(Yicai Global) Jan. 17 -- Dashan Education Holdings, which provides after-school teaching to primary, junior and senior high school students, has applied for an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

Zhengzhou-based Dashan's IPO prospectus did not give any details about the size of the offering, but it did say that about 60 percent of the funds raised will go on business expansion across China including the building of a teaching center network. It aims to directly run 140 teaching centers by the end of 2022.

Founded in 1988, Dashan mainly offers tutoring in English, Chinese, math, and other subjects to students in Zhengzhou, the capital of central Henan province. More than half of its revenue comes from English language courses.

The value of Henan's after-school tutoring market jumped to about CNY31.4 billion in 2018 from about CNY19.6 billion in 2014, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.5 percent. That is projected to increase to CNY58.9 billion by 2024 with a CAGR of 11.1 percent, the prospectus added, citing a report from California-based business consultancy Frost Sullivan.

Dashan's revenue hit CNY217 million (USD31 million), CNY290 million and CNY277 million in 2017, 2018 and the first three quarters of last year, the prospectus said, with English teaching accounting for 52.9 percent, 55.8 percent and 56.9 percent in those years.

Profit in the first three quarters of 2017, 2018 and 2019 was CNY94.9 million, CNY129 million and CNY118 million, with 41,000, 54,000 and 58,000 students, respectively.

About 30 percent of the funds raised in the IPO will be used to expand Dashan's presence and scale, as well as acquisitions of after-school extracurricular service providers in other parts of China, such as second- and third-tier cities. The remaining 10 percent will be used as general working capital.

The company already has 80 self-operating education centers, and added English-language nursery services for children aged three to seven in December. Dashan also opened a teaching agency in northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region last year.

Editor: Peter Thomas