Thailand's Biggest Listed School Group Launches a Cut-Price Second Brand

Singapore International School of Bangkok, the largest publicly listed international school operator in Thailand, is opening a seventh campus under a new and separate brand: Marina Singapore International School. The school will be built in Rangsit, Pathum Thani province, is designed for 1,200 students, and is scheduled to open in August 2027, with an investment of around THB 400 million.

The decision to use a different name, rather than extend the SISB identity, is deliberate. Marina is being priced at 30 to 40 percent below SISB's flagship campuses, which currently charge in the region of THB 500,000 to 600,000 a year. That would put Marina's fees at roughly THB 300,000 to 420,000, or around USD 8,500 to 12,000, targeting the growing segment of Thai families who want a Singapore-curriculum education but cannot comfortably absorb flagship international school fees. According to KAOHOON International, SISB management revealed at an analyst briefing this month that it had revised its full-year student target down to 4,600 from an earlier forecast of 4,800, citing slower household-spending recovery and intensifying competition across the Bangkok market.

A suburb with room to grow

Pathum Thani, north of Bangkok along the Rangsit corridor, is one of the capital's fastest-growing residential zones and largely underserved by premium international schools. SISB's six existing campuses are concentrated inside Bangkok itself, so the Rangsit site does not cannibalise its current network and gives the group access to a different pool of locally recruited Thai families rather than the corporate-relocation parents who dominate central Bangkok enrolment.

The brand separation also protects SISB's reputation. Running a 35 percent cheaper product under the flagship name risks softening price perception at campuses where families are paying full rate. Marina Singapore International School will operate from Kindergarten to Grade 12 on the same Singapore curriculum, so the academic offer is structurally the same, but marketed and priced as a distinct proposition.

The market context

Kasikornbank Research estimates that Thailand's international school market was worth around THB 141 billion in 2026, with roughly 280 schools operating across the country. But new supply is running ahead of demand: school numbers grew by approximately 5.3 percent this academic year while student enrolment grew only 3.8 percent, compressing average rolls. That gap is exactly the environment that rewards operators who can reach new customer segments rather than competing for the same households already enrolled elsewhere.

SISB reported first-half 2026 revenues of THB 1,275 million, up about 1.4 percent year on year, with profit under pressure from higher fixed costs. Analysts at Krungsri Securities maintain a Buy rating with a THB 16 target price. If the Marina campus fills at design capacity by 2029, it would add roughly a quarter to the group's current student base and give SISB its first foothold in Bangkok's suburban mid-market, where the largest pool of aspirant local families actually lives.