Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the IDP Education Investor Call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question- and- answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to Miss Tennealle O'Shannessy, Chief Executive Officer. Please go ahead.
Thanks, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining the call today. I'm joined today by Craig Mackey , who, as you all know, is our Director of Corp Dev and Head of Investor Relations. Today, we launched an announcement with the ASX, which provides investors with an update on market conditions and how IDP is navigating the current environment. We'll take you through the key elements of this announcement, after which we'll be happy to take questions. When we last spoke in February at our half one results, we acknowledged the various changes that were occurring in the global regulatory environment for international education. It was difficult to predict at that time how these changes would play out and what the impact would be on the industry and on our business performance.
We're now at a point where we believe the majority of the policy changes have been implemented or announced, and therefore, we have a clearer view of the likely short-term impact on the market and on our business. Let's start first with an overview of the policy environment we're currently operating in. At the outset, it's important to note that it's our view that these changes are focused on more restrictive policy settings linked to election cycles, and are targeting a short-term reduction in immigration growth rates. Now, let's be clear, IDP has navigated these mini cycles many times before. What is unique in the current environment, however, is the synchronization of these cycles, with policy settings tightening across IDP's key destinations, Australia, the U.K., and Canada, at the same time.
While these changes are creating near-term constraints on the supply side, we continue to strongly believe that the powerful demographic and economic macro drivers remain in place for long-term growth. So I'd like to move now to provide an update on IDP's current trading. Now, everyone on this call will be aware of the range of global policy changes, changes announced over the last six months. The impact of these changes is clearly evident in recent government visa approval stats. Australia, Canada, and the U.K. were all down between 20% and 30% in Q1 this calendar year, versus the same time last year. While IDP continues to strongly outperform these broader market trends, the various policy changes have impacted the performance of our student placement and testing businesses in the current half.
So let's go into this in a little bit more detail, and I'll start with student placement. Our student placement volumes for FY 2024 are expected to be up 15%-20% versus FY 2023. Now, this obviously implies a slowdown in growth in the half, in half two as a result of the market environment. I'd like to just pause and provide a little bit more color on what we're seeing here. This flatter profile in the second half reflects a couple of things. Firstly, the May intake for Canada was lower than planned, given the disruptions caused by the new cap and the new visa documentation process, which was only finalized at the end of March.
As we flagged in February, what we actually saw in the first part of half two was that visa processing was effectively paused while provinces created and implemented the required new processes. Secondly, enrollments for the next U.K. intake have also been impacted by the ongoing uncertainty regarding the Graduate route, in addition to the announced changes to dependent visas. And finally, for Australia, while IDP's visa approval rates remain well above industry averages, we have had lower conversion for the July intake. Now, this is primarily booked in the current half. So while these numbers are below our historical growth rates, we are very proud of the expected outcome for FY 2024. This will be strong evidence of IDP's outperformance relative to a market that is expected to show a decline for the period. So as we move now to IELTS.
IELTS volumes in the second half have also been impacted by the regulatory uncertainty. We're expecting FY 2024 IELTS volumes to be down 15%-20% versus FY 2023. While we've seen a softening in conditions across all markets, the biggest impact has been in markets that are most sensitive to policy changes and visa settings. This is classically the markets in South Asia and in particular India. So just to provide a little bit more detail in terms of what we're seeing in the conditions in India. The Indian testing industry has been materially impacted by the regulatory uncertainty and increased visa rejection rates across each of the Commonwealth countries.
Thinking about it from a test-taker perspective, facing disruption in Canada, uncertainty regarding the U.K.'s post-study work right regime, and higher visa rejection rates for Australia, what we're seeing is prospective test takers have been re-deferring their international journey until a more certain environment returns. We are, of course, also managing a more competitive environment for Canadian-bound test takers, which has contributed to the performance in the period, but to a much lesser extent than the movement in the market. Outside of India, we continue to see growth in the current half.... While the other markets aren't immune to the regulatory changes, the diversified nature of our country portfolio and the variety of use cases for IELTS provide some offset for volumes.
Just to round out, while much smaller contributors, our other business lines being English language teaching and our other student placement support services continue to perform well. In response to these conditions, we've been working hard to offset this softer volume environment by managing the levers that are within our control. This is demonstrated by our continued strong student placement market share growth and our ongoing efforts on price. In that regard, we continue to record very good average fee growth across both student placements and IELTS. This fee growth is being supported by inflationary dynamics for testing and tuition fees, as well as ongoing increases in our terms of trade with university clients. We've also been very disciplined on cost and taken out discretionary spend during the half, which will ensure that second half overheads are below those recorded in half one.
When we bring all of these various drivers together, our current expectation for earnings is that adjusted EBIT for FY 2024 will be broadly in line with the number we reported in FY 2023. I'd like to move now to outlook. Looking forward, we expect that the size of the aggregate international education market will contract over the next 12 months due to the various supply side constraints that have been implemented by governments in our key markets, and as we have summarized in the appendix of our announcement. If the current trends continue, and importantly, assuming no further change in key immigration and visa policy settings, we currently estimate that the total number of new international students commencing study in our six key destination markets will decline by 20%-25% in FY 2025, relative to the volumes expected to be reported for FY 2024.
Given this market environment, we expect to record a decline in IDP's volumes for both student placement and IELTS in FY 2025. But very importantly, we believe that both of these business lines will outperform the broader market decline that I've just outlined. Also, still obviously remains several uncertainties in the outlook. For example, as you all know, the Australian government is still only in the early stages of consultation with the sector on their cap proposal, and the Canadian government has not yet communicated its calendar year 2025 cap numbers. It was important to us, and we wanted to give the market our current best estimate of the year ahead for the industry. So next, how is IDP positioned in the current environment, and what are we doing to respond?
As I said at the start, and I really want to reinforce this, it is important to note that we believe the current dynamics are short-term and cyclical, driven by election cycles. We have seen these mini cycles before, and we remain very confident in the long-term trajectory of the industry and in our strategy. As we navigate this period, we are focused on three key areas. Firstly, we're focused on increasing student placement market share. We spent some time at the half one results, explaining that these policy changes will increase the sector's focus on quality and conversion. As the leading quality player, IDP is well- placed to help our students and clients navigate the changing market conditions. This was evident in IDP's strong gains in market share in student placement in the half one results.
These trends have continued, and we expect that IDP's volume growth for FY 2024 will provide further evidence of this outperformance. The question that may be asked is: Why is IDP growing market share, and why are we confident about taking further share in FY 2025 and beyond? Really, it comes down to three things. Firstly, it's our client portfolio. We're over-indexed to higher quality universities in each of our key markets. These providers always show less cyclicality, and IDP's through the cycle performance often reflects the strengths and quality of this client portfolio. Secondly, it's our source market share. In current conditions, we will see a flight to quality in source markets, where students and parents will want advice from quality agents that can demonstrate they are best placed to support students through what is a complex visa environment.
This, again, is evidenced in IDP's strong relative performance in visa acceptance rates versus the market, that we shared with you in the first half results. And thirdly, our service offering. Our source country market share is also being driven by our increasingly unique services, superior lead generation, and higher conversion rates. The second area we're focused on is our strategy and digital product innovation. We remain focused on our long-term strategy, which will position us well when the industry rebounds.
As you know, this strategy is based in part on building unmatched global scale and an increasingly unique service offering. We are not stepping back from our core strategic programs of work, and we will fund these through an ongoing CapEx program that supports digital product innovation, leveraging our unique data assets and software development linked to a deeper understanding of our customer and client needs. We continue to execute strongly against key initiatives like FastLane and Peer Community in student placement, and One Skill Retake in IELTS, and we look forward to providing an update on progress with our full year results communication in August. The third area that we're focused on is cost reduction. During the current half, we have been very disciplined on cost, and as we committed to in February, we have taken actions to reduce overheads versus what we've recorded in half one.
In addition to this, we have completed a review of the expected cost base for FY 2025, and we are implementing a cost reduction program that is designed to broadly align total expenses to the near-term revenue outlook. Now, I want to spend a little bit of time taking you through the principles we are applying here. In sizing the cost base, we have been very careful to find the right balance between short-term and long-term objectives. We are fundamentally a long-term growth company with a large global footprint and exposure to high growth emerging markets. We therefore need to factor in incremental expenditure to further our strategy and to appropriately reward and retain our highly sought-after global staff. Organic accretion in this cost base over time is therefore natural and should be expected.
To free up capital to fund this natural accretion in a more challenging year, we are implementing a range of cost reduction measures. These cost savings are focused on the following areas. Under non-staff, we have trimmed discretionary expenditure across a number of areas, including travel, consultancy, IT, and marketing to reflect the market conditions. Under staff, we are reducing our staff base by approximately 6%, with targeted reductions in nine countries where efficiencies were identified. It's important to note that changes to our global office and testing footprint are minimal, and we are focused on minimizing impact on revenue generating roles. As I mentioned, we will also continue to fund an expansionary CapEx program, which will likely include some additional offices in high growth markets where profitability can be achieved in year one.
Bringing this all together in summary, the experienced management team are responding to these short-term conditions to ensure that we minimize, where possible, impact on margins for shareholders. At the same time, however, we are mindful, as we saw after COVID, that once policy settings are neutralized, underlying intrinsic demand will flow. We are managing this business for long-term shareholder value creation, and therefore are mindful that we need to continue to invest for the inevitable recovery and to not cut into the strategic muscle of the firm. Now, this is a delicate balance, and we will continue to monitor this as the year progresses. We will obviously be watching volumes and revenue, but we will also be working with governments and the sector to enhance our view on the timing and shape of the inevitable recovery.
So to close today's call, and before I open it up to Q&A, despite the near-term policy-driven cyclical dynamics, we remain very confident in the structural growth drivers for the international education market. We believe that the economic and social importance of the international education industry and immigration more broadly will underpin the market's long-term growth trajectory. As the leading quality player in the sector, IDP remains very well- placed to help students and clients navigate these challenging market conditions. We're very confident in our ability to continue to increase market share in student placement as the sector focuses on quality and the value of our increasingly unique services expands. Thank you, all. Craig and I will now be very happy to take your questions. I'll pass you back to the operator.
Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star two. If you're on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. Your first question comes from Chris Gawler with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Morning, Tennealle and Craig, can you hear me okay?
We can. Thanks.
Excellent. First question, just on the student placement outlook, and you noted this in your opening remarks, that historically you've tried to outperform the market by around 20%. Is that the level that you would hope to outperform in FY 2025 or is there any reason to think it could be, could be greater than that, given the flight to quality?
Thanks, Chris. I'll take this one. So if we have a look at our FY 2024 performance, which I think is what you're referring to, our relative performance this year is exceptional. So I'm really proud of the resilience of our teams, and I think this really highlights the quality of our counselors and the quality of the students and clients we work with. So when we are reporting the details in the full year, the delta between our FY 2024 results and the market outcomes that we expect to see, what we expect to see is that the delta in the visa data will be stark. Market share gains will continue into FY 2025, as we have stated. We wouldn't expect this delta to be as significant as what we will see in FY 2024, but it will be material.
Okay, sure. Then just on the cost base, given you feel like you have a bit more visibility into what's going to happen into FY 2025 now, just interested in how we should think about costs into 2025 on the second half base, given that you noted that overheads are declining in the second half versus the first half. What's the base we should think about for costs into 2025?
Yeah, certainly. So I'll kick off here and then I'll pass over to Craig to provide a little bit more color. So as we touched on in terms of FY 2024 overheads and how we're going into FY 2025, as I said, in the current period, we've reduced discretionary cost items to reflect the different market conditions. So this will result in a decline versus half one in our underlying expenses on things like marketing, consultancy, travel, and some IT costs. Important to say too, that 2/3 of our overheads are staff costs. Some of these have a variable component, which will provide a little flex. But as we've touched on, changes to the staff base require a more considered approach, which is what we're doing for the FY 2025 year. So that's some broad colors.
Craig, is there anything to add there?
Yeah, look, I suppose the point, Chris, is we won't guide at this early stage for the year on specific margins for 2025. It is, as Tennealle mentioned, a delicate balance. We are balancing the near-term needs to protect margins for shareholders, but also with a mind to the longer term opportunity. So that will evolve as we see the markets perform over the next six months. Fair to say though, we've started the year with the actions that we've taken to reduce structurally the cost base across certain parts of the business, to allow that cost envelope to naturally accrete, as Tennealle said. So we are leaning into growth we're seeing in certain areas, and what we've done is freed up capital or costs and OpEx in the business to accommodate for that investment in the 2025 year.
The net impact on margins and the outlook for the aggregate cost base for 2025 will be a dynamic assessment through the year as we see the green shoots emerge in early markets elsewhere, and as we sort of get a better view of how 2026 will shape up.
Yeah, sure. And then last question on average fees. Curious into how we should think about that into FY 2025 versus the 4%-5% you've done historically. Is there anything in terms of mix or you mentioned, you know, in terms of trade with universities, it could soon be greater than that into 2025?
Yeah, I'll take this, if you like, Tennealle. Yeah, look, we're pretty confident about fees. There's a number of things going on. As Tennealle mentioned in the call, there's natural inflationary pressures on testing, which remains rational and profit-orientated in all the markets we operate. And in SP lands, student placement, we've got, again, natural inflation in tuition fees. We are seeing, you know, a flight to quality from clients wanting to work with preferred and quality providers, and in that environment, there has been a good opportunity to sort of increase our sort of average fees. To your point also, there is a natural tailwind here in terms of mix.
In IELTS, clearly our Indian business, which is at a lower average fee, is underperforming the global average in industry, given the sensitivity in that market to regulatory and visa changes. So we'll get a natural mix benefit in 2025 from that. And probably similarly, there'll be a little bit of that in SP, where a flight to quality, higher average tuition fees at higher quality courses will prevail. So, you know, our sense would be our 2025 outcome will be on average fees higher than the sort of historical run rates. Probably not to the extent that we saw in the first half. They were driven by some amazing outcomes, but still good momentum in that area.
Great. Thanks, Tennealle. I'll jump back in the queue.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Josh Kannourakis with Barrenjoey. Please go ahead.
Hi, Tennealle and Craig. Thank you for taking my question. First one, just to follow up with regard to, I guess, your ability to offset some of the declines in 2025. So I assume in 2024, as you mentioned, the market will probably end the year down year-on-year, and you guys have got placements up 15%-80%. If we look to 2025, so in terms of that share, how, like, should we be thinking that you should be able to offset half of that decline, 3/4 ? Have you got any figure in your mind today? And maybe is there any sort of deltas or data points you have in terms of pipeline or funnel that gives us an indication of that?
Yeah, look, thanks for the question, and really it's to reinforce the points that we've made earlier. Really proud of the team and the performance that will be delivered in FY 2024. As you touched on, the delta between IDP's FY 2024 result and the market outcome will be stark. We expect to see the market share gains continuing into FY 2025. We wouldn't expect the delta to be as significant, but it will be material, and it absolutely remains a focus for us.
As I touched on in the call, the reasons that we're confident that we can continue to drive market share over the next 12 months, and indeed moving forward, really centers around three factors: It's the strength of our client portfolio, and this over-indexing that we have to these higher quality universities in each of our key markets... What we tend to see is, with the focus on quality, with the focus on conversion, these universities tend to not demonstrate some of the same levels of cyclicality that we see in the broader market. It's the focus on source market share, and we're seeing this already. There is this flight to quality in source markets, where students and parents will want advice from quality agents that can demonstrate they are able to navigate complex visa conditions.
Clearly, our superior visa acceptance rates indicate IDP is the leading player here. It's the work that we're doing around product innovation to create these increasingly unique services, to work on superior lead generation with the work we're doing at the top of the funnel, and driving conversion through the funnel to lead to higher conversion rates. It very much remains an anchor and a focus on our strategy, and I think that the investments that we've made over a number of years strongly position IDP, the trusted player for both students and clients in this complex environment.
Got it. And Tennealle, do you, just in terms of that 15%-20% in 2024, do you have what your expectation is for the market? Is it -5%, -10%, -15%, -20%, like, just broad, broad numbers?
Yeah, Josh, I can take that one. So at the half, you might recall, we reported numbers which were up 33. That was exceptional performance underpinned by, you know, Australia up that level, and multi-destination, indeed, in aggregate at that level as well. We were benchmarking ourselves in that first half presentation. If you remember, the market was down 3% at that time, using the visas data. The quarter three, if you like, or the March quarter data, you'll have seen, says that, you know, Australia, U.K., and Canada are all down sort of 20%-30% period. U.S. is up 7%.
Well, we need to see how the fourth quarter of the financial year, the visa data pans out, but clearly it'll be a decline of greater than 3% relative to what was posted in the first half. But that, that's the sort of dynamics and the stats that you should be looking at.
Yep. No, that's very good. And final one from me, just on the industry side, like, obviously there's a lot of players that are probably not in as financially strong position as you guys and, you know, how should we think about the change in industry dynamics and maybe the competitive environment once the dust settles on some of the policy restrictions? And maybe if you could make some particular reference to some of the aggregator channels and the like as well, would be helpful. Thank you.
Yeah, look, I'll kick off, and look, Craig definitely has some opinions there, so I'm sure he'd love to jump in, too. Look, I think that what we have said is the purpose and the intent of these policy changes that you're seeing across all destinations, is to really bring an increasing focus on quality and sustainable growth into the industry. So we have seen governments explicitly call out a focus on less scrupulous players, and players that are operating in the lower quality segments.
So from an industry structure perspective, if the policy changes have the designed impacts, we think that it creates a stronger industry structure and gives opportunity for quality players like IDP to really be operating in a structure that is more consolidated and more sustainable, if you look out two to three years. So I think from an industry structure perspective, the policy changes are good, because they will move the entire industry focus more towards quality, which indexes very strongly to where we play. Specifically on aggregate, just Craig, is there anything you'd like to add there?
Well, look, just add that strategically we remain steadfast in, you know, over the last five or six years, despite the emergence of aggregator and other sort of, platform models, to remain close to the student and have a direct connectivity to the prospective student, with counselors that are fully trained on the destinations and have consistent experience across the counseling model. That transparency to that model and the connectivity of the student will keep us in good stead, as the governments and universities look to tighten the screws on models which don't provide that transparency or have lower and poorer quality outcomes. So again, we feel comfortable that the consolidation or the industry structure will move in a way that will further support our market share gains.
Okay, thanks. I'll give someone else a go. Thanks, Tennealle. Thanks, Craig.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Entcho Raykovski with E&P. Please go ahead.
Hi, Tennealle. Hi, Craig. My first question is on IELTS. It looks like IELTS volumes were down about 25% or thereabouts in the second half, which looks to be pretty consistent with the underlying market trends. Now, you've mentioned, Tennealle, in your prepared remarks, that you expect to outperform the market in IELTS in 2025. Can you talk about what you expect to be the key drivers of that outperformance?
Yeah. Yeah, certainly. So look, to provide a little bit more color there, IELTS does benefit from a very diversified exposure, and we expect that that will become more evident in the coming year. So, as you know, IELTS is used by students seeking study abroad, but it also has a wide range of other use cases. This can include use cases like for onshore purposes, such as permanent residency applications, migration, and skilled labor. We also have increasing volumes for domestic and intra-regional purposes in Asia and other parts of the network.
The comments that I was making there is, this diverse range of use cases, as well as the diverse spread of countries, should provide some offset to the declines in testing for students looking to study in the main Commonwealth countries, that we've spoken about in terms of the broader market trends.
... Okay, great. And do you, I mean, do you, do you expect, competition, I guess, not to be as intense, given, more recently, the recognition changes in Canada have had some impact on your market share?
Yeah. Hi, Entcho . Look, the competition really only has changed, as you know, in relation to that Canadian student flow, and onshore, permanent residency. The dynamics as we flagged was that over the first 12 months of that changed environment, we thought that the market share would equalize over that sort of 12-month period to kind of what we would see as the equilibrium for our IELTS position. So we're 3/4 of the way through that. We are navigating a dynamic market as it relates to Canada, because not only have we a competitive and market share dynamic, but that market has been significantly disrupted due to the regulatory and cap changes announced.
So it's a little bit tricky to bifurcate between share and the market, but we feel as if that's trending as we had originally modeled, and that, you know, through to the course of this calendar year, that should be sort of reaching that equilibrium as we indicated earlier.
Okay, great. And final one from me. How do you see the trajectory for each of the destination markets for 2025, that feeds into your expectations of a 20%-25% volume decline? And I'm particularly interested, perhaps, what you're assuming around the Australian market and the impact of the proposed caps. I know there's a lot of uncertainty there, but do you think, you know, Australia will be weaker than some of the other markets, or do you see fairly consistent declines across all markets?
Yeah, certainly. So I can have a go at this one. And look, as you flagged, there are still some things to be worked through, both in terms of the consultation process that the Australian government is going through with universities to finalize the details of how that cap will work. Similarly, in Canada, we are yet to hear what the calendar year 2025 cap levels will be in that market. So putting aside those uncertainties, in terms of what we know today, we would expect each of Australia, U.K., and Canada, to be down 20%-30% at a market level. We expect that if we have a look at some of our smaller markets like U.S.A., New Zealand, Ireland, we believe these in aggregate, will show growth at an industry level next year.
I think at this point, that's the, you know, the breakdown that, and the comments that we'd have by destination.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thank you. Your next question comes from John Marrin with CLSA. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Can you hear me okay?
We can, John, thanks.
Okay, good. So just building on that comment you just made, Tennealle, about the U.S., Ireland. I mean, I guess from some of our discussions recently, we're hearing that you know, clients in the U.S. are really sort of looking towards student placements agents you know, more robustly, I guess. And obviously there are macro factors there, but then can you speak to some of your recent trends? I know you talked about NYU on the last call, but what are you seeing in that market in terms of growth? And obviously, you know, good to hear year-over-year growth that you're expecting, but what kind of what kind of market share do you think you'll take in the near- term?
Yeah, thanks for the question, John. Look, we're really excited by the U.S. We're seeing good momentum for the U.S. We're expecting volumes to be up strongly in FY 2024, but I think it's important still at early days of building out our client portfolio. So it won't be able to fully offset the reduction in volumes we're seeing in our established destination countries in the short- term, but represents a really strong growth engine for us in the medium- term. As we touched on in the half, we've invested to build out our team working in the U.S., signing up these new clients. We doubled the size of that team. The team are making really good progress. So we've had six new clients signed this half, and we're close to signing another five to six this month.
So to give you a sense of the types of clients we're signing, it's names like Texas State, Stony Brook, Ball State. We've also extended our relationship with Northeastern in Boston, which is a top 50 school. So that's now been broadened to include all faculties, including the very popular engineering and computer science courses. So what I would say here is we see it as a real opportunity. We're investing to build it out, really good momentum, and you know how these things work, the more of the top-tier universities you sign up, it creates these positive impacts where we're able to open up the door to more and more conversations, but we are still relatively early in the building of the client book. That's something we're focusing on.
Our clients, are you seeing better pricing in the U.S.? Obviously these are new customers, but are you seeing better pricing? And you just discussed pricing in Australia and U.K. and Canada as well, on commission.
Yeah. Hi, John. Look, terms of trade are moving in our favor there. The U.S. is naturally a higher fee market for us anyway, given tuition fees are on average higher, and the sort of deals we're doing, are, as you would expect, is similar to kind of Commonwealth country rates, but naturally they show a higher per student fee. We're also seeing, in markets like the U.K., really good progress from the teams on incremental commission rates. You know, deals that are seeing us move from 15 to 17.5, or even 20% for some clients. These aren't, Russell Group at the moment, but like institutions in the sort of, you know, the sort of top five ranking institutions before that, below that level, so really quality outcomes.
The Australian market is more with past periods on tuition, but I think we're seeing inflation on tuition fees here and in the U.K., to be honest, also supportive. So lots of kind of positive things going on there.
Okay. All right, thanks guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Darren Leung with Macquarie. Please go ahead.
Morning, guys. Thanks for the opportunity. I just wanted to ask two questions, please, and the first one was in relation to the 6% headcount reduction one. Can we just confirm if this is on the base of the 5,000 employees, or is it on the base of the full 6,800? And I guess with context, is there any impact on the number of counselors in the platform?
Yeah, Darren, I can take that. Yeah, the employee base is around 7,000 staff. So, that converts to the kind of 6% number that we mentioned. So in aggregate, it's about 400 staff. Now, that's across nine countries, and the outcomes are very different and nuanced by country. So clearly, a move to save, take some costs and some efficiencies out of the corporate office and the Australian-based staff, which are in sort of high-cost locations. We've taken the opportunity to move some of the team members to the market and the network where they're close to the customers and also in better time zones. We've taken efficiencies in markets like China, where we've taken a little bit of restructuring of how the counseling flow works between sort of front office and back office, and there's efficiencies there.
We've got clearly a bit of a right sizing for the current environment in markets where IELTS volumes have come back a bit. Doesn't degrade our, you know, frontline sort of customer-facing roles, but it clearly reflects the sort of the volume environment that we're in. So there's an element of variability there that we've been able to take. And then clearly across back office functions, and finance, administration, and the rest, again able to find some efficiencies and some productivity gains just by leveraging that global network we've got with multiple countries, you know, operations and sort of existing footprints where we can add to some capability.
Yeah, I think that that's all right, Darren. I'd go back to the points I made in the call. At a first principle perspective, we were focused on minimizing the impact to our office footprint at a global scale is a very important part of the value that we offer, and looking to minimize disruption to the frontline revenue generating role. So as Craig just walked through, the majority of the movement was from corporate, regional, and support type roles.
Yeah. No, I think that makes sense and sensible in the current environment and position you're in. I guess as an extension of that, and kind of comes onto my second question is, you know, is there sort of enough in those back office functions and like the more luxury expenses like travel and consultancy expenses to... You know, if I think about what's happening with the top line environment, you know, notwithstanding, you guys are gaining a bit of market share, but is it enough to stop EBIT declining again in the FY 2025? I know there's no guidance for FY 25 EBIT. I'm just thinking directionally, you know, are we sort of near the bottom earnings or will we actually go again lower in 2025?
Look, so again, going back to what we're looking to focus on as we navigate this period, ideally, we would be looking to match revenue growth to cost growth in the coming periods, and so therefore, where possible, minimize the impact on margins. So at this early stage, we're not going to guide to margins, but going back to the principle, that's the principle that we've had as we were working through this cost review. But really important here to say that we're managing this business for long-term shareholder value creation, and so we are continuing to invest for the inevitable recovery. This is, this will be a delicate balance, and we'll continue to monitor it as the year progresses.
So that principle is something we're very focused on, but we will need to be dynamically watching not only what's happening with volumes and revenue over the period, but working closely with the sector and government to enhance our view on the timing and shape of the recovery. So it is important to us, as we saw during COVID, that we are ready and in place and well- positioned for the rebound when it inevitably comes.
That, that makes sense. Thank you, guys.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Tim Plumbe with UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. I'll just ask two questions, if that's all right. The first one's a bit of a continuation from Darren's question. Just in terms of that 6% reduction, should we be broadly thinking like 2/3 of that is productivity improvements, so that's permanent cost out and, you know, 1/3 kind of operational for softer conditions? Is that the right sort of way to think about that cost out?
I wouldn't be as blunt as putting people into buckets of productivity and cost out, if you like, but what we are doing, as Tennealle said, and just let's reiterate that this is... Look, it's all about efficiencies and to drive productivity and future margin expansion. But in the short- term, the cost out that we've enacted is essentially designed to free up the operational envelope, the OpEx envelope, to allow us to invest in the business, the teams, where we see near-term and long-term growth. So, the quantum was sized within the overall, that overall envelope that Tennealle mentioned around matching costs to revenue in our current outlook, but I wouldn't attempt to sort of quantify it. It also depends upon how you look at it across business lines.
We have taken these actions across IELTS and student placement, where the results are dedicated. I think it would be reasonable to assume that the costs out in the staff sense in IELTS were probably greater than student placement, just to reflect the near-term trading environment that we're seeing.
Right. And just to clarify that I've understood it correctly: so if you had revenue down low single- digit, you could see costs down low single- digit, but less low single- digit. Is that right?
Well, again, we don't wanna be drawn on minutiae here, Tim. The delicate balance that Tennealle mentioned is the near- term versus the long- term, and we're gonna be adjusting for sales as we see the year unfold. I know it's important for your model, but at this early stage of the year, it would be unreasonable or irresponsible for us to guide to that, within that sort of percentile that you're looking. We've got to allow a bit of flex in the 2025 year to reflect kind of what we're seeing in the month-by-month trading, but also how we're forming our view around the 2026 year.
Understood. And, and then just the final one around FastLane. Could you give us a bit of an update there, and is there an opportunity to really leverage that part of the business into FY 2025 to help offset some of these headwinds?
Sure. So look, we're making really strong progress on strategic and operational elements of the business. We'll be providing updates on the status of all of these in the full year results. But FastLane continues to track very strongly, and we're very confident around the targets that we set ourselves for the full year basis. And I think that when we talk about opportunities around market share and why we're confident that we'll be able to continue to drive that, one of the areas that I called out was that continued focus on product innovation and increasingly unique offerings, positioning IDP to be the student placement provider of choice for students. So clearly, FastLane is part of that proposition, in addition to other elements of that value proposition we're looking at, like our Peer Community network.
Understood. Thanks for taking my questions.
Thank you. Your next question comes from Suraj Singh with Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead.
Yep, thank you. Three questions from my side. One, how confident are you that the markets will only decline 20%-25% next year, even if you assume no policy changes? Second question is, are you confident that IELTS will maintain market share incrementally? And the feedback we get is TOEFL is stepping up competition, and that is in addition to Pearson Test of English, and they're approaching people, building test centers, changing test formats. So any color on incremental market share for IELTS? And lastly, can you talk through the impact of the change in your source market mix on your 2026 margins?
Where I'm coming from is, it looks to me that you're losing a lot of volumes in India, and markets like Nepal and a few others, which have the lowest cost base, given wages are so low, and probably you're gonna be expanding into multiple different source countries, which will probably have a higher cost base. So how would that eventually, and I'm not talking, eventually reflect in your EBIT margins for student placements or, or the group in general? Thank you.
Hey, Suraj. I'll dive into the detail there if that's. There's a few questions there. So look, the guidance we've provided in the ASX release has been very carefully developed from a bottom-up estimate of what's going on in each of the source and the destination countries. We flagged that it's based on our current understanding and the assumptions regarding regulatory settings that have been announced or implemented. So with greatest diligence and care, that is the estimate we have for the markets that we're operating at the aggregate level. And they also reflect the current trends in visa approval rates, which are well- documented and posted regularly. So again, we take care and comfort, and we wouldn't make that statement flippantly. It's our best estimate as we see it today.
In terms of IELTS, the tracking we do at an aggregate level in our top, you know, 10, 15 countries is showing that IELTS share is broadly flat at an aggregate level. Now, that reflects movement across a dozen countries. It reflects strength of the IELTS share in gaining share in some markets, and clearly in the Canadian exposed markets, where we're naturally witnessing a degradation of share from 100%. That reflects a bit of a decline there. But the IELTS share is broadly flat relative to what we saw at the December period over the last four or five months. And then finally in student placement, you know, the reality is we make essentially similar margins across the business.
The cost of delivery in some countries are clearly divergent from others, but our GP margin, if you look at student placement, should be relatively flat year on year. And then the operating leverage comes through how we manage that, cost base across the globe, which includes, regional as well as corporate expenses. But I'd imagine that the, student placement GP margins will be relatively flat, 2024 into 2025. Too early to call 2026, which is the nature of your question.
No, this is clear. Thank you.
Thank you. That's all the time we have for our question- and- answer session. I'll now hand back to Ms. O'Shannessy for closing remarks.
Just in closing, thanks, everyone, for joining us today. I'll let you all get back to your day, and we'll speak in August. Thank you.
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.