Pearson, owner of FT, purchases part of SEB and triples in size in Brazil
O Estado de S. Paulo 07/23/10
Pearson, a company of the publishing and digital information segment that controls the Financial Times, purchased part of the Brazilian Education System (SEB) - a Ribeirão Preto (SP) group that controls schools and offers educational systems. The deal gets to nearly R$ 900 million (US$ 500 million). With that, Pearson triples its operations in Brazil and the Country becomes its largest market in Latin America ahead of Mexico.The agreement between the two companies foresees the British group will take over the control of the educational system of the four brands that belonged to SEB: COC, Pueri Domus, Don Bosco and Name (the latter intended only to public schools). In practice, the educational system includes the elaboration of the teaching material and services of assistance to the contracting schools. It is an exclusively Brazilian model that has been attracting the interest of the large publishers.
"The Brazilian school publishing market generates more than US$ 2 billion a year. It is a very positive and dynamic market, hence the interest in being part of it", said Juan Romero, President of Pearson for Latin America. The goal, he said, is to increase the number of students in the education system from the current 400 thousand to 1 million within five years. "And, later, we intend to export the Brazilian model to other countries", said Guy Gerlach, President of Pearson in Brazil.
The acquisition also includes the publishing house of SEB and the logistics and distribution operations, besides the website Klick Net. Until then, the operation of Pearson in Brazil was restricted to selling university books and English teaching material. Present in 54 countries, the British company had global sales of £ 5.6 billion in 2009.
For Ryon Braga, of the consulting firm Hoper, specialized in the educational market, the rush of the great publishers to get into the segment of the educational system is related, to a great extent, to the possibility of grabbing a slice of the gigantic market of basic education of the public sector over the coming years. It is currently estimated that nearly 4% of the municipal governments no longer use the textbook to adopt some education system. "This market will see brutal competition ahead", said Zaher.