STI Education to acquire 40% of Attenborough

MANILA, Philippines - Listed education firm STI Education Systems Holdings Inc. has secured board approval to execute acquisitions of other schools.

In a disclosure, STI Holdings said its board allowed management to buy at least 40 percent of Attenborough Holdings Corp.

Attenborough owns 20 percent of Unlad Resources Development Corp., a stockholder of Philippine Women’s University (PWU).

STI Holdings’ entry into a Western Visayas educational institution was also firmed up by the board of directors.

Its board approved the “acquisition from the Agustin family of the controlling stake at West Negros University (WNU) under such terms and conditions as the parties may agree upon.”

In April, the firm entered into a memorandum of agreement with the Agustin family for the acquisition of a controlling stake in WNU.

WNU owns and operates the Bacolod City-based West Negros  University, which offers pre-elementary, elementary, secondary and tertiary education and graduate courses.

STI Holdings allotted P390 million for its schools acquisition program this year while committing to continuously expand its own portfolio with the groundbreaking of two new schools. The expansion program is expected to boost enrolment to as much as 100,000 students in 2015.

STI’s net income surged 171 percent to P794.2 million in its fiscal year that ended in March, up from P292.6 million a year ago. It was backed by a six percent increase in revenues to P1.66 billion from P1.57 billion in 2012.