Everonn Education Ltd (Everonn) has called off its proposed cash-cum-stock deal to buy Centum Learning Limited, a privately held company of the Bharti group, which is into training programmes and skill development.
In August 2012, Everonn had said Centum would merge with it pending regulatory approvals. The Term Sheet of the deal was to expire within 120 days, unless mutually agreed by both the companies.
The Everonn Education Ltd stock was trading at Rs.83.55, down by 1.65 per cent today. The stock hit an intraday-high of Rs.87 and low of Rs.82.65. When the deal was announced in August last year, the share price was at Rs 169.1 a share on the BSE. At that price, the company had a market cap of Rs 368 crore or $67 million.
The educational content of Everonn, part of Varkey Group /GEMS Education, Dubai, covers students from pre-school to B-schools. Everonn is also into the vocational training space.
In 2010, Mayfield India Fund announced a Rs 40-crore investment in Centum Learning.
Centum claims a presence in 20 countries across Africa and South Asia and has expertise in training and skill development domain across 21 industry verticals. It has set up more 170 Centum Learning Centres in India which offers Centum U, which offers workforce degrees in association with globally acclaimed universities and institutes.
The deal could have given Everonn an entry into the key emerging economies across South Asia and Africa.
Varkey Group’s GEMS Education claims to be the largest private school operator in the world for K-12 students.
Private equity firm New Vernon, which held over 5 per cent stake in Everonn till September 2011, exited the company during the last quarter of 2011.
Everonn Education reported a standalone sales turnover of Rs 15.63 crore and a net loss of Rs 129.27 crore for the quarter ended December 2012.
(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)
