Ekuinas upbeat on Ilmu deal

PETALING JAYA: Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas) said the proposed buyout of three education institutions by wholly owned Ilmu Education Group Sdn Bhd for RM362mil will strengthen the group.

Ekuinas in September last year said it would back Ilmu’s expansion as the company prepared for a listing on Bursa Malaysia in 2016.

“With education constituting nearly 27% of our investment portfolio to date, we are pleased to be able to undertake this buy-out of the minority shareholders in three of our institutions,” its chairman Raja Arshad Raja Tun Uda said in a statement.

“Ekuinas is aggressively executing its value creation plans for our education portfolio under Ilmu and this next step is a natural progression towards achieving our vision for Ilmu,” he added.

Its chief executive officer Syed Yasir Arafat Syed Abd Kadir said that the investments in Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology (APIIT), Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (Unitar) and Tenby Schools was consistent with its strategy to position Ilmu as one of the bigger private education providers in Malaysia.

“This latest move will facilitate our efforts to enhance operational improvements throughout Ilmu with a view to expedite group-wide integration since Ekuinas officially launched the group last September,” Syed Yasir said.

“Part of the strategy involves intensifying student acquisition and marketing initiatives, implementing process improvement initiatives, and installing new and improved management systems, which are currently at various stages of implementation,” he added.

Ekuinas earlier announced that Ilmu had entered into a conditional agreement with Sapura Resources Bhd to acquire the remaining 49% stake in APIIT Education Group, comprising Asia Pacific Schools, Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation and APIIT, and 37.6% stake in APIIT Sri Lanka for a total investment of RM315mil.

It had also acquired the remaining 10% stake in Unitar Capital Sdn Bhd, the owner and operator of Unitar International University, for RM13mil from minority shareholder Shoraka Square Ltd.

Additionally, Ekuinas had also fully acquired the remaining 30% stake in Tenby Schools for RM35.2mil from its founder/director, Datuk Lim Si Boon who has chosen to sell his shares.

With these acquisitions, Ekuinas had undertaken 45 investments to date for a total of RM2.8bil, it said.