March 30, 2010 EdServ enters Pre-School segment

• Acquires Sparkling Minds, a unique online Pre-School & Junior school entity
• Enters the rapidly growing market segment with a worldwide online offering

As part of the rollout plan of its IDEA (Industry Demand Alignment) programme in 250 Schools through Vidhyadhana Academy of Excellence, Education and Placement Company EdServ has announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to acquire 100% the pre school business of the Chennai based Sparkling Minds for an all-cash consideration of Rs.1.25crores.

This is EdServ's 3rd acquisition in the last 45 days. Last month, EdServ announced the acquisition of SchoolMATE, a school ERP with access to around 70 schools. Earlier this month, the company signed a letter of intent to acquire SmartLearn WebTV, an IIT JEE and AIEEE content company.

With this acquisition, EdServ makes its entry into the multi-billion dollar worldwide Pre-School segment which is expected to grow at 40% to a billion dollar market in India by 2012.

Founded by ex-Infoscians in 2007, Sparkling Minds is India's first-of-its-kind online pre-school and junior school offering with a worldwide customer base spanning across the US, Europe and Australia.

Currently, Sparkling Minds has around 2,000 registered users that include teachers, parents and pre-school owners, apart from Children. Sparkling Minds is available for both online off-campus integrated access (online learning from home) as well as in-campus activity based pre-school service.

Commenting on the acquisition, S. Giridharan, Chairman and CEO, EdServ said, "Acquisition of Sparkling Minds positions us to be the only online Pre-School and Junior School player providing Parents-Children-Teacher collaboration in both off-campus and in-campus model worldwide. The acquisition also strengthens our offering in the education space with presence in the entire learning chain right from Cradle (KG) to Careers in a Progressive Learning Model providing career seeding to students at an early age."

Fund Raising through QIP

EdServ is currently in the process of raising up to Rs.130crore through the QIP route, the shareholder approval for which was obtained last week. The company expects to complete the entire process by the first quarter of 2010-11.

Earlier the company had taken an approval through an EGM to raise upto $500 million through various routes of funding. As part of this, the promoters of EdServ are keen to subscribe to additional shares through preferential equity warrants upto the approved limits.

EdServ achieved revenues of Rs.15.51crores and Net Profit of Rs.5.64crores for 3rd Quarter ended 31st December 2009.