KUALA LUMPUR (March 16): Sapura Resources Bhd is proposing to sell its education assets to ILMU Education Group Sdn Bhd, the education arm of government-owned private equity firm Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas), for RM246.99 million.

In a bourse filing today, Sapura Resources said the education assets are namely its 49% interest in APIIT Sdn Bhd, 49% stake in Asia Pacific University Sdn Bhd (APU) and 37.61% stake in Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology Lanka (Pvt) Ltd.

Prior to the stake disposals, there will be a proposed reorganisation, which will involve the disposal by APIIT to ILMU of its entire interest in Asia Pacific Schools Sdn Bhd (APS) for RM138.8 million.

Thereafter, APIIT will declare dividends to its shareholders (ILMU and Sapura Resources), whereby ILMU and Sapura Resources will be entitled to dividends of RM70.79 million and RM68.01 millon respectively.

Subsequently, APIIT will undertake a bonus issue of 2.5 million new APIIT shares to its shareholders.

Sapura Resources said it has entered into a conditional share sale agreement with ILMU in relation to the disposals of its education assets to ILMU.

The group is proposing to dispose of its 49% interest in APIIT, comprising 1.22 million shares, plus 1.22 million new APIIT shares to be issued pursuant to the proposed reorganisation for RM58 million.

Meanwhile, the group is proposing to dispose of its 9.8 million shares, or 49% interest, in APU for RM161.99 million and its beneficial interest of 4.34 million shares, or 37.61% stake, in APIIT Lanka for RM27 million.

As a result of the proposed disposals, the group will realise a one-off pro forma gain of about RM192.2 million, based on its audited financial statements ended Jan 31, 2015.

The group intends to use RM144.6 million (58.5%) of its proceeds for the repayment of bank borrowings, while RM90.8 million (36.8%) will be channelled towards future expansion and general working capital requirements, RM6.98 million (2.8%) will be set aside for a proposed special dividend while the remainder will be for estimated disposal expenses.

As for its RM68.01 million in dividends received from APIIT under the proposed restructuring, the group said it will use that for future expansion and general working capital requirements.

Sapura Resources said it decided to dispose of APIIT Group's education business as it was more value accretive to the group in the long run to use the funds from the disposal to concentrate on growing its property business, namely its Lot 91 Kuala Lumpur City Centre Development as well as its aviation business.

The Lot 91 development located along Jalan Kia Peng will entail the construction and development of an office tower, a convention centre and a retail podium.

Sapura Resources shares slipped one sen or 0.72% today to close at RM1.37 for a market capitalisation of RM191.25 million.