Microcamp stands the wave of acquisitions in the education sector
O Estado de S. Paulo 09/21/10
Amid the consolidation of the professional training and language educational chains in the country, one company of the sector is striving to stand up by itself. Microcamp has already received proposals from private equity funds and it was recently sought by Grupo Multi, owner of Wizard, but it declined the offer. The proposals have been denied one by one by the founder of the chain of computer courses, Eloy Tuffi, 59, from São Paulo. No wonder those interested are facing difficulties to negotiate with him. Tuffi began his career as a salesman. And he describes himself as such until today - even after he has assembled a chain with 150 units and invested in the most varied business such as restaurants and cattle. Last year, Microcamp earned nearly R$ 170 million (US$ 86.3 million), with franchises and its own schools.Long before being an entrepreneur in the education segment, Tuffi worked selling socks bought at the region of Rua 25 de Março in offices of the capital. From a door-to-door salesman, or Sacoleiro, as they call it in Brazil, he started selling language courses at an English school. There he had the idea of putting up his own business and became a rival of his the first boss without knowing a word in another language. "I didn't need to teach. I had to sell the courses", he explained. Three decades ago, when he moved to Campinas, where is currently the headquarters of Microcamp, Tuffi started offering computer courses as well - which eventually became its strong suit. "All those who appeared after me have copied my model. I was a teacher of my competitors", he says, with no modesty. He also makes such a reference to Microlins, a company which, with less time in the market, overcame Microcamp and got established as the leader in the sector, until it was sold in June for the owners of the chain of language schools Wizard.
The Multi group also already acquired the language chains Skill, Quatrum and Alps and the professional training and computer schools SOS Educação Profissional and Bit Company, in August. At the time, Charles Martins, one of the executives of Multi, said that among the targets, the only one which declined the proposal was Microcamp. Tuffi says he is open for negotiations, but he won't listen to those offering him less than US$ 250 million. "It is surely much more than the market is willing to pay", says a source of the sector. "Microlins, market leader, was bought for one third of that".
Without making arrangements with the group that is consolidating the sector, Microcamp is making investments to expand the chain on its own. Two months ago it opened a unit in Florida, with courses for foreigners, and it put up a "VIP" branch in São Paulo to offer software courses for executives. To distance from the regional computer course competition, it sophisticated the curriculum with Information Technology (IT) training. For the franchising consultant Claudia Bittencourt, not joining the big ones in a sector under consolidation makes growth more difficult but not impossible. "Well structured companies with defined strategy are able to consolidate", she says.