Veranda Learning Solutions Limited (“Veranda”), a public listed edutech company (BSE: 543514, NSE: VERANDA) that offers a bouquet of training programs for competitive exam preparation, including State Public Service Commission, Banking, Insurance, Railways, IAS and CA, as well as a slew of professional skilling and upskilling programmes in trending technologies today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire T.I.M.E. (Advanced Educational Activities Pvt Ltd). For a consideration of Rs. 287 crores, this 100% acquisition will be in a phased manner with 80% of the outstanding capital along with management control in phase 1, followed by the purchase of the remaining 20% at the end of two years (subject to the fulfillment of closing conditions).

T.I.M.E. is India’s leading test-prep institute with a pan-India presence operating through 188 centres including franchisees spread across 98 cities in India and is headquartered in Hyderabad. Having trained around 22 lakh students since its inception in 1992 and with a run rate of training almost 1.1 lakh students every year, it has been recognized as India’s leading institute for MBA test-prep with around 37,000 unique test takers for its flagship online CAT test series – AIMCAT.

T.I.M.E. offers training programmes for national and state-level entrance exams like CAT, MAT, CMAT, CLAT, IIT Foundation, JEE mains & advanced, NEET, IPM, BBA, CUET, GATE, Bank PO, SSC, State-level admission exams and international exams like GMAT, GRE, IELTS and TOEFL including campus recruitment training. Amoha Education Private limited, a subsidiary of T.I.M.E. has been offering training in spoken English since 1981. It offers spoken English training in both the physical classroom mode and the distance education mode. The Company also has a chain of pre-schools under the T.I.M.E. Kids brand operating through 222 pre-schools in 56 cities.

Mr. Kalpathi Suresh, Executive Director Cum Chairman, Veranda, said “Veranda as a brand delivers high-quality education that drives outcomes at an affordable price to learners including Tier II/III towns. The acquisition of T.I.M.E. allows Veranda to expand its national footprint with an asset that has known to have sent around 50% of all students admitted into the IIMs. T.I.M.E. which was one of the pioneers of online testing methodology in India also gets to leverage Veranda’s core-engineering skills to make it the best in hybrid offering which will now include best-in-class products for each of its programmes.”

He also added, “Veranda through this acquisition also diversifies into the Pre-school and the language training space, which I believe are two strong pillars of growth.”

Mr. Manek Daruvala, Founder & Director, T.I.M.E. said, “We are delighted to be partnering with Veranda on the journey ahead that T.I.M.E. will be undertaking. We are confident that this will be a synergistic relationship and that much benefit will accrue to both partners. More importantly, we believe that it will also help us provide an even better product offering to our students.”

Mr. Viswanath Pillutla, Founder & Director, T.I.M.E. said, “Over the years, T.I.M.E. has developed a very solid reputation for offering high quality, result-orientated coaching. We are sure that this partnership will only go much further in enhancing that reputation and providing students ever-better value for money. We are happy for T.I.M.E to have this strong association with Veranda Learning.”

Mr. Pramod Kumar, Founder & Director, T.I.M.E. said, “Our experience & strengths combined with background of technology and franchising business of the promoters of Veranda will surely create superior value to large segments of student community. Outstanding reputation of each Course offering from this group will complement each other.”

He added, “Extensive geographical penetration of T.I.M.E will be a strong advantage to the combined entity. With almost all competitive examinations in online format, combined strength of Veranda Learning & T.I.M.E in this area will be able to provide highest standards in training.”

InCredMAPE is the financial advisor for Veranda and JSA is the legal advisor for the proposed transaction. KPMG India is the financial advisor and Begur & Partners is the legal advisor to T.I.M.E.