Everonn Acquires Centum To Increase Presence In Education Space

Everonn Education, a south-based education company, has acquired the Bharti Group-controlled Centum Learning for an undisclosed amount to be able to strengthen its presence in the education space. According to media reports, the Bharti Family Office will receive a combination of cash and equity shares in Everonn, which is well-known for its technology-based VSAT (a satellite-enabled education platform) learning programs. The company’s offerings include providing content and other services for schools, colleges and the retail segments. It recently launched a new all-India service of providing skill-based education inputs in association with the Government of India.

And now with the acquisition of Centum, Everonn will expand its reach in the Indian learning space by adding corporate training which is the flagship product of Centum while its other business segments will seamlessly integrate with its existing verticals. Moreover, with the acquisition of Centum, Everonn will get accesses to over 17 countries across the African continent. This will be a significant step for the company in becoming a major global player in the education sector. Centum works with over 350 global corporations for their training requirements and has more than 170 centers in 150 cities.

In our opinion, the education sector is still at a nascent stage and offers a huge opportunity for companies in this space. Everonn commands the second slot in this industry after Educomp in terms of presence and market share. It must be noted, however, that NIIT too has a very strong presence in terms of skill-based and corporate training in India and abroad and will therefore be a tough competitor for Everonn in the coming years.

On the flip side, some of the major private equity players made an exit from Everonn last year when the company’s founder, P Kishore, was arrested by the CBI on charges of bribing an income tax official. Due to such corporate governance issues, Everonn has failed to attract investors in the last one year. As of now, the scrips of Everonn and Educomp are trading at their all-time lows.