This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 18, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas) said its education arm Ilmu Education Group Sdn Bhd’s plan to acquire the education assets of Sapura Resources Bhd (SapRes), together with its recent buyout of minority shareholders in two other education firms, are part of its plan to position Ilmu as one of the largest private education providers in Malaysia.

In a statement yesterday, Ekuinas said the move will cost Ilmu RM363.2 million in total: RM315 million for the proposed acquisition of SapRes’ assets, with the remainder RM48.2 million being the sum it spent to buy the remaining 10% stake in Unitar Capital Sdn Bhd (RM13 million) and the remainder 30% stake in Tenby Schools (RM35.2 million).

“Ekuinas is aggressively executing our value creation plans for our education portfolio under Ilmu, and this next step is a natural progression towards achieving our vision for Ilmu,” said Ekuinas chairman Raja Tan Sri Arshad Raja Tun Uda.

Ekuinas chief executive officer Syed Yasir Arafat Syed Abd Kadir said the investments in APIIT Sdn Bhd, Unitar International University and Tenby Schools will further strengthen its position in the education sector, consistent with its strategy to position Ilmu as one of the largest private education providers in Malaysia.

Ekuinas said since its entry into the three education institutions — namely the APIIT Education Group, Unitar, and Tenby — the firms collectively increased their total number of students to 28,388 and combined revenue to an estimated RM362.6 million in 2015.

Yesterday, SapRes announced it would be selling its education assets comprising a 49% stake in APIIT, 49% stake in Asia Pacific University Sdn Bhd and 37.61% stake in Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology Lanka (Pvt) Ltd to Ekuinas.