Market of Civil Service Competitive Examinations attracts new investments
Valor Econômico
After a year of 2009 when only four deals were closed in the area of education, it is already expected that investors and major educational institutions resume shopping next year and an area that should draw their attention is that of schools that prepare students to take competitive exams to be admitted in the civil service. The Brazilian Academy of Education, Culture and Employability (Abece), a Rio de Janeiro holding formed by nine companies with nearly 70 thousand enrolled students, is negotiating the purchase of three other examination preparation schools in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Brasília - one of which is in the final stage of acquisition.
The SEB group, which currently has only courses focused on the examination of the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB), will enter the market of competitive examinations in 2010. The new division will be one of the foundations for the number of students of Praetorium, a preparatory type school acquired in 2008 by SEB, leap from the current 10 thousand to 15 thousand. 50% of that volume will be enrolments for the courses aimed at the competitive examinations, according to Nilson Curti, SEB's Director of Operations.
Educational institutions have stopped the acquisitions this year because of economic setting. But the conversations continued in the backstage. "We are daily sought by private equity funds and educational companies", said Wilson Granjeiro, owner of Gran Cursos, a preparation school headquartered in Brasilia, with 16.8 thousand students. When questioned by the journalist team of Valor if he would be interested in selling his school, he was straightforward: "I am open to have a partner for the school to grow, as well as to sell the whole school".
There is interest, indeed. In October 2008, Anhanguera paid R$ 180 million (US$ 98.4 million) for LFG, one of the biggest examination preparation schools in the country, with 64 thousand students and 370 units. Two weeks later, SEB paid R$ 11.1 million (US$ 6.1 million) for Praetorium, a Minas Gerais school with 1.9 thousand students. In 2008, Abece also entered the market of preparation courses. The purchasers see an interesting setting.
For 2010, the holding of public examinations for the filling of more than 50 thousand vacancies in the civil service is foreseen. In order to cater to such contingent, SEB intends to increase the current Praetorium network from 120 to 250 units next year. Part of such expansion will be possible after an investment between R$ 3.5 million (US$ 2 million) and R$ 4 million (US$ 2.3 million) in the technology platform, since the classes are live satellite broadcasts.