Core Projects close to overseas acquisition

4571 Investors following Core Projects &. Share this News with them.

0

Like this story, share it with millions of investors on M3

Core Projects close to overseas acquisition

Technology-enabled education solutions provider Core Projects & Technologies is hoping to announce an overseas acquisition in the education space in the first quarter of FY12 , a top official said.

Post your opinion here

 

0

Tweet

Share on Tumblr

ALSO READ See latest News about Core Projects & See previous management interviews See what other Experts & Brokerages are saying about Core Projects & CORE Education BSE | NSE 30/05/12 Are Mutual Funds betting on CORE Education?

Technology-enabled education solutions provider Core Projects & Technologies is hoping to announce an overseas acquisition in the education space in the first quarter of FY12 , a top official said.

"We are looking at the US and UK for an overseas buy...the start of FY12 we hope to announce something," Maya Sinha, director, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

In September 2010, the company, whose customer base is spread across the US, UK, Africa, Sri Lanka, Bahamas, Caribbean and India, acquired two US education services firms for more than USD 20 million.

The Mumbai-based firm, which recently entered the skill development space, is also in talks with the government of Maharashtra to set up industrial training institutes (ITI) in the state. It hopes to close this deal in the first quarter of the next fiscal year.

"We are planning a huge foray into skill development which is the vocational training institute...we are in negotiations with the Maharashtra government for this and we expect to sign this MoU in the first quarter of FY12," Sinha said.

In FY10, the company entered into a pact with the government of Gujarat to provide skill up-gradation courses to college students across Ahmedabad and Surat districts.

The company will target about 20% of its education revenues from the vocational training segment in coming years.

It currently gets 80% of its overall revenues from education and the remaining 20% from other businesses such as logistics and 3D visualisation.

Core Projects is also close to signing a "large" order in the education space in India in the next one to two days, Sinha said but did not divulge any further details.

The firm's order book now stands at Rs 540 crore and it expects it to grow at 15% in FY12 due to higher allocation from the government for the education sector in the 2011-12 budget.

India plans to raise its expenditure in the education sector by about a quarter to Rs 52,060 crore (USD 11.50 billion) in the next financial year, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in his budget speech.

It expects revenues to grow 20% in FY11, Sinha said. In FY10, the company increased its consolidated revenue by 25% to Rs 847 crore.

Expanding school biz

Core, which also decided to foray into the school management business in 2010, plans to expand this business from providing technology to setting up schools across the country over the next three years.

"Currently we manage 12 schools under the JJ group of schools in Mumbai where we implement our solutions...But our way forward is have our brick and mortar schools in the country," Sinha said.

The firm plans to set up about 20 schools at an investment of Rs 25 crore to Rs 30 crore each, depending on the land purchase agreement.

The company is also planning to set up 10 separate sports academies along with residential schools over three years at an investment of Rs 30 crore to Rs 40 crore each.

"The funding of these projects will be 75% debt and 25% equity and for the equity part of it we have enough internal accruals," Sinha said.

At 2.39 pm, shares of the firm were up 2.39% at Rs 310.9 in a firm Mumbai market.