Shares of TAL Education (TAL) and New Oriental Education (EDU) traded lower yesterday on speculation that the Chinese government was about to release new regulations for the K-12 tutoring industry, Daiwa John Choi tells investors in a research note. Today, China's State Council published a directive in relation to regulations for after-school training institutions, the analyst adds. He believes some of the major regulations that could potentially disrupt the daily operations of TAL and New Oriental include legal compliance of institutions in areas of licensing and staff teaching qualifications, academic course details being submitted to the regional education department and publicly disclosed, tutorial sessions not overlapping with school time and having to end no later than 8pm, and institutions not being able to collect no more than three months of tuition prepayments. Choi expects the measures to reduce the financial visibility on the affected deferred revenue balances for TAL and New Oriental, but views China's new directive as favorable for scalable tutoring companies in China that have high compliance standards. He remains long-term positive on the sector and optimistic of the growth prospects of TAL and New Oriental "given their high teaching standards."

Reports Q4 revenue $429.56M, consensus $389.78M. "We ended the 2024 fiscal year with continued development across our core businesses, each delivering distinct value propositions to our customers." said Alex Peng, TAL's president and CFO.