(Yicai Global) Oct. 27 -- Shares of New Oriental Education & Technology Group soared after the Chinese education technology firm logged a 9 percent leap in net profit for its fiscal first quarter compared with a year ago.

New Oriental [HKG: 9901] climbed 20 percent in Hong Kong to end today at HKD20.65 (USD2.63). Its New York-listed stock [NYSE: EDU] closed up over 28 percent at USD27.02 yesterday.

Net profit was USD66 million in the three months ended Aug. 31, thanks to cost-cutting and new businesses such as livestreaming arm Oriental Select, the Beijing-based firm said in an earnings report released yesterday. Operating income surged 141 percent to nearly USD78 million, while revenue fell 43 percent to USD744.8 million.

“We are pleased to have achieved turnaround in profitability this quarter upon the restructuring throughout the last fiscal year,” said Chief Financial Officer Yang Zhihui.

The number of New Oriental’s schools and learning centers dropped to 706 by the end of the firm’s fiscal first quarter of 2023, Chief Executive Zhou Chenggang said. Meanwhile, Oriental Select saw rapid growth subscriber and user numbers, he added.

New Oriental's overseas test preparation and overseas study consulting businesses grew about 2 percent and 21 percent, respectively, from a year earlier, its financial report showed.

Other new business initiatives since the second half of fiscal 2022 also marked up positive results. The non-academic tutoring business, launched in over 60 cities, reached 297,000 enrollments in the quarter. Intelligent learning systems and devices were adopted in around 60 cities, with 131,000 active paid users.

New Oriental said it expects net revenue in the current quarter to be in the range of USD601.4 million to USD619.2 million, a 6 percent to 9 percent decline from a year ago, because of the seasonality of some of its main businesses.

Editor: Futura Costaglione