Aspire acquires 60% stake in Scholar's League

Aspire Learning Company, an educational service company has acquired 60 per cent stake in Scholar's League, an MBA entrance coaching institute.

The acquisition cost was not disclosed by promoters of both the educational service organisations. With this acquisition, Aspire hopes to cater to the undergraduate and postgraduate student community that are preparing to write the common admission test (CAT). The market for MBA entrance coaching is estimated to be around Rs 160 crore.

Aspire has so far been catering to students from the kindergarten to class XII with their Super kidz initiative, and their engineering and medicine coaching centres.

"We were not targeting undergraduate and postgraduate students, there was a market demand for a professional player. We wanted to move up the value chain," said Swaminathan K, director, Aspire Learning, explaining the rationale behind the acquisition.

Aspire Learning plans to increase the number of Scholar's League franchisees from the current nine centres to 30 in south India in the next one year. It plans to open an additional 20 centres in the north by the end of the next year.

They also plan to diversify by offering training for civil service exams as well as GMAT and GRE test training.

The market size for the entrance exam coaching for professional undergraduate medicine and engineering courses is estimated at Rs 3,000 crore.

Aspire Learning has targeted Rs 28-30 crore revenue in 2005-06 as compared to Rs 15 crore it earned in 2004-05. It expects Scholar's League to increase its revenues from Rs 60 lakh that it earned in 2004-05 to Rs 4.2 crore in 2005-06.