Acquisition of SAA Global Education

RNS Number : 6797U

Malvern International PLC

26 October 2017

 

26 October 2017

MALVERN INTERNATIONAL PLC

("Malvern" or the "Company")

Acquisition of SAA Global Education

Malvern International plc (AIM: MLVN), provider of educational services in the UK and Asia, is pleased to announce that it has today entered into a Sale and Purchase Agreement with the Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants ("ISCA") to acquire the entire issued share capital of SAA Global Education Centre Pte. Ltd. ("SAA-GE") for a total consideration of Singapore Dollars (SGD) $500,000 to be satisfied by the issue of 5,630,350 new ordinary shares of 5p each in Malvern. Completion of the Sale and Purchase Agreement is expected to take place on 7 November 2017.

SAA-GE has been a subsidiary of ISCA that provided commercial private education. It has a 30 year history of providing diploma, undergraduate, postgraduate and professional programmes in the accountancy, finance and business related disciplines. It offers preparatory courses leading to ATTS, ACCA, FIA/CAT, ICAEW and Singapore Chartered Accountant qualification, as well as degrees from Plymouth University and the University of London in the UK.

SAA-GE has a reputation for providing high-quality, industry-recognised programmes that have also attracted international students from Japan, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. It continues to achieve high pass-rates and produces top-performing students and prize-winners for the ACCA and FIA/CAT programmes annually. SAA-GE has a four-year EduTrust Certification issued by the Committee for Private Education Singapore. Currently, it has more than 1000 students.

This acquisition will provide Malvern with fresh opportunities to reach and work with the large local partners, with a substantial student base of more than 1000 SAA-GE students and provide access to its highly qualified trainers and lecturers. It will also broaden and strengthen Malvern's platform as an international hub for accountancy and finance education, adding to the existing/upcoming offerings in Malaysia and London.

For its financial year ended 31 December 2016, SAA-GE reported a loss of SGD$1.8 million on revenues of SGD$5.7 million. As at 31 December 2016, SAAGE had net liabilities of SGD$0.9 million.

Application will be made for the 5,630,350 new Ordinary Shares being issued pursuant to the acquisition of SAA-GE to be admitted to trading on AIM. Dealings are expected to commence on 8 November 2017.

In accordance with the provisions of the Disclosure, Guidance and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority, the Company confirms that, following the acquisition of SAA-GE, its issued share capital will comprise 112,188,333 Ordinary Shares of 5p each. All of the Ordinary Shares have equal voting rights and none of the Ordinary Shares are held in Treasury. The total number of voting rights in the Company is therefore 112,188,333. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the Disclosure, Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Mr Gopinath Pillai, the Chairman of Malvern Group, said: "We are delighted to have SAA-GE join the Malvern Group. This acquisition is in line with Malvern's international strategy announced in June 2017 and that is to focus its brand on a few key development skills, one of which is accounting and finance education.  Looking forward we are both confident and excited at the opportunityies this acquisition will bring."

Please visit our website for more information: http://www.malverninternational.com

ENDS

Contacts:
Malvern International plc	www.malverninternational.com
Haider Sithawalla Dr Sam Malafeh	[phone]  [phone]
WH Ireland Limited	Nominated Adviser & Broker
Mike Coe, Ed Allsopp	[phone]

 

END

 

 

ACQFEISIMFWSEIS