrowed to RM3.04 million from RM3.42 million a year ago, has already seen a 50% rise in enrolment since November last year, and expects to see 200 more enrolments by July, and another 600 to 700 more by September.

Its executive director Subramaniam Amamalay said the group, as owner and operator of Asia Metropolitan University, was confident that the measures it had taken would encourage student growth in allied health sciences, therapeutic and emergency sciences, medicine, pharmacy and business by next year.

“We are positioning ourselves as Asia Metropolitan University, which is a rebranding, so we can attract more students. Our sales and marketing teams are working in Malaysia and overseas for that,” he told reporters after the company’s annual general meeting.

It also aims to achieve the government quota of 20% to 30% of foreign student enrolment.

“We currently have 1,350 students, but foreign students make up less than 10%. We are confident of enrolling more students this year.

“Our marketing efforts are ongoing in China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Libya. We are exploring other countries, but these are the ones in which our sales and marketing [teams] have a firm partnership with local agencies.

“We should be able to say how we will perform for FY16 in the third quarter of this year. We only implemented these steps nine months ago. We should be able to see the results in 12 to 18 months [from when we started],” said Subramaniam.

The group has trimmed between 20% and 30% in maintenance expenses, particularly for utilities, since last year, said Subramaniam.

Asiamet has been in the red since FY12, when it recorded a net loss of RM28.2 million, compared to a net profit of RM38.1 million in FY11, as student intakes declined. It went on to record losses in FY13 (RM163 million), FY14 (RM44 million) and FY15 (RM22.1 million). Between FY12 and FY15, revenue had fallen 90% to RM24.5 million from RM250.2 million.

Though the group’s net loss narrowed to RM3.04 million in 1QFY16, on lower cost of sales and operating expenses, revenue dropped 14.2% to RM6.5 million from RM7.56 million, mainly due to lower student enrolment.

Besides executing its plans to drive student enrolment, Asiamet intends to dispose of assets to raise its cash position, its results filing yesterday read.