The Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries group has acquired an interest in the education sector. Infotel Broadband Services Ltd (Infotel), a subsidiary of RIL, has bought a 38.5 per cent stake in Extramarks Education Pvt Ltd (Extramarks), a statement from RIL said.
The company did not specify the size of the deal. The acquirer and acquiree are both unlisted companies. The investment in Extramarks has been made through an affiliate company Reliance Strategic Investments Ltd.
Extramarks is focused on school education and digital learning.
“The investment by Infotel will enable Extramarks pursue its aggressive growth plans in further developing services and wider market penetration. Extramarks' digital distribution model will provide invaluable services to the student community across age groups including education support and study help at affordable prices,” said the statement.
“We see it as a positive for RIL,” said Mr Dharmesh Pancholi, Senior Manager (Advisory) Equity, at Sharekhan. “The education sector is characterised by its long term potential and consistency in performance. It is a lucrative market which is large in size given the size of the country's young population; there is also a good listed play in the country in this sector.”
Infotel Broadband (often referred to as Reliance Infotel) won licences in 22 circles in the pan-India Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) Spectrum auction conducted by the government in 2010.
It has announced that it will roll out 4G services (based on the LTE or Long Term Evolution technology) in broadband communications in early 2012.
The group has said it will forge several strategic relations with a host of leading global technology vendors, service providers, infrastructure providers and device manufacturers to lead India into 4G services.