CL Educate Ltd, best known for its test prep brand Career Launcher, has acquired the 49% stake it didn’t already own in educational services provider Accendere Knowledge Management Services Pvt. Ltd.
The company also signed a definitive pact to acquire ETEN test prep business, a unit of coaching services provider IndiaCan Education Pvt. Ltd, it said in a stock-exchange filing. It didn’t give financial details of the two transactions.
The company had, in December last year, signed a term sheet to acquire ETEN, which offers courses for chartered accountancy and civil services exams.
IndiaCan was earlier an equal joint venture between British publishing and education services company Pearson Plc and Educomp Solutions Ltd. In 2013, Pearson bought Educomp’s stake.
CL Educate, which made a disappointing debut on the stock markets last month, had bought a 51% stake in Chennai-based Accendere in 2015.
Accendere was started in 2009 by R Shivaraman and Praveen Dwarakanath. It helps universities and colleges improve their academic standings by enhancing their research output in engineering, technology, medicine, arts and law.
Accendere’s major service offerings are Concept Paper and Research Incubator. It offers a number of services ranging from vertical specific workshops to research mentoring and guidance. With its Research Incubator initiative, Accendere helps students identify themes, conduct surveys, complete research assignments, and write and publish papers.
As part of its vertical-specific innovation workshops, it offers courses such as architecture for engineers, advanced operating system design and research in nanotechnology.
CL Educate is the fourth company to list on the bourses in 2017, after stock-exchange operator BSE Ltd, hypermarket chain D-Mart and Jagran Prakashan Ltd’s radio unit Music Broadcast Ltd. The company made a lacklustre start on the public market and its IPO struggled to attract investors, unlike other recent public offerings.
The Gaja Capital-backed firm was the first education services company to float an IPO in five years. MT Educare Ltd, with a Rs 35-crore public offering in March 2012, was the last education company to float an IPO.
CL Educate floated a Rs 238.95-crore IPO that comprised a fresh issue and an offer for sale by Gaja Capital and the company’s promoters and institutional shareholders. The issue saw a dilution of 33.61% stake on a post-offer basis.
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