IDP EDUCATION LIMITED — AGM Information 2021

Oct 18, 2021

==> picture [131 x 72] intentionally omitted <==

IDP EDUCATION ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS FOR THE 2021 FINANCIAL YEAR BY PETER POLSON Tuesday 19 October 2021

Good morning again ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us for today’s Annual General Meeting.

My name is Peter Polson, and I am the Chairman of your company and today’s meeting. Also present at today’s virtual meeting are Board members Professor David Battersby, Ariane Barker, Professor Colin Stirling, Chris Leptos, Greg West, Andrew Barkla, our CEO and Managing Director and management representatives: Julie Hutchinson, Group Financial Controller and Ashley Warmbrand, our Company Secretary and General Counsel. Unfortunately, our CFO, Murray Walton is currently on medical leave and could not be with us today.

During the past year, as the world continued to navigate the pandemic, IDP strengthened its position as a global leader in international education services.

COVID-19 presents a unique challenge for our industry. However, throughout this period, we have been able to provide support for our international students and our university clients. We have responded quickly to our customers’ and clients’ diverse needs, largely through the strategic investments we had made in our global teams and technology. I will shortly hand over to Andrew Barkla to discuss the operational highlights of the year. However, before I do, I would like to provide a short overview on IDP’s performance in the financial year of 2021.

IDP’s resilient business model and decisive management actions have ensured that the company maintained its strong industry leading position throughout the past year.

Despite ongoing significant challenges presented by the pandemic, our total group revenue was down only 10%, relative to FY20 to $528.7m.

Andrew will provide further insights later in the meeting into the operational performance of the business, but I am pleased to note that our largest operation, IELTS, experienced resilient demand with overall volumes up 5% versus FY20.

This performance demonstrates people are emerging from the pandemic with their dreams intact and are both looking ahead and looking abroad. IELTS is a key enabler for students and migrants aiming to achieve their global study and career aspirations.

To drive long term growth IDP maintained its investment in its people and ongoing product development during the year. This commitment to our teams and customers meant we did not fully adjust expenses to match the short-term decline in revenue. As a result, profitability for the year was impacted with Adjusted EBIT down (35%) to $71.8m and Adjusted NPAT down 36% to $45.0m.

Importantly, our disciplined capital management ensured that we finished the year with a very strong cash balance of $307m. The solid balance sheet that we have built up has allowed us to navigate the pandemic and are now well-positioned to drive our sector’s rebound with new opportunities.

Our long-term customer focussed strategy, our investment in technology and our disciplined financial management underpinned a solid result in a heavily COVID-19 impacted period. The 58% increase in our share price during the financial year reflects not only an environment of asset price inflation but confidence in our strategic direction and the future opportunities for the IDP Group. I am also happy to note that during the year we were included in the S&P/ASX 100 Index, which is a significant milestone for your company.

From a strategic perspective, IDP has remained focused on our vision to build a platform and connected community which helps international students achieve their global career and study aspirations. We continued to invest in technology and build our data science team. This has enabled us to provide smarter course matching for students, leverage the insights from our global dataset and improve the productivity of our expert advisors. It is this trusted human support, powered by leading technology and infrastructure that sets IDP apart from other technology enabled players in the sector.

This rapid innovation is being replicated across all business lines. We have embedded global systems for virtual counselling, applications and events. And in our IELTS business,

volumes are rebounding, boosted by our investment in technology and improving the customer experience.

Throughout all the innovation and strategic programs of the past year it was the strength, expertise and compassion of IDP’s people that shone through. Our teams supported each other, as well as our customers and our communities through the wideranging challenges of the pandemic. Now, 12 months on, we are capturing new opportunities, and most importantly, supporting more people to reignite their global ambitions.

To you, our shareholders, we are grateful to you for your support as we strive to transform the company and our industry during these unprecedented times.

Thank you.