Aakash Educational Services Acquires Meritnation's Parent for Rs 100 Crore

Entrance test preparation services provider Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) on Monday said it has acquired ed-tech company Applect Learning Systems for Rs 100 crore.

The company has entered into a definitive agreement with Info Edge (India) Ltd and other selling shareholders to acquire ALSPL, which offers learning programmes under brand name 'Meritnation' catering to students of class I to XII, AESL said in a statement.

When asked about the value of the deal, a company official said, "it is Rs 100 core for the entire stake."

In October last year Blackstone had picked up 37.5 per cent stake in Aakash Educational Services for Rs 1,350 crore and announced the intention to create a digitally enabled, omni-channel test preparation company.

"As part of this strategy, AESL plans to acquire Meritnation to accelerate the growth of its online live tutoring business and continues to evaluate potential acquisition opportunities," the company said in a statement.

Commenting on the acquisition, AESL Director and CEO Aakash Chaudhry said, "Meritnation's decade long EdTech experience and leadership in live tutoring technology, will further strengthen AESL's competitive positioning not only in digital education but will also further enable its offline student offering across its 200 classroom centres, teaching over 2,50,000 students".

Chaudhry further said the company is "continuing to evaluate several acquisition opportunities in the ed-tech space as part of our digital growth strategy, so that we can make our well-crafted student performance journey more productive". PTI RKL

Info Edge to Sell Shares in Meritnation to Aakash Educational Services for Rs 50 Cr

Info Edge (India) Ltd on Friday said it will divest its total shareholding in Applect Learning Systems (Meritnation) to Aakash Educational Services for Rs 50 crore.

"...the company has, pursuant to the authorisation given by the Board of Directors on recommendation of the Audit Committee, entered into an agreement for divestment of its total shareholding, on fully converted and diluted basis, (including holding through its wholly owned subsidiary) in Applect Learning Systems Pvt Ltd (Meritnation)," a BSE filing said.

The shareholding has been agreed to be bought by Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL), which is one of India's largest medical test preparation providers, it added.

The filing did not disclose the number of shares involved in the transaction.

AESL has over 200 centres across 130 cities, teaching about 2.5 lakh students.

"Taking into consideration the independent valuation report, the sale value of the investment is determined as about Rs 50 crore," the filing said.

The transaction is expected to be completed by March 31, 2020, it added.

Meritnation delivers study material for students of kindergarten to class 12 (K-12). Its total sales in 2018-19 stood at Rs 34.76 crore. PTI SR