Navneet Education gains on acquisition of Britannica's India curriculum division

The stock rallied 6% to Rs 115, extending its previous day's 9% surge on BSE.

Navneet Education has moved higher to its 52-week high of Rs 115, up 6% on BSE in intra-day trade after the company announced that they have reached an agreement to acquire Britannica's Indian curriculum business.

On Tuesday, the stock ended higher by 9% to Rs 109 as compared to 0.31% decline in S&P BSE Sensex.

"This strategic move will help expand Navneet’s range of curriculum offerings in the Indian school market, nationally," Navneet Education said in a release.

Under the agreement, the current Britannica business unit will become an independent company within Navneet and will realize synergies with Navneet's larger Indian group.

It will receive significant resources, both companies said, and will benefit from its parent company's knowledge of the Indian publishing market.

Navneet— a premier publisher of educational, general interest and children's books and a manufacturer of scholastic paper stationery—will market Britannica's existing India-specific curriculum titles, such as Know for Sure and Science Spark, as well as develop new  titles under Britannica's brand,  editorial guidance and supervision for 7 years, it added.

At 12:05 pm, the stock was up 2.4% at Rs 112 on BSE, against 0.77% decline in the benchmark index. The trading volumes on the counter more than doubled with a combined 509,317 shares changed hands on BSE and NSE.