Value Creation Case Studies
APIIT Education Group
Background
- APIIT Education Group consists of Asia Pacific Universities (APU) and Asia Pacific Schools (APS)
- APU is one of the leading private universities in Malaysia, rated SETARA 5 by the Ministry of Higher Education in 2017. It is one of the top universities with high foreign student recruitment, making up for 55% of its total student population.
- APS, its private school is one of the largest in Klang Valley with a student enrolment of over 2,000, offering national and international curriculums
Investment Rationale
- Strong track record of delivering revenue and student number growth
- Strong cashflow generating ability
- Increase bumiputera participation in the private education sector
Transaction Details
- Investment type
- Buy-out of non-core assets of GLC
- Acquisition Date
- February 2011
- Ownership
- 100%
- Divested
- 20 Dec 2017
Key Value Creation Metrics
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Strengthening Financial Oversight
- Institutionalise the financial reporting function
- Proper financial reporting structure was established and monthly meetings of the EXCO (joint membership between Ekuinas and management) was institutionalised
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Increasing Student Numbers
- Student numbers grew from 6,900 to 9,800 during Ekuinas’ ownership
- Growth was driven by increased recruitment from the local market as well as penetrating new geographies for the overseas market such as Brazil and Iraq
- The higher education unit also launched new ‘twinning’ 3+0 programmes. The K-12 unit contributed to student numbers growth by launching an international curriculum wing (in addition to its existing local curriculum wing), growing it’s student numbers from 1,100 to 2,100
- Ekuinas also instituted a plan to increase bumiputera
enrolment to 1,000 students
-
Development of New APU Campus
- Ekuinas assisted APU in acquiring an 11-acre plot in Technology Park Malaysia for the construction of its new campus. Ekuinas assisted in the negotiations for the long-term lease
- The construction was governed by a tender process put in place with regular reporting by the appointed project manager
-
Key Financial Metrics Over Investment
- Top line revenue growth of 9.7% CAGR
- EBITDA growth of 10.6% CAGR
- Increased EBITDA margin from 37.4% to 39.5%
- Exit generated returns of 1.46x money multiple or 25.1% IRR