Ekuinas plans 2nd IPO via edu group

PETALING JAYA: Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas), the government-linked private equity fund management company, is planning to list its education arm, Ilmu Education Group Bhd, by the end of 2015, or early 2016.
In a press release yesterday, Ekuinas said the planned listing comes after it agreed to a RM70 million purchase of a 70% stake in Tenby Educare Sdn Bhd (Tenby Group), owner of one Malaysia's leading chains of international and private schools, undertaken through ILMU.
"The investment also positions Ekuinas closer to its proposed listing and realisation exercise for ILMU, targeted for end 2015/early 2016, with ILMU now possessing a diversified portfolio of tertiary and K-12 education investments and a combined pro forma revenue of more than RM377 million," Ekuinas CEO Datuk Abdul Rahman Ahmad said.
He said the Tenby Group represents a strategic investment to expand ILMU's presence in the growing Malaysian K-12 (primary and secondary) private education sector which currently includes ownership in Asia Pacific Smart School and Asia Pacific International School in Subang, Selangor.
Tenby Group currently operates five international and private schools in Setia Eco Park, Ipoh, Penang, Miri and Johor Bahru.
"Tenby Group has a strong financial track record and reached audited revenue of RM83.0 million and EBITDA of RM18.9 million for the FYE 30 June 2014," it added.
This would be the second listing for Ekuinas after its first IPO last year with the listing of Icon Offshore Bhd.
The investment in Tenby is part of a RM124 million investment that included a 60% stake in Tranglo Sdn Bhd, a leading homegrown mobile transaction gateway services company, for RM54 million.
The investment in Tranglo represents Ekuinas' maiden investment in the technology, media and telecommunications industry
Ekuinas chairman, Raja Tan Sri Datuk Seri Arshad Raja Tun Uda said the investment in Tranglo provides Ekuinas with the platform to participate in the sizeable cross border airtime transfer industry.
Ekuinas aims to help Tranglo to expand its business into cross border mobile money remittance services which offer significant potential for growth.
"Whilst the mobile remittance services sector is still relatively nascent, the potential is enormous for Tranglo given the huge international remittance market in Asia alone is currently estimated at US$200 billion (Source: World Bank Report: 2012). This presents a unique opportunity for Ekuinas to back Tranglo to potentially become a global leader in international airtime transfer and mobile to cash remittance services," he said.
Tranglo was earlier backed by Malaysia Venture Capital Management Bhd (Mavcap), the Government-linked venture capital company.
Ekuinas said Tranglo has a strong financial track record with revenue growth of more than 40% over the last three years to reach RM91.7 million with a net profit of RM7.5 million for FY2013.