Durban - AdvTech, the education, recruitment and human resources group, would open one of its four educational expansion projects at the beginning of next year, Frank Thompson, the chief executive, said on Friday.
This follows AdvTech's settlement of a three-year legal dispute with Graham Crawford, the founder of Crawford colleges.
The dispute involved claims of a breach of a restraint of trade agreement, diversion of a corporate opportunity for Crawford's benefit instead of AdvTech's, non-disclosures relating to employee benefits and unauthorised granting of bursaries to Crawford's family members.
Thompson said the company would now focus on managing the business through to the financial year-end.
"We have already committed R40 million in capital expenditure, which will help with the four projects," he said.
Of the 20 000 students in AdvTech's education division, 7 000 belong to Crawford schools. Other educational institutions in the AdvTech group include Bond University, Varsity College, Rosebank College and College Campus.
AdvTech, which is also involved in a claim against the vendors of the Communicate Group, has spent R22.4 million in legal fees in the past two-and-a-half years. The company is claiming R130 million against Communicate, disputing the basis used by Communicate to calculate its profit during a profit warranty period.
Thompson would not comment on the case, saying the litigation board subcommittee and the group's legal team were now able to focus on concluding the case in the interest of shareholders.
The company recently turned around its performance to report a 27 percent rise in operating profit to R19.5 million for the six months to June, following three years of poor earnings. Its income statement had been heavily hit by massive goodwill write-downs in the previous financial year.
The group attributed its recent improvement to its focus on resolving its problems in the past 12 months.
Thompson said a R14 million settlement from the Crawford case would result in Crawford delivering 15.4 million AdvTech shares and paying R5.25 million by December.
"After considering all options of what to do with the shares, we decided that the best will be to sell the shares to the share incentive scheme, which will be used to cover share options held under the scheme by senior management."
Calculated on a pro forma basis for the 12 months to June, the settlement would have enhanced AdvTech's headline earnings a share by 24 percent and net asset value by 6 percent.
AdvTech shares closed 2c lower at 54c on Friday.