Textbook and education content-focused publisher S Chand and Company has filed its draft Red Herring Prospectus with the country’s market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). The move comes only a few weeks after the publishing firm acquired a majority stake (74%) in Kolkata based publisher Chhaya Prakashani for a reported value of Rs220 crore, according to an Economic Times article. Prior to that, the Delhi based publishing firm had also acquired Vikas Publishing House, Madhuban Educational Books and New Saraswati House for reportedly $30 million-$35 million between 2012 and 2014.
Industry grapevine says, the wheels have been set in motion for S Chand to take itself public in 2017. S Chand’s financial figures read favourably for the company to make its initial public offering (IPO), with consolidated restated revenues of ₹5,406.27 million in Fiscal 2016. S Chand has a firm hold on knowledge products and services meted out to schools and to students through an extensive pan-India network of sales offices, distributors and dealers, backed comprehensively by a contractual relationship with at least 1,958 authors (including co-authors) for over five years as on 31 March, 2016.
‘K-12 is our largest business, contributing to 72.49% of our consolidated operating revenue in Fiscal 2016, amounting to ₹3,898.21 million. Higher education is our second largest business and it contributed 23.85% of our consolidated operating revenue in Fiscal 2016, amounting to ₹1,282.31 million,’ the press release on Sebi’s website says.
The selling shareholders, which include all board members at S Chand, are putting the offer for sale of up to 60 lakh Equity Shares, of which the majority shares of around 48 lakh are being offered by Everstone, a mid-market private equity firm and S Chand’s financial backer. ‘Inorganic growth through acquisitions, has been a core strategy for S Chand, and it will continue to evaluate its inorganic acquisitions in regional markets,’ Deep Mishra, Everstone representative on the S Chand board was quoted as saying by ET.
Apart from that, the promoters of the company Himanshu Gupta, Dinesh K Jhunjhnuwala and Neerja Jhunjhnuwala are pegged to sell about 9.5 lakh shares. The company’s other institutional investor, International Finance Corp, the private sector investment arm of the World Bank, is not expected to participate in the offering. ‘We will continue to execute our strategy of expanding our presence and providing education products and content to more students and schools,’ Gupta said to ET.
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