TAL Education Group Has Increased Its Strategic Equity Stake in Shunshun Bida

BEIJING, June 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- TAL Education Group (NYSE: XRS) ("TAL" or the "Company"), a leading K-12 after-school tutoring services provider in China, announced today that TAL has increased its equity stake in Beijing Shunshunbida Information Consulting Co., Ltd. ("Shunshun Bida"), which primarily engages in providing professional counseling services to students who desire to study abroad through its online-to-offline platform. TAL made a minority equity investment in Shunshun Bida in December 2015, and, after the increase of equity stake today, has become the controlling shareholder of Shunshun Bida.

Shunshun Bida currently employees close to 1,000 professional consultants in 16 branches across China. It has built its services around its self-developed customer relationship system and the research and development customer data. After TAL's minority investment in Shunshun Bida last year, TAL's liuxue.com, which is a licensed website to provide information on overseas study, has integrated with Shunshun Bida. Shunshun Bida will be operated independently under the umbrella of the "TAL" brand. The management team of Shunshun Bida will work closely with TAL management to explore and extend international footprint. In addition to the value of TAL's brand endorsement in China's K-12 market, the Company will provide all-round support to Shunshun Bida including sourcing of students, co-development of production, and support of personnel and other resources.

"We strive to offer students in China with high-quality education services, which are offered under over ten differentiated brands, including our "Xueersi" brand, "Zhikang" brand and "Mobby" brand. We expect to build a seamless bridge that connects Chinese students and their parents with high-quality and specialized education products and services across the globe. Our stepped-up investment in Shunshun Bida is another important move to help realize our goal," said the management of TAL.

"Shunshun Bida and TAL share the same values and vision with regard to education. After a year's development, we feel honoured to become a member of the TAL group of education services. We will strengthen our cooperation and maintain steady growth to help make TAL a prominent global education group," Shunshun Bida management team said.

Transforming TAL into a global education brand is a long-term key strategic goal of the Company. TAL currently has several internationally oriented offerings, including the organic small class Lejiale English business that is specialized in exam-oriented English subject tutoring, the acquired Firstleap business which offers all-subject tutoring services in English to students aged two to fifteen, and another proprietary brand Lewaijiao which provides one-on-one English tutoring services from foreign teachers. Shunshun Bida, together with these other offerings, will fortify TAL's presence in the international education services market.

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. Among other things, quotations from management in this announcement, as well as TAL Education Group's strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. The Company may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual reports to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: its ability to continue to attract students to enroll in its courses; its ability to continue to recruit, train and retain qualified teachers; its ability to improve the content of its existing course offerings and to develop new courses; its ability to maintain and enhance its brand; its ability to maintain and continue to improve its teaching results; and its ability to compete effectively against its competitors. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the Company's reports filed with, or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and TAL Education Group undertakes no duty to update such information or any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

About TAL Education Group

TAL Education Group is a leading K-12 after-school tutoring services provider in China. The acronym "TAL" stands for "Tomorrow Advancing Life," which reflects our vision to promote top learning opportunities for Chinese students through both high-quality teaching and content, as well as leading edge application of technology in the education experience. TAL Education Group offers comprehensive tutoring services to students from pre-school to the twelfth grade through three flexible class formats: small classes, personalized premium services, and online courses. Our tutoring services cover the core academic subjects in China's school curriculum including mathematics, English, Chinese, physics, chemistry, and biology. The Company's learning center network includes 363 physical learning centers as of February 29, 2016, located in 25 key cities in China: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Wuhan, Xi`an, Chengdu, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Taiyuan, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Suzhou, Shenyang, Jinan, Shijiazhuang,  Qingdao,  Changsha, Luoyang, Nanchang, Ningbo, Wuxi, Fuzhou and Hefei. We also operate www.jzb.com, a leading online education platform in China. Our ADSs trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "XRS." For more information, please see en.100tal.com.

For further information, please contact:

Mei Li
Tel: +86 10 5292 6658
Email: [email protected]

Caroline Straathof
IR Inside
Tel: +31 6 5462 4301
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE TAL Education Group

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